Eemshaven

Impression of yesterday afternoon at Eemshaven, the early migrants start to arrive! The few bushes left in the area were occupied by many Robins, Chiffchaff and few Song Thrush, Redwing, Goldcrest and Firecrest, and some of them were confiding tame.

Chiffchaff with 2 Robins in the background

Chiffchaff

This Chiffchaff appeared very grey, almost like a Garden Warbler. The bird did not call so cannot be identified with certainty but it looks very Siberian.

same bird, note the blackish feet

Firecrest is always nice!

different bird in better light

note the flaming colour of the centre crown

Goldcrest

same bird

and then 2 Cranes approached from the south, luckily they could gain some height before crossing the windmills

Cranes really do not like flying over the sea but the strong southern wind forced them to cross the Wadden Sea. They left towards Borkum

Spring!

Days are getting longer and the sun feels warm again, spring is coming! I have not been birding a lot but did see a Barn Owl in my barn. Even more surprising was a Bittern that flew over the garden last week! I had never heard the barking flight-call before but it is very typical. Today Song Thrush claimed my garden again, there were 2 singing together in what seemed a song battle. Maybe that is why he ignored me, never saw them this tame (outside Helgoland that is:-)

in the plum tree, only few meters distance

these birds produce a lot of sound!

ambitious branch collecting

more realistic sized branch:-)

Meanwhile in the front garden... I collected some 7m3 of firewood last week, including some really big trunks. halfway cutting and splitting now.

And a picture from a boat trip on IJsselmeer last weekend; bird island the Kreupel. The birding trip was organised by Fogol and included several talks and pitches about nature restoration around IJsselmeer, and I was invited to present the FishMigrationRiver. Bird island the Kreupel has been constructed some 10 years ago and is a real bird-magnet. It is situated several kilometers from the coast so only visible by boat. We saw huge numbers of Scaup and several other species of duck. The Velvet Scooter was the bird of the day