Dates of the trip: from 26 to 29 December 1999 included.

This trip was once more organized by Francois Thommes and besides his wife Martine, there were several other people who had already come before, among whom Fernand Kubina, Robert Lecaille and Odile Mella. We were also accompanied by Claude, Anne-Marie and Guillaume Hubert, Etienne Landragin, Thierry Besancon, Alexandre Knochel, Arnaud Lestage, Guillaume Schmitt, Eric Roualet, Anne-Marie Gelmetti, Thomas Tessier, Frederique Staub, Vincent Palomares, Joël Lefumeux, Bertrand Kernel, Stephane Bourovali-Zade, Marcel Schirrmann, Valerie Gueydan and Thierry Hirtzmann.

For those who would like to go directly to the list of birds we observed, click here.

26 December 1999. We left Forbach early in the morning and met the rest of the group in Metz. It had been raining a lot during the previous night and it never stopped all along the trip to Zeeland. The motorway in Belgium was flooded, however, as soon as we reached the Brouwersdam, the weather brightened up. There was a lot of wind on the shore but the sun was shining. We then saw our first common sea birds and 800 Barnacle Geese, a few Eurasian Curlews, Common Eider, Red-breasted Merganser, 50 Greater Scaup, a Common Redshank, 30 Ruddy Turnstones, a Black-throated Diver, a Guillemot, Black-necked Grebes, 2 "comic" Terns, a Slavonian Grebe, a Little Gull and a Red-necked Grebe.

In the vicinity of Stellendam, near Haringvliedtdam and the Delta Dam, there were 10 Greylag Geese, 100 Barnacle Geese, 80 Eurasian Golden Plovers, Greater White-fronted Geese, 2 Common Shelducks and 3 Western Marsh Harriers. A little farther down south, in Den Bommel, we saw 200 Eurasian Wigeons. As we had spent some time in Zeeland, we decided not to drive across Flevoland as usual and went straight to the Grouw Youth Hostel where people know us now.

In the evening, Marcel, Fernand and I decided to phone our families in France to get some news. I was flabbergasted when I heard my wife telling me she was worrying to death because of the storm that had hit Europe and France in particular on that day. When I heard about the number of casualties and the enormous damage caused by the wind I realized how lucky we had been. Actually, we had left just early enough to be ahead of the furious elements.

Our bachelors' room in Grouw

27 December 1999. We were in Friesland now and decided to go to the seaside, to Holverd, just opposite the island of Ameland. There is a long pier there and we have never been disappointed because you can see thousands of waders and many other birds on both sides of the road. There were roughly 200 Common Redshanks, a Black-legged Kittiwake whose belly was tainted with oil and 150 Twites). We were pretty sure to find them there, but never before had we seen so many of them. The Snow Buntings too were more numerous than the previous years and we counted about 30 of them. About 80 Little Stints, 7 Pied Avocets, 2 Northern Pintails and at least 1000 Eurasian Oystercatchers were running about on the muddy banks. I knew exactly where the latter would be visible, but contrary to the previous years, they were not covered with frost. I almost felt it was a pity.

We then drove north of the Lauwersmeer to have a bite in the small harbour of Lauwersoog. We always go there and take out our portable gas stoves to do some cooking near the boats. At the sluice, there was a Purple Sandpiper and while some of us were looking at a Harbour Seal, others were aiming their spotting scopes at a group of about 10 Snow Buntings picking at some invisible food on the ground. After lunch, we went south of the Lauwersmeer where 13 Bewick's Swans and 6 Smews were feeding. 10,000 Eurasian Golden Plovers were doing the same near Ee. This is the greatest number of birds of this species we have ever seen in the Netherlands. The temperature was 3°C and the sky was overcast. This pretty mild weather for the season may explain all our unusual observations. In the evening, we returned to the Youth Hostel for dinner and those of us who had come for the first time were surprised by the minute of silence which is required by our hosts to say a silent prayer before gorging ourselves. The others were not surprised.

28 December 1999. The new ones in the group discovered the peanut butter and the chocolate or multicoloured sugar flakes that you can find on the tables for breakfast. My toasts were very artistic but most of the others didn't take as many risks. We roamed across the same area as that of the day before and, not far from Ee, an aberrant Barnacle Goose was the cause of some surprise. By the way, we noticed more and more hybrid ducks in the country. A small Canada Goose and 7 Roe Deer were also present. We drove as far as Lauwersoog where we discovered an Egyptian Goose. Still farther east, close to the German border, in the harbour of Emmshaven, we observed 2 Black-throated Divers, one Crested Lark, 3 Harbour Seals and another Slavonian Grebe. In Noordpolderzijl, we spotted 3 Rock Pipits, a Brent Goose of the race hrota and two local birdwatchers picked out one or two Black Brent. I don't want to assume any responsibility as to this observation because I wasn't really convinced, the birds being too far away for me to make a personal opinion. There were also 40 Bewick's Swans, 3 Snow Geese) in the white phase, 30 Twites, a Snow Bunting, a Horned Lark, a Peregrine Falcon and even a Black Redstart. We returned to the Hostel when the night fell, that is to say pretty early.

29 December 1999. We left before dawn and drove a long time looking for Geese. We found some in the usual place around Workum. There were several thousand of them, above all Greater White-fronted Geese and Barnacle Geese. I can't get enough of the extraordinary sight of all these geese which fly in undulating festoons in the red sky in the morning and which take up or land in the fields, uttering their characteristic calls. There was also a Common Snipe, 4 Canada Geese among which yet another hutchinsii, Eurasian Curlews and more Eurasian Golden Plovers. In Gaast, a Red-breasted Goose stirred some commotion because nobody wanted to miss it in the large gaggle. Close to Reezandijk, we spotted a Black-throated Diver and 2 Long-tailed Ducks, 20 Snow Buntings, 6 Black Scoters. As time was flying, we decided we couldn't miss going to Den Oever. There's a very worthwhile place there where we had always made good observations. We did not regret our decision because we found an immature Great Northern Diver, a Peregrine Falcon, 190 Pied Avocets, 500 Eurasian Curlews, 10 Northern Pintails, 2 Egyptian Geese, several hundred Common Redshanks, 6 Little Gulls, 10 Hooded Crows, a Slavonian Grebe, 4 Black-tailed Godwits, a Guillemot right on the beach, where the waves were dying, an immature Black-legged Kittiwake and about a hundred Eurasian Golden Plovers.

We spent the evening in a smoky bar probably because some of us were not accustomed to inhaling so much fresh air in a single day.

30 December 1999. We had to return home and we decided to drive through Flevoland which had not been possible at the beginning of the journey. From the Nordmeerweg in Urk, we saw several hundred Greater Scaup and a Little Gull. The weather was beautiful but very windy. We didn't see much from the site of the wind farm between Urk and Lelystadt on the Ketelmeerweg except 2 Slavonian Grebes. We looked for geese and swans for quite a long time in the desolate fields of Flevoland and eventually came back to the Praamweg Oostwardersplassen area. The mammals you can always see there were present (see end of list), together with thousands of Greater White-fronted Geese and Barnacle Geese, a Brambling, 2 Red Foxes, 2 Rough-legged Buzzards and a Common Stonechat. From the Knardjik, we observed 2 Whooper Swans for some time and we left Almere Haven just after having seen our last Bewick's Swan for this journey. The trip back home was made under the rain again but, contrary to the outward journey, the storm was behind us. For those who like figures, our trip was 2200 km long.

List of species observed during the trip.

My comments do not attempt to be scientific and are only the result of personal impressions. There are probably a certain number of very common species which are missing because I forgot to note them down. I did not see the birds marked * myself.

01	BLACK-THROATED DIVER	Gavia arctica	Rare but more numerous than the previous years.
02	GREAT NORTHERN DIVER	Gavia immer	Very rare.
03	SLAVONIAN GREBE	Podiceps auritus	More numerous than the previous years.
04	BLACK-NECKED GREBE	Podiceps nigricollis	More numerous than the previous years.
05	LITTLE GREBE*	Tachybaptus ruficollis	Rather uncommon?
06	GREAT CRESTED GREBE	Podiceps cristatus	Common.
07	RED-NECKED GREBE*	Podiceps grisegena	One bird.
08	GREAT CORMORANT	Phalacrocorax carbo	Rather common.
09	GREY HERON	Ardea cinerea	Common.
10	MUTE SWAN	Cygnus olor	Common.
11	WHOOPER SWAN	Cygnus cygnus	Pretty rare.
12	BEWICK'S SWAN	Cygnus columbianus	Some.
13	SNOW GOOSE	Anser caerulescens	Very rare of course. Such birds may be escaped animals.
14	GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE	Anser albifrons	Very common.
15	GREYLAG GOOSE	Anser anser	Some.
16	CANADA GOOSE	Branta canadensis and B.c.hutchinsii	More and more common.
17	BARNACLE GOOSE	Branta leucopsis	Very common.
18	BRENT GOOSE	Branta bernicla bernicla and B.b.hrota	Some, including possible Black Brent (Bernicla nigricans).
19	RED-BREASTED GOOSE	Branta ruficollis	One individual.
20	COMMON SHELDUCK	Tadorna tadorna	Rare.
21	EGYPTIAN GOOSE	Alopochen aegyptica	Some. Feral birds.
22	MALLARD	Anas platyrhynchos	Common.
23	GADWALL	Anas strepera	Rather uncommon?
24	NORTHERN PINTAIL	Anas acuta	Some.
25	NORTHERN SHOVELER	Anas clypeata	Some.
26	EURASIAN WIGEON	Anas penelope	Numerous.
27	COMMON TEAL	Anas crecca	Rather common?
28	GREATER SCAUP	Aythya marila	Numerous in some places.
29	TUFTED DUCK	Aythya fuligula	Very common.
30	COMMON EIDER	Somateria mollissima	Numerous.
31	BLACK SCOTER	Melanitta nigra	Some.
32	VELVET SCOTER	Melanitta fusca	Rare.
33	LONG-TAILED DUCK	Clangula hyemalis	Rare but more numerous than the previous years.
34	COMMON GOLDENEYE	Bucephala clangula	Common.
35	SMEW	Mergus albellus	Rare.
36	RED-BREASTED MERGANSER	Mergus serrator	Pretty common.
37	WESTERN MARSH HARRIER	Circus aeruginosus	Rare.
38	HEN HARRIER	Circus cyaneus	Some.
39	ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD	Buteo lagopus	More numerous than the previous years but still rather uncommon.
40	COMMON BUZZARD	Buteo buteo	Rather common.
41	COMMON KESTREL	Falco tinnunculus	Common.
42	PEREGRINE FALCON	Falco peregrinus	Two individuals.
43	COMMON PHEASANT	Phasianus colchicus	Rather uncommon?
44	COMMON MOORHEN	Gallinula chloropus	Rather common?
45	COMMON COOT	Fulica atra	Common.
46	EURASIAN OYSTERCATCHER	Haematopus ostralegus	Very common in some places.
47	PIED AVOCET	Recurvirostra avosetta	More numerous than in the previous years.
48	EURASIAN GOLDEN PLOVER	Pluvialis apricaria	Very numerous that year.
49	PURPLE SANDPIPER	Calidris maritima	A few in the area of Lauwersoog.
50	RUDDY TURNSTONE	Arenaria interpres	Rather common.
51	LITTLE STINT	Calidris minuta	Rare.
52	COMMON REDSHANK	Tringa totanus	Numerous in certain places.
53	BLACK-TAILED GODWIT	Limosa limosa	Pretty rare.
54	BAR-TAILED GODWIT	Limosa lapponica	Pretty rare.
55	EURASIAN CURLEW	Numenius arquata	Numerous in certain places.
56	COMMON SNIPE	Gallinago gallinago	Rare.
57	BLACK-HEADED GULL	Larus ridibundus	Common.
58	COMMON GULL	Larus canus	Rather common.
59	HERRING GULL	Larus argentatus argentatus	Very common.
60	GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL	Larus marinus	Very common.
61	LITTLE GULL	Larus minutus	Commoner than in the previous years.
62	BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE	Rissa tridactyla	Rare.
63	GUILLEMOT	Uria aalge	Very rare.
64	SKY LARK	Alauda arvensis	Some. This species is becoming less common in the Netherlands.
65	CRESTED LARK*	Galerida cristata	One individual.
66	HORNED LARK	Eremophila alpestris	Very rare.
67	ROCK PIPIT	Anthus petrosus	3 birds only.
68	BLACK REDSTART	Phoenicurus ochruros	One individual.
69	COMMON STONECHAT	Saxicola torquatus	One individual.
70	BLUE TIT	Parus caeruleus	Not many, but we didn't look for it.
71	BLACK-BILLED MAGPIE	Pica pica	Common.
72	CARRION CROW	Corvus corone	Common.
73	HOODED CROW	Corvus cornix	More than in the previous years.
74	COMMON STARLING	Sturnus vulgaris	Common
75	BRAMBLING	Fringilla montifringilla	One bird.
76	TWITE	Carduelis flavirostris	Commoner than in the previous years.
77	SNOW BUNTING	Plectrophenax nivalis	Commoner than in the previous years.

Other animal species observed:

Hare (Lepus europaeus)

Red Deer (Cervus elaphus)

Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus)

Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes)

Bulls: From what I learnt, these animals have been "reconstituted" genetically. If anyone knows anything about these animals, I would appreciate to have further information.

Tarpans (Equus gmelini)

 

Harbour Seal (Phoca vitulina)

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