VisMig Highlights May 2018

What a crazy month! May started off relatively slow, but quickly turned out to be a month I won't forget soon. April produced a disappointingly small number of summer visitors, but that was definitely compensated largely by May. Still, a lot of birds are missing, conditions must have been very tough this year in the Western Sahara…

Interesting records in chronological order

May 5th, 2018 — De Vulkaan

Not a very exciting count, except for a European Serin and a whopping 205 Great Black-backed Gulls migrating north. The number of GBBGs counted would remain high for the first half of May. It appears it's not only summer visitors that are extremely late this year. The cause of this late migration? I have no idea, both April and May have been exceptionally warm months so you'd expect the opposite…

May 6th, 2018 — De Vulkaan

Finally, a good and enjoyable May count, in which the effect of easterly winds was immediately visible. Two Gull-billed Terns flew past, both of which I managed to make record shots of (see below). Also, 48 Northern Wheatears were counted migrating north, a new record count for our site. Oh, and our very first Alexandrine Parakeet.

May 7th, 2018 — De Vulkaan

For a raptor fanatic in this part of The Netherlands, any day with a ringtail harrier is a good day. And this would be one of those days. Having already seen another Gull-billed Tern and a short, so-so sighting of a Golden Oriole, I expected that was the best the day would produce. But then, just before he was about to leave, Gerjon picked up a slender ringtail at quite a distance south of us. The bird was on a trajectory to fly past really close, so I had plenty of time to prepare my camera and observe it for a good while. While following this bird, the first Turtle Dove of the season and a probable 2nd one flew through the same view, but I remained focused on the harrier, so didn't get any good views.

2CY Female Montagu's Harrier (photo compilation).

It's interesting how hard these birds are when seen at a distance, especially in worn and bleached spring plumage, when clear features start to disappear. My thoughts kept going from Montagu's to a Pallid and back, although when it came closer it was a clear Montagu's. Have a look at the compilation below of this particular bird.

If given poor distant views at the wrong angles, one could easily think this is a Pallid: there is a faint collar visible, and thus a dark boa, the fingertips are not particularly dark in comparison with the rest of the hand (beware of the shadows in this photo), the dark trailing edge to the hand is almost invisible and the body moult is quite limited.

The rest of the day produced 2 Short-Eared Owls, another European Serin and a (late?) adult Caspian Gull.

May 8th, 2018 — De Vulkaan

The fourth day in a row with a properly easterly wind. Barnacle Geese were already flying well from the start of the count, with large groups of birds flying distantly over the city and the sea. When one group was about to fly closer to us, Gerjon jokingly told us to find a Red-breasted Goose in the group. Well, so we did: Rob found an odd looking Goose in the group, which I thought looked extremely red-ish like a RbG. I did not dare to claim it as the light was at a bit of a difficult angle making everything look warmer than it is, but I had taken a few photos just to be sure. While checking them at home I did see the diagnostic mark I was unsure of in the field: a very clear white flank stripe, which nailed the identification as a true Red-breasted Goose. A new species for the migration site!

Red-breasted Goose in a flock of Barnacles.

The next hour would be fairly calm, but then in the span of a mere 6 (!) minutes: 1 Osprey flew past, 3 Gull-billed Terns started kettling on a thermal above the beach and disappeared high in the sky and Diego found a fantastic Red-rumped Swallow flying south! Crazy!

The rest of the day was enjoyable (2 Merlin, 2 more Osprey, 4 Wood Sandpipers, 1 Oriole), but of course pales in comparison with these few minutes.

May 12th, 2018 — De Vulkaan

In summary: a good count, but not as exciting as the last ones. A Purple Heron, Glaucous Gull, Curlew Sandpiper, Temminck's Stint and my first self-found Dotterel were the highlights. Despite the good species list, migration was quite slow, which gave us a good time to talk. Coincidentally, just while we were discussing the local Sand Lizard population, one flew past accompanied by a Common Kestrel.

Adult male Common Kestrel with a Sand Lizard.

May 16th, 2018 — De Vulkaan

Northerly winds were predicted, so the expectation was to see waders. Well, these showed up, but in low numbers. Seabird migration was nice nevertheless. I saw a very late Guillemot/Razorbill (or perhaps it was a Puffin?) fly directly away from me, so it had to be left unidentified. The Glaucous Gull was still present.

2CY Glaucous Gull following a small fishing boat.

If not for the continuous stream of Gulls migrating north, this would probably have been a very boring count.

A continuous stream of GBBG, LBBG and HG was going north.

May 21th, 2018 — De Vulkaan

With very good migration of Swifts from the start of the count, I knew this was going to be a good day. Soon a Hen Harrier flew north over the sea, a species that's increasingly rare here. When I saw what looked like a Whinchat fly in the corner of my eye (it was actually a Wheatear), it turned out a Woodchat Shrike was at the foot of our dune! Unfortunately I was not the one to discover it. Most likely this bird was the one seen a day before close to the Maasvlakte, 21 kilometers to the south.

Despite showing nicely, the bird was only seen by the three counters that were present at that moment for about 45 minutes. Later the bird was relocated and seen by only one observer 1.5 kilometers to the north.

2CY Male Woodchat Shrike (photo compilation).

While photographing the Woodchat Shrike, an Icterine Warbler was singing shortly nearby, which is a nice record for us as well.

By the end of the day (an almost 14 hour count for me), we had amassed a total of 6400+ Common Swifts, another Dotterel, 3 Honey Buzzards, 2 Purple Herons and a migrating Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Other highlights were the good number of waders and 15 Marsh Harriers.

May 24th, 2018 — De Vulkaan

My longest count so far this year: over 15 hours. And what a count it was! By far the best day of the spring season! Because of regular light rain many birds were pushed down and therefore easier to pick up. As a result we have seen very good numbers of waders for our site, even flying quite well around noon, which makes you wonder how much is flying over invisibly in conditions without rain. By the end of the day we had counted almost 1000 waders in total, of which 337 Common Ringed Plovers, 183 Grey Plovers and 23 very late Purple Sandpipers!

But it was not only the waders that were flying well. Because of the rain, Swifts and Swallows were flying in incredible numbers as well. Especially House Martins were very ‘sensitive’ to the rain, as we'd count them mostly when there was a temporary rain shower, after which they would quickly move out of view again. By the end of the day we had counted 12672 Common Swifts and 671 House Martins flying north, the former of which is a new record count for our site!

But then the raptors… We counted:

7 Ospreys, a tie with our previous record day, but failed to find an 8th one indicated so well by the panic among the Gulls
5 Honey Buzzards, our 2nd best spring number and a very welcome sight as they flew nicely overhead
1 Hen and 7 Marsh Harriers
12 Common Kestrels flying north, a very good number in spring
1 Merlin
2 Hobbies

But… the best bird of the day? Just when I had decided to leave in a few minutes, I discovered a small yellow-ish Falcon a bit to the south. Well, you guessed it, a cracking Red-footed Falcon! She graced us with her presence while catching insects on her northerly flight. What a fantastic bird! Unfortunately it had gotten quite dark already, so the photos are a bit noisy, but… whatever. :-)

2CY Female Red-footed Falcon (photo compilation).

That upperwing and uppertail barring, so bold it looks like the bird is wearing armor:

Juvenile flight feathers, some moulted greyish and barred upperwing coverts and tail feathers, barred underwing coverts and still an entirely female-type body plumage nail this as a 2CY female Red-footed Falcon.

Heard only once, but confirmed at home, there was also a Common Rosefinch at the dunetop in the morning. It's surprising how unnoticed that flight call can go, just listen to the 2nd call in the recording below:

In summary: an insane day!

May 27th, 2018 — De Vulkaan

A very hot day with thunderstorms all around us, for which we had to stop counting for a while. Despite the weather, migration was still good for waders, raptors and Swifts. Nice highlights were the almost 7000 Swifts, 2 Ospreys, 4 Honey Buzzards, 25 Spotted Flycatchers and what must have been a Great Snipe! The description for the latter is on Trektellen (in Dutch).

May 29th, 2018 — De Vulkaan

The last count of the spring season and for me the start of a break from counting actively for a few months. I have to prepare for the Autumn count of Batumi Raptor Count, so I will probably only be able to count sporadically. The last count showed that migration is finally coming to a stop here in The Netherlands. The only highlights were a Turtle Dove and at least one, but possibly two Common Rosefinches singing just north of our dunetop. A rare sight: we were accompanied by a young Rabbit.

And that concludes a fantastic month of VisMigging and one of the best spring seasons our counting site has ever known, with the highest spring totals ever for: Great White Egret, Spoonbills, Woodlark, Common Swift, Grey Wagtail, White Wagtail (sp.), Song Thrush, Black Redstart, Greenfinch. And one of the best years for a.o.: Wigeon, Eurasian Teal, Red-breasted Merganser, Great Black-backed Gull, Mistle Thrush, Brambling, Common Reed Bunting. This list was compiled on the 24th of May. It's quite likely we can add a few species to this shortlist, but that will happen at a later time.

Since I don't expect to do any serious counting before I migrate to Georgia this Autumn, this is also the last monthly overview for a while. I'm not sure if I will have time to compile one when I'm coordinating the Batumi Raptor Count of this year. Speaking of which: We're still looking for counters! ;-)