Lauwersmeer

Many birders must have stressfull day, chasing the first ever American Robin for NL by car, foot and bike. Lauwersmeer was very comfortable starting with a Wryneck in Lauwersoog (shy als always).

Then we tried Ezumakeeg, the Pectoral Sandpiper showed well amongst a few Curlew Sand, Dunlin and many Wood Sandpipers and Ruff (digiscoped). The area looks very promising for coming weeks.

An afternoon boat-trip on Lauwersmeer started a bit rainy but in the end we found 15+ Black Terns and a mixed flock of Swifts (10s), Swallows and House Martins. The light was already gone - no pictures.

Noordkaap (handicapped)

Camera broken and my lens is in repair for a month now, not a good time of year. I thought I made a good decision to buy the new D7100 with 24MP as all reviews stated that the D300s is completely surpassed by this newcomer, years in electronics is a century in life. But in fact the increase of megapixels results in huge noise and the usefull ISO800 on a D300s compares to ISO200 on the D7100...

Anyway, the weather forecast looked very promising for today and to have at least something to get a picture of that close ringtail I picked up a second-hand 70-300mm zoom. Which is a sh*tty lens for bird photography but that I knew in advance. The Easterly winds on Noordkaap resulted indeed in an entertaining day, the highlights being an Osprey, a Black Kite and 2 female Montagu's Harrier.

female Montagu's Harrier, note evenly barred and dark-tipped primaries. and the absence of pale collar

this Black Kite spent some time cruising the Emmapolder and I was able to drive my car under it

the same Black Kite

The movement of Swallows was spectaculair and more than 2000 passed very close. Yesterday a pair arrived in my barn, they have returned!

Swallows on the move!

Sand Martin