31 January to 1 February 2025
Weather: Sunny, early mists with a light southerly breeze. Min -1ºC Max 6ºC
To quote HG Wells in the novel The War of the Worlds (1898): “Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.”
I guess more than one Dutch birder has eyed the invasion of the small island of Texel (pronounced Tessel) by the British and wondered about us but planning was the key for this adventure and taking inspiration from the Martians, let us rewind a few weeks to Monday 13 January 2025. News broke of a Spectacled Eider on the sea off Oosterend. Initially there was much discussion on the provenance of the bird as would be expected. Wildfowl are kept in many collections and Spectacled Eider is amongst them though not one of them is claiming they have lost a bird. Previous sightings have all been in the Arctic, primarily off Svalbard as may be expected for a bird that only breeds in the high Arctic.
Spectacled Eider is considered near threatened with an estimated 250,000 birds and the bird winters, sometimes in huge flocks in the Bering Sea in holes in the sea ice. I would guess that seeing Spectacled Eider in its natural environment would be cost prohibitive for even the biggest World listers and anyone undertaking an American Birding Association ‘Big Year’ let alone a retired mental health nurse for the UK doing the #My200BirdYear challenge.
With positive news on Thursday 30 January 2025 from my contacts in The Netherlands it was straight onto the ferry companies and Deb and I were booked on the Stena Line Harwich to Hoek van Holland ferry for an overnight sailing. Accommodation was also booked in De Cocksdorp at the Hotel het Anker. As I was basically conning Deb into a mad twitch and with her being a non-birder I had to make concessions and make it a weekend away. I’m not sure the adventure of an overnight cabin on a ferry for two nights quite cut it so, a night in a hotel with a meal and time to relax was needed.
The ferry journey was good, though my sleep wasn’t great, it never is on a twitch and this had the added jeopardy of a lot of money wasted. As we headed out from the Hoek van Holland on a crisp and sunny Friday morning the sun was just rising and what immediately struck us was a huge flock of Egyptian Geese feeding by the road. As I had never driven a right hand drive car abroad I was too busy making sure I was driving on the right to count but 400 birds wouldn’t have been unreasonable. By now I knew Mark Thomas of the RSPB was on a boat from Hull and the race to Den Helder was on.
We made good progress on the brilliant Dutch roads, no potholes and certainly no litter strewn across the verges or in the dykes and rivers. I was phoned by James Lidster, it seems he was in contact with lots of birders with news that the Eider was still present… yes! As we approached Den Helder too every lamp post seemed to have a Great Cormorant, making a change from Black-headed Gulls at home, though the lack of litter and presence of water means the Cormorants win big. Thankfully we just made the 10:30 ferry from Den Helder to Texel and as we pulled up on deck two familiar faces got out of the car in front, Nick Moran of the BTO and former BTO Chair, Andy Clements. I was informed the WWT Slimbridge Team were also en route.
The site at Lancasterdijk (named in memory of the crew of a crashed WWII Lancaster Bomber) was easily and quickly reached and we were soon fist bumping and punching the air as we scoped this stunning Arctic seaduck. I think it fair to say when anyone asks what the rarest bird I’ve seen is then Spectacled Eider is currently number one. It really did seem in international gathering with birders from all over Europe and I was told later birders from Surinam had made the trip as it was cheaper and easier than going to search for the birds in Alaska. I can well believe that and we thought a couple of hundred quid and two nights on a boat was an adventure. It was here I finally met the Texel legend that is René Pop and we had a great chat about the island.
Sharing the sea with the Spectacled Eider were its Common cousins and it was noticeable how much smaller it was. A few Black-necked Grebe bobbed around and at least one, stunning, male Red-breasted Merganser. The skies (and the polders behind the sea wall) were filled with Geese, mostly Greater White-fronted Geese and Pink-footed Geese. I did manage to pick out three lovely Tundra Bean Geese on the polder along with big numbers of Dark-bellied Brent Geese and a couple of good candidates for Black Brant.
By now we were in need of food and headed into the pretty village of Oosterend to the café, Het Cafeetje. Highly recommended and selling a few local TX Beers, just the job for celebrating a World lifer. After checking into the hotel, I left Deb and headed to the dunes at De Slufter with news there was a good sized flock of Shorelark. After a quick catch up with Nick and Andy I took the 15 minute walk out to the birds.
Now, if you think of De Slufter as Texel’s answer to Holkham Bay, you wouldn’t be far off. That said at least 70 Shorelark is something only British birders can dream of. The whole are was full of birds and quite interesting was, what the Dutch consider, a Snow x Emperor Goose hybrid. A small group of Twite were picked up on call as the Shorelark flock moved around but I couldn’t relocate them on the ground. A male and female Hen Harrier performed brilliantly and the female reappeared as the sun set to cap a, truly, memorable day.
Next morning the Garden Room at the hotel delivered with a hooting Tawny Owl out somewhere on the misty polder. As we were heading home, we toured a few sites on the way back for seconds on the Eider after stopping in at the excellent Vogelinformatiecentrum Texel for a (free) coffee and chat with Martin Plomp and Toon Pop. At the Vogelkijkscherm Dorpzicht, I picked up a Common Buzzard in the mist and took a few photos. It was only when I looked at home I noticed a Great Bittern in flight at the back of the shot. A noisy pair of Kingfisher here were certainly of interest to Deb as were the two European Brown Hare that were lazing across the water.
The area around the Wagejot was full of wildfowl and we even had a distant, male Merlin here. More British birders had turned up and we all exchanged news but after seconds on the Spectacled Eider (the mist wasn’t great and apparently got worse after we left) we headed off on a proper wild (and reintroduced) goose chase to the Redoute. Try as I might I couldn’t locate the Lesser White-fronted Geese from the Swedish reintroduction but scored with a mighty 65 Tundra Bean Geese.
It was now time for the ferry and one last bird to chase. The Russian Common Gull was finally picked up from the ferry and just as James Lidster says, it looked like a miniature Caspian Gull. Once off the ferry, we headed for the Sint Pancras district of Alkmaar to a pretty unlikely spot for a mega, surrounded as it was by new housing estates and a major road. A few birders were looking but no sign of the target until a couple of photographers waved us back towards the main road. As I got close the bird flew but given its diminutive size was easy to pick out from the Mallard. Baikal Teal was now on my Dutch list and year list. Once in the grass it proved frustrating to get good views but we did so I headed back to the car only for the Baikal Teal to drop into the dyke, pretty much at my feet. It swam around and bathed for a few minutes before hopping out onto the bank to the delight of locals and birders alike.
So, our Dutch adventure was coming to a close and we headed back to Hoek van Holland and home. Arriving early we drove to the beach to look for a snack and a rest. The new Moon and Venus were prominent in the evening sky as a flock of Greater White-fronted Geese ‘kyu-yu-yu’d across the skies. What a finale!
Thankfully the Dutch birding scene is excellent with lots of very good birders and a couple of fabulous websites: Dutch Bird Alerts and Waarneming.nl – the latter is an excellent resource for reporting and getting reports of not only rare birds in The Netherlands (and they also have a Belgian version) but common birds and other flora and fauna. You can get real-time updates and view maps, species etc. The website is created by those behind Obsidentify that a lot of people use as a mobile app to identify moths, plants and the like. All are excellent and recommended apps and websites.
Practicalities:
Den Helder to Texel Ferry is operated by TESO and departs Den Helder at 30 minutes past the hour from 06:30 to 21:30. Returns are from 06:00 to 21:00. The fare is €42 return. You can buy online or pay at the ferry in Den Helder.
Parking: to access a number of sites and to park in villages you will be a Texel parking permit available online here. Cost is €20 for one day or €30 for up to 8 days.
Buses: bus services are good on the island and you can take a 33 bus from Den Helder railways station to the ferry. On Texel there is a Connexxion bus from the ferry to Den Burg or De Koog. Other bus services are operated by Texelhopper. You need to order your bus in advance.
Bicycles: bikes can be hired on the island and it looks a perfect place to explore by bike. Lots of well made cycle lanes and priority areas. The Dutch do take cycling seriously! There is also a cycle hire right by the ferry to speed up your journey.
All hyperlinks for birding sites take you to what3words as that will get you in the right place the quickest. Other hyperlinks take you to the websites. Google will translate pages from the Dutch and just about everyone in The Netherlands speaks pretty good English.
Further Reading
Van Den Berg, A & Lafontaine, D (1996). Where To Watch Birds in Holland, Belgium & Northern France. London. Hamlyn. p 216.
Photos from the tour (click on thumbnail to zoom)
