A 2am channel tunnel crossing and a long drive through France and Belgium into Zuid Holland had us on site on the edge of the town of Alphen aan den Rijn 2 hours before daybreak. A while later we struck off across the flat and muddy polder farmland to the site. To say the site looked unpromising and completely unsuitable for a desert species would be an understatement but to our amazement the African Desert Warbler was indeed still present. The dyke the bird frequented had very limited vegetation (mainly confined to the base of the few concrete bridges) and access wasn't easy as numerous 'too big to jump' side ditches meant a long walk round to get to other areas to check. After jumping one such dyke to get to the spot the bird had settled in we enjoyed some amazing views of the is first record for northern Europe. Having missed this species on 2 trips to Morocco/Western Sahara it was a bogey bird well and truly unblocked! Other birds there were few and far between but 3 Common Buzzards, 2 Golden Plover, 2 Egyptian Geese, 2 Snipe and a Great White Egret were also clocked up.
African Desert Warbler
African Desert Warbler
African Desert Warbler twitch
Next up was a site in an urban area of the nearby town of Leiden. After some tricky navigation to the site we spotted birders watching our target bird before we'd even parked the car. After hastily making our way to the communal garden area bewteen blocks of flats we were watching the White-crowned Black Wheatear within seconds and it went on to show amazingly well as it moved from elevated perches high on the flats to feed at ground level and on nearly garden walls. A couple of small groups of Ring-necked Parakeets were heard flying over before we got brief views of one flying between buildings.
White-crowned Black Wheatear
White-crowned Black Wheatear
Our last main stop of the day was at Europoort, to the south of Den Haag. Making our way to a large area of waste ground behind the beach we began scanning the c12 Common Buzzards and eventually picked out the huge and distinctive Long-legged Buzzard which has returned to the erea for its 2nd winter. It's showed nicely in flight and perched albeit it a litle distantly. While scanning we also picked up a Merlin, Peregrine, c4 Kestrels, a very 'pied' looking Common Buzzard and a really good candidate for Rough-legged Buzzard which unfortunately refused to fly so we could clinch it!
Long-legged Buzzard
Long-legged Buzzard
Our last port of call was a the small harbour by the N57 bridge just SW of Ouddorp. Here we dipped on Black Guillemot but did manage c150 Red-breasted Mergansers (most flying inland to roost), Red-throated Diver, Golden Plover, Oystercatchers, Curlew, Turnstones and another Peregrine near Zierikzee. En-route there were also plenty of Barnacle Geese, White-fronted Geese and Brent Geese plus another Great White Egret.
A long dash back had us back to Calais with just 15 minutes to spare to catch our tunnel crossing meaning we'd really made to most of our available time!
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