Black ice and Bananabills

Look for long-staying Yellow-billed Loons when roads are covered with ice. Today one was well-twitched at Grevelingen, in the same conditions as the previous twitchable which was as long ago as winter 1995-'96. The time that public transport was actually public transport, although the busses did not leave the garages on that day. I do not remember exactly how we got from the railstation to the Reeuwijkse Plassen but is was a combination of taxi, walking and sliding. The impressive bird showed really close sometimes and we could enjoy it's diving behaviour, slowly submerging like a submarine.

From the archives; December 1995 Reeuwijk (Nikon F801, Novoflex 600mm, Kodachrome64 and cheap slide-scanner).

Lauwersoog from above

A weekend with more flying than birding. I saw White-tailed Eagle and Bittern in Lauwersmeer but not close enough for a picture. More aerials on www.wykel.blogspot.com

Lauwersoog is an excellent spot for seawatching when winds are from Nortwest to North, I have seen Storm Petrel, many Leaches', Manx Shearwater, many many Sabines Gulls, all species of skua and Puffin from the harbour. Sardinian Warbler was here in november 1993 and Daurian Shrike in december 1996.