{"id":720,"date":"2010-10-02T07:30:19","date_gmt":"2010-10-02T07:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=720"},"modified":"2011-07-21T06:02:02","modified_gmt":"2011-07-21T06:02:02","slug":"a-flying-birdwatching-trip-to-holland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/birdwatching\/a-flying-birdwatching-trip-to-holland","title":{"rendered":"A flying birdwatching trip to Holland"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday afternoon we set off from Royal Quays, out into the North Sea,\u00a0onboard the\u00a0MV King of Scandinavia<\/em> as\u00a0guests of DFDS.\u00a0 The weather forecast was for it to be wet, although we did manage a couple of hours birdwatching from the observation lounge before the driving rain obliterated the view.\u00a0 Gannets <\/em><\/strong>were diving into the increasingly heavy swell, a stunning \u00a0Pomarine Skua<\/em><\/strong> arced across the bow of the ship and a single Puffin<\/em><\/strong> was tagging along with six Little Auks<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Arriving in IJmuiden the next morning, it was still raining \ud83d\ude41\u00a0 We were collected from the ferry terminal by Lin, a local guide who we had been introduced to by the ORCA wildlife officers from the ferry.\u00a0 As we headed north Egyptian Geese<\/em><\/strong> were around the grass verges near the port, Cormorants<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 were perched atop most of the lampposts, Common Buzzards<\/em><\/strong> were on roadside fences and we saw one lingering Spoonbill<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Our destination was the reserve of Zwanenwater, where Lin is a volunteer.\u00a0 As we walked through the reserve the high pitched ‘seep’ of\u00a0Redwings<\/em><\/strong> was a constant backdrop, Song Thrushes<\/em><\/strong> were flushing from every patch of cover, every bush seemed to hold several Robins<\/em><\/strong> and a Common Redstart<\/em><\/strong> flicked up from the path in front of us.\u00a0 We were then taken on a tour of the off-limits areas of the reserve by Fred, another of the volunteers.<\/p>\n

Stonechats<\/em><\/strong> were seen along the track and there was an impressive spread of\u00a0Grass of Parnassus.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Stonechat,<\/a>
Stonechat, Zwanenwater, Noord-Holland 30\/09\/2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Grass<\/a>
Grass of Parnassus, Zwanenwater, Noord-Holland 30\/09\/2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>Despite the rain we managed an impressive haul of raptors; Common Buzzard, Marsh Harrier, Hen Harrier, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk <\/em><\/strong>and Osprey <\/em><\/strong>were all seen well but, most impressive of all, the real highlight for both of us was the views we had of Northern Goshawk<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 The birds quartering the dunes in search of rabbits and small birds came as a bit of a surprise, but not as much as the two birds that were perched on dead trees overhanging the lake.\u00a0 Fred explained that they sit there and watch the ducks, before swooping down and taking them off the water.\u00a0 We didn’t see that, but we did manage some distant images of one of the birds.<\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/a>
Northern Goshawk, Zwanenwater, Noord-Holland 30\/09\/2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>All too soon we were on the ferry again and heading back to Northumberland, making plans to return to Holland in the spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday afternoon we set off from Royal Quays, out into the North Sea,\u00a0onboard the\u00a0MV King of Scandinavia as\u00a0guests of DFDS.\u00a0 The weather forecast was for it to be wet, although we did manage a couple of hours birdwatching from the observation lounge before the driving rain obliterated the view.\u00a0 Gannets were diving into the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,105,5],"tags":[823,148,374,396,185,839,128,196,397,399,825,202,387,225,22,116,145,131,398],"class_list":["post-720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birdwatching","category-north-sea","category-northumberland","tag-birdwatching","tag-common-buzzard","tag-common-redstart","tag-egyptian-geese","tag-gannet","tag-hen-harrier","tag-kestrel","tag-little-auk","tag-marsh-harrier","tag-northern-goshawk","tag-northumberland","tag-osprey","tag-pomarine-skua","tag-puffin","tag-redwing","tag-robin","tag-song-thrush","tag-sparrowhawk","tag-spoonbill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=720"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1154,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720\/revisions\/1154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}