As usually Francois, Segolene and Martine Thommes organized this trip. They were accompanied by the late Dominique Dubost who was already asserting himself as one of the greatest animal painters in France, Jacques Ancelin, Jean-Claude Koenig, Robert Lecaille, Hubert Raymondeau and Gerard Vincent.

In the Youth Hostels of Bergen op Zoom and Grouw whose chocolate flakes we put on the bread for breakfast will be remembered for a long time, at least by certain participants. 

The trip

This trip was made at the end of December 1984. We drove right to the sea-side, as far as Hoeck van Holland, south of The Hague, through Delft, along the shore to Amsterdam and Ijmuiden. We then left the coast and went to Sneek where we had dinner in a good Chinese restaurant. There was no end to the number of meals we ate. We spent the rest of our stay in the North of the Netherlands: Leeuwarden, Holverd (opposite the island of Ameland), the Lauwersmeer and Lauwersoog. I remember this place with pleasure because I was offered a cup decorated with a painted gull in a restaurant there. Just like the year before, we took the motorway separating the Waddensee from the Ijsselmeer as far as Den Oever. We then took a south-west course, heading for the Delta Dam and drove around Zeeland.

We counted 105 different bird species that year.

• The geese were there, of course and we counted as many as 10, 000 Bean Geese (Anser fabalis), among which 2 leucistic individuals, thousands of Barnacle Geese (Branta leucopsis) and a flock of 10,000 Greater White-Fronted Goose (Anser albifrons) in Staveren.

• We also spotted exotic species such as 4 Chilean Flamingoes (Phoenicopterus chilensis) at the Lauwersmeer and another in Versemer Zandkreek, 2 Black Swans (Chenopsis atrata), 7 Egyptian Geese (Alopochen aegyptica) in Middelharnis, a Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) in Stellendam and a Ruddy Shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea) in Versemeer Zandkreek.

• There were great numbers of plovers as well : 500 Eurasian Golden Plovers (Pluvialis apricaria) in Staadt an Haringvliet, 500 in Versemeer Zandkreek, several hundred in Stellendam, several score in Serooskerke and 3 Grey Plovers (Pluvialis squatarola) in Brouwersdam.

• It was a good year to spot Red -throated Diver (Gavia stellata). One individual in Hoeck van Holland, a second one which we saw only 20 metres away on the Lauwersoog dyke and a third one in Brouwersdam.

• It was also a good year for the Glaucous Gull (Larus hyperboreus). An immature bird in Ijmuiden, another near Harlingen and a third-winter bird in Brouwersdam.