Arctic Winds
With my move back to the north of The Netherlands come more birding trips to the northern coast as well. Today I spent half a day at the sluices of Lauwersoog, enjoying a proper north-westerly storm. Whilst the sight of all MSC Zoe rubbish floating past and accumulating along the styrofoam-covered dikes was quite depressing, we still had a very nice day of seawatching. Highlights were the nice numbers of Little Gulls, a Northern Fulmar and Black-throated Diver, incredible numbers of Stock Dove (571!), a Guillemot, but above all: the first-ever documented record of an Arctic Tern in January in The Netherlands!
I’ll let the pictures do the talking.
The 2cy Arctic Tern spent considerable time foraging in the harbour area, came quite close but in 8 Bft winds it is incredibly hard to use manual-focus and keep the camera steady, so the pictures are less than perfect.
Although less than perfect, only 1 picture is necessary of this 2cy Arctic Tern to nail its identification.
Large groups of Stock Dove, up to 160 birds were struggling against the winds along the leeward side of the sluices. Although we did not see where these birds were going to, we assume they roost somewhere in the vicinity.
Crappy post-sunset shot of a Northern Fulmar passing by the sluices. Quite a rare sight at Lauwersoog, as this was the only bird seen in the last 15 months.