Endemic bird species of Puerto Rico on Observado.org

I'm quite a fan of the http://observado.org website. You'll find info on thousands of species, from plants to butterflies and from mushrooms to birds. But you won't find which species are endemics for a certain region and which aren't. That's a shame.

That's why I will try to fill this gap on this weblog. I used the list on the Wikipedia page to find the correct endemic species. Problem with wikipedia is that you can't find the localities, and not that many pictures. For this you'll need observado.org

So here's the list, with links to observado.org pages about these species. You'll find photos, distribution maps, places where to find these species, sound recordings etc etc.

(make sure you change the date to the period of your interest. I linked to the sightings and sometimes directly to the pictures. You can play with this yourself, if you use the "about this species" menu on the right corner of the observado.org screen):

Puerto Rican Lizard‑Cuckoo (Coccyzus vieilloti)
Yellow-shouldered Blackbird (Agelaius xanthomus)
Puerto Rican Parrot (Amazona vittata)
Green Mango (Anthracothorax viridis)
Puerto Rican Nightjar (Caprimulgus noctitherus)
Puerto Rican Emerald (Chlorostilbon maugeaus)
Adelaide's Warbler (Dendroica adelaidae)
Elfin-woods Warbler (Dendroica angelae)
Puerto Rican Oriole (Icterus portoricensis)
Puerto Rican Bullfinch (Loxigilla portoricensis)
Puerto Rican Screech Owl (Megascops nudipes)
Puerto Rican Woodpecker (Melanerpes portoricensis)
Puerto Rican Flycatcher (Myiarchus antillarum)
Puerto Rican Tanager (Nesospingus speculiferus)
Puerto Rican Spindalis (Spindalis portoricensis)
Puerto Rican Tody (Todus mexicanus)
Puerto Rican Vireo (Vireo latimeri)




Here's the list of birds recorded on the observado.org database and seen on Puerto Rico:
http://puertorico.observado.org/soortenlijst_wg_v3.php?diergroep=1

Bird species list of all the birds of the world on Observado.org

A list of all the bird species in the world, is now available on observado.org. This list provides you not only with the names, but also with distribution data, pictures, maps..., etc. Observado.org tries to follow the IOC World Bird List. This means that you can expect an up-to-date list which also includes all the subspecies of the world. 

It's not only a list, it's much more. You can find where the species have been seen, add knowledge to the distribution maps of species and you can help Observado.org to depict all the (sub)species of the world. It is possible to keep your own life lists and archive your wildlife pictures. (To be able to keep your own lists/ archives, you have to register (free)).

But even if your not registered you already have a lot of possibilities within observado.org. (First change the language, for ease I used English for this demonstration. You can change the language at the top right of the observado.org site with the globe symbol) 

Have a look what these lists will look like:
Observado.org>>ALL SPECIES>> LIST OF FAMILIES (if you follow the menu structure):
http://observado.org/familie/all
(make sure the drop box is set to "birds")

Notice that you can click on symbols and text. Clicking within observado provides a lot of extra information. Learn to find your way in observado.org by clicking!

Now, let's continue. How to find observations of a specific species?
Go to ALL SPECIES>> SPECIESLIST (make sure the drop-box is on "birds") and enter the speciesname you like to know more of: Let's try "Alpine Accentor" (If you don't know the exact speciesname you could also try to search on the family name first, use the family drop-box for this. Also notice you can also search on scientific name)

It will give these results:

 please open the page (http://observado.org/soortenlijst.php?q=Alpine+Accentor&g=1&f=0&z=1&p=0&sound=0&sort_lat=0lang=en&local=xx)  on observado.org and click on the different names and symbols!

If you click on the speciesname it will give you all the recent observations of this species:
http://observado.org/soort/view/1560
Please notice the following things:

1. you can click on every single observation and get all the details of this observation (click on the he blue "i" symbol) 
2. change the area (make a choice in the drop-box "province").
3. If you want to know observations of a single nature reserve or an other smaller area, there's a different procedure for this on observado.
4. you can change the period for which observations should be showed.
5. The photo-symbol means there's pictures of this species
6. The sound symbol means there are soundrecordings available 

Clicking on the family name
http://observado.org/familie/view/171
With all the species within this family (also with pictures)

within the page http://observado.org/soortenlijst.php?q=Alpine+Accentor&g=1&f=0&z=1&p=0&sound=0&sort_lat=0 you can click on the blue "i"symbol. If you try this, you will see the species overview page:
http://observado.org/soort/info/1560
Here you can find all kinds of info (notice the 'about this species" menu at the top right of your page):

I hope this will help you all find out the wonders of Observado.org! I also hope this information will make you decide to help the observado.org website and contribute your own wildlife sightings! You can enter en retrieve information of all the bird species of the world! Every observation is an invaluable contribution to the knowledge of biodiversity!

Observado.org, the biodiversity website

I am a volunteer admin for the Biodiversity website http://observado.org. I am still very excited about the project, so let me tell you something about it. I will start with it's history and then I will explain you something on how it works (please scroll down if you're not interested in it's history). Observado.org is a spin-off project of the very succesfull dutch website http://waarneming.nl. The project started in August 2003, with a question on the EBNNL (eurobirdnet Netherlands) internetforum. The question was about how to get information on what birds were seen in which Dutch nature reserves. If you wanted to visit an area, what could you expect? In August 2003, on EBNNL it was proposed tot create a national database, where you could enter, retrieve and share sightings of birds. The database should be easy to use and had to be open to everybody, from laymen to experts. Founding fathers Hisko de Vries and Dylan Verheul teamed up with the foundation "Stichting Natuurinformatie"and together they built Waarneming.nl. (I joined in the winter of 2005/ 2006 as volunteer when I organised a national count of Waxwings, during a large irruption of this species in Western Europe. We used Waarneming.nl as the platform where people could enter their waxwing sightings).

Growth went fast and by 2005 it was clear that birds weren't the only thing, users were interested in. So other groups were added. Mammals, amphibians, ... I myself entered the first Fungus sighting, plants, etc.. The possibility of entering pictures and sounds were improved as was the way you could enter a sighting. With the use of google maps, it became possible to point on a satellite map, where exactly you did the sighting. This was off course phenomenal and improved the distribution maps enormously! Sightings are checked by experts, called admins or validators. Within 5 years time, the distribution maps on Waarneming.nl, were often better than the ones that were gathered in the 20 years before. It appeared that single sightings could give a lot of information, something probably not many people had expected.

Enough about Waarneming.nl, let's talk about Observado.org!

The dutch observers didn't only see animals/ plants/ ... within the Netherlands, they also visited countries abroad. They wanted to have a platform where they could enter and share these sightings. Since they were already using waarneming.nl, why shouldn't there be an international version?

Observado.org is open to everybody from all over the world, so not only for Dutch users. So whether you're from Spain, Brazil, Japan, South-Africa or whatever country, you could all join and share your biodiversity observations! Every observation is interesting, so not only the rare species! The large amount of pictures and sightings will give information on the variation within species, will improve the distribution maps and can help people to identify species.

So what does it look like and what could you do with it?

First of all, change language to english in the top right corner when you open Observado.org. Secondly you could always have a look at the observations that are already in the database, also without signing in. But if you want to enter your own observations you have to log in. Signing up is free. The reason why observado asks for signing in, is to keep the data clean of errors and nonsense observations. If we (admins) find an error or a strange observation, we can contact the observer and ask him/ her to change or delete the observation.

If you do decide to enter observations on Observado.org, there's many extra's you could use (like keeping your own lifelists, search in your own photostream, enter sound recordings, etc. etc.).

Now on tour!

(I give some links, best is to right click on them and open them in a new tab).

startpage This page shows recent rarities added from all over the world

On top of this page, you'll find the menu tabs (under "Observado.org"):

In the search bar, you could search for specific species. Make sure you enter the correct speciesname (or part of the speciesname) otherwhise it won't find the species you are looking for. Let's start searching for the global species Osprey:

Enter osprey in the search bar, and you'll retrieve:

http://observado.org/search.php?q=osprey&x=0&y=0

Two species, let's take osprey:

Click on the speciesname and you'll get all the osprey sightings in Observado.org:

http://observado.org/soort/view/346 (from a chosen date, till a chosen dat).

(if you look at province, you could chose a country)

Okay, let's say we're interested in pictures of this species. If you look in the menu top right "about this species", you see "photos"

http://observado.org/soort/photos/346

Also have a look at "information"! Information is a selection of the pictures, with focus on identification and variation.

My own sighting of an osprey (I didn't include the google map):

http://observado.org/waarneming/view/40159837?lang=en&local=xx

Try also clicking on the familiy name of a species! This will show you the other family members.

Just try things out by clicking on them! That's the best way to find out how it works! I might write some more about this in the future.

Good luck!

Wouter

Dusky Thrush (Turdus eunomus) in Belgium

Yesterday we (Frank van Duivenvoorde, Luuk Punt en me) left for Belgium. A couple of days ago, a Dusky Thrush was reported in Erezée in the middle of the Belgian Ardennes. The bird stayed, and beautiful pictures arrived also in the Netherlands. When Luuk called me if I wanted to join, I didn't hesitate: The Dusky Thrush was a lifer, views were apparently really good and the Ardennes is a very nice area. So I cancelled my other appointments (sorry for that, my friends!) and went to bed, to catch some hours of sleep. We left at 5.20 a.m. for a long drive to Erezée. A major part of it, we had to drive in the dark, temperatures were way below zero. It was years ago, since we had these arctic circumstances in this part of Europe. Especially when we entered the snow covered parts of Belgium, the temperature dropped. Our record was -16 °C. There was one luck however, there were no clouds and no wind. When we saw the sun rise, it was actually a quite pleasant day.

When we arrived in Erezée, there were already about 20 - 30 people present. Different languages were spoken, French, Dutch, German and English: We weren't the only twitchers that wanted to see this species. Many of our Dutch birdwatcher friends had also left for Erezée. Ridiculous if you think of it... without knowing of each other we met in a small place in the Dutch Ardennes. A place that probably no-one had heard of before... but there we stood, waiting for a lost bird to arrive in -15 °C.

It had chosen a small orchard with appletrees. One old tree had still a lot of apples on its branches. And about 15 Blackbirds, one Fieldfare, a few Starlings and one Mistle Thrush were feasting on these apples. Especially on the ones that were fallen below the tree.

Then all of a sudden the Dusky Thrush Turdus eunomus arrived. We had magnificent views on this beautiful bird, that originates from central Siberia and eastwards. Dusky thrushes are rare vagrants in Europe. Apparently it was the fifth record for Belgium, but the first since 1956!

The combination of very fine plumage elements made this a very nice bird. The wing pattern, the double breastband, the diamondshaped markings on the sides, it's supercilium, all fantastic! All these different tones of brown colours, wow! The crowd stayed calm, the bird showed off, the snow,... a small vacation in Belgium. All in all it was a fantastic twitch.

We drove through the Ardennes in the direction of the Dutch Province of Limburg. Near Herstal we saw the reported Iceland Gull Larus glaucoides. Inland Iceland gulls are rare and we had some short but good views. After a few minutes the bird flew off together with a couple of thousand Black Headed Gulls. We are quite used to large amounts of gulls, but this was really enormous.

The rest of the day we spent birding and enjoying the nice scenery in the Dutch Province of Limburg. We dipped out on the Eurasian Eagle Owl Bubo bubo on the Pietersberg near Maastricht. But had some magnificent hours at the Hamster nature reserve near Sibbe. This is a large agricultural reserve. Made for the last Dutch wild Hamsters Cricetus cricetus, but many other animals can benefit from this protected area as well. We saw hundreds of Yellowhammers, Linnets, Common Wood pigeons, Jackdaws and Rooks and in betweens these groups we found about 15 Corn Buntings Miliaria calandra. A speciality from this area, they have become really rare in the rest of the Netherlands. A few Northern harriers and splendid views of a hunting Merlin.



All locations and pictures of the birds can be found through http://waarneming.nl/ and http://waarnemingen.be/



A last picture from our very nice day. The scenery from a typical "Holle weg" (= hollow road) in Sibbe in Limburg. Frank and Luuk ahead of me walking towards the car.

New Year

A selection from the birds, we (Bird ringing station Meijendel, near Wassenaar) caught in 2008. All the birds were measured, aged and sexed if possible and were then released with a ring with a unique number. We ring in the dunes of the nature area called Meijendel. This area is owned and preserved by the Duinwaterbedrijf Zuid Holland (DZH). On our ringing station we try to get an impression of the species and numbers that use the dunes the year round. This includes local breeding birds, after breeding dispersion, and autumn migration. We had a fantastic year, that broke all the records. For our total list please take a look at Trektellen.nl

If you wondered which species are on this picture, or already figured out, but want some confirmation, from left to right: Spotted Crake (Porzana porzana), Bohemian Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus), Eurasian Wryneck (Jynx torquilla), Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla), Thrush Nightingale (Luscinia luscinia), Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos minor) and
Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor).

I wish you all a good 2009!!

Wryneck - Jynx torquilla

Until last year, I had never even seen a Wryneck. I had tried to twitch it, but without succes. I missed birds, while friends had just seen it a couple of minutes before. And I had searched for them during Spring and Autumn migration. This species however stayed an enigma. Not only because I wasn't able to find one, but also because every birdwatcher in the Netherlands gets enthousiastic when they start talking about Wrynecks. What is it, that makes this bird so special?

First of all, it's rare in the Netherlands. Rareness makes a bird often more special. Simply because you won't get to see it very often and every time you do, it gives some extra excitement. This is probably a human trait, since human interest often increases if things are uncommon or rare. You'll also find this in economics or in art. Coals and diamonds are both allotropes of Carbon, but people get much more excited when they find a diamond then a piece of coal. And this also accounts for art, since true masterpieces are rare.

Wrynecks are Woodpeckers. They have, like other woodpeckers a very long tongue for grasping insects out of places that are otherwhise hard to reach. Their toes are placed zygodactylly (i.e. two toes pointing to the front and two pointing to the back) and their call is somewhat comparable to other woodpeckers. For the rest they don't look like them at all and are therefore placed in their own Genus. The Genus consists of two Species. The Eurasian Wryneck Jynx torquilla and the African Rufous-Necked Wryneck Jynx ruficollis.

Although Wrynecks are woodpeckers, they don't behave like them. They usually don't climb vertically on treetrunks, they don't excavate their own nest and they don't drum. If you are lucky to get to see this bird (otherwise take a look at my pictures), you'll easily find these behavioural differences in it's morphology. Most woodpeckers have a pointed tail with very strong tailfeathers. They use their tail for support when they vertically climb treetrunks. The Wryneck however, doesn't very often climb this way and therefore doesn't need such a tail. Their tail is rounded. It's bill doesn't look like that of the true woodpeckers, not a chisel shaped strong bill, but more that of an insect eating Passerine. Furthermore the Wryneck is the only woodpecker with a regular long distance migration. They winter in Africa and migrate every year. Some other species of woodpecker sometimes disperse over long distances, but they won't do so every year and they won't make the same distances as the Wryneck does. Other species of woodpeckers show small irruptions, when unfavourable conditions force them to move. But these shifts are uncomparable to the long distances that Wrynecks fly.





Wryneck... Strange name, isn't it? If you wonder why it bears this name, take a look at this small movieclip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD52NLJw4Pk

You'll see a Wryneck wrynecking. It is twisting its neck in all directions. In many languages it bears a name that is pointing to this weird behaviour. In Dutch it is called "Draaihals" and the latin "torquilla" means turning. But why does it do this? Apparently the stretching of the neck and the turning make it look like a snake. It even makes a snake-like hissing sound. Wrynecks breed in old used woodpecker holes and if they are disturbed they can probably scare the predator with this behaviour. But they also seem to use it in courtship.

I was very lucky when my friend Casper Zuyderduin discovered this year a wryneck in Katwijk, since it was the first time I had a reasonable view of this bird. I had seen my first last year, but that was not really satisfying since it was on our bird ringing station and I had to leave the bird, because I was disturbing our nets by watching it and we had a small chance of catching it. So I was asked "friendly" to get into the hut. Off course we didn't catch and I was not as happy as I expected to see a bird so high on my whishlist. The Wryneck, Casper dicovered wasn't easy to find. At first we didn't find it and I made plans to never twitch a Wryneck again, but then suddenly Casper saw it again. And so did I, Magnificent! But things got even greater this year, when I was present when two Wrynecks were caught.

One was at the famous bird ringing station Castricum, where my friend Vincent van der Spek and I were to do our bird ringing exam for a Dutch ringing permit. I got to ring a Wryneck! Fantastic, but also a bird I had never ringed before and this didn't make my exam easier. Of course the identification was no problem, but the ageing was a bit harder. The pattern on the primary coverts was important to age the bird and this bird appeared to be a first calender year. It was an incredible day, with a lot of new ringing species, but because of all the excitement and the number of birds we got to ring, there was hardly time to enjoy the birds. The next day was therefore a fantastic second chance.

Vincent and I both got our permit. We were very excited and couldn't wait till we could ring on our own station (V.R.S. Meijendel). The next day we arrived at Meijendel where Maarten Verrips (one of our tutors) had already set out the nets and welcomed us. There were many many birds and we had to work very hard. Luckily Kasper Hendriks and our guest Engbert van Oort were also there to help. Then when numbers decreased a bit, Vincent and I walked a round to get the birds. We were joking and laughing a little and celebrated our ringing permit. Then ... a Wryneck!! Vincent got a Wryneck from the nets.. We walked on and unbelieveble, the next bird we got was a Thrush Nightingale!!! But that's a story I will write about later.

The Wryneck was beautiful. It looked like a moth or a reptile. At least something ancient. The cryptic colourpatterns were very nice. Now there was time to enjoy the bird. The sound, the feet, the twisting of the neck... We took some pictures and released the bird. It flew off on it's way to Africa!

I found this interesting blog about European woodpeckers, where you can read more about the wryneck: http://woodpeckersofeurope.blogspot.com/search?q=wryneck

Tiengemeten, Kinderdijk and other bird areas - Views in the past and in the future.

Yesterday we left for Tiengemeten: a small isle in the province of Zuid Holland. None of us (Luuk, Frank, Ben and me) had ever been there, but we had heard some good reports of other birdwatchers about this place. Tiengemeten is an island in the Haringvliet. It is the last true island that is left of the Dutch Delta (a large delta where several large rivers end in the Northsea), all the other islands of the Delta are connected by bridges to the mainland nowadays. If you want to read more about the history of the island, read this nice and very readable report: http://islas.ruudbijlsma.nl/tgm_en.htm

Tiengemeten was bought by Natuurmonumenten (an organisation concerned with nature conservation) with aid of the Dutch Government. The main idea was to create a Nature island, with some low-profile recreation. (A fantastic choice since there were all kinds of plans with the island in the past, like the creation of a nuclair power plant or plans for a second airport for the city of Rotterdam). The new plans are immense. Not only is the entire area large (the total surface of the island and the area outside the dikes is over 1000 hectares), the plan also includes to break open some of the dikes, to relocate all inhabitants (the last farmer left in 2006) and in the future there are also plans to get back the tidal movements of the sea by periodically opening the sluices of the Haringvlietdam. This will mean the water will also become brackish again. We only visited the North-east part of the island. There was a strange historic atmosphere with the abandoned houses still present. The fields were gone, the ground lowered and a large part was inundated. The inundated fields were full of birds: about 50 Spoonbills, 30 Little egrets, 4 Black-necked Grebes, 1 summer plumage Dunlin, 4 Grey Plovers, about 10 Mediterranean Gulls, 12 Little Gulls (we even heard them calling), over 500 Black-tailed Godwits (not a good sign, these birds probably lost their nests), numerous Redshanks and several species of ducks.

But the 15 Black-winged Stilts Himantopus himantopus were the best treat of this island. Black-winged Stilts are rare in the Netherlands, to see 15 birds is even rarer. The birds were breeding, we saw at least 4 nests! Then we had to quit our visit, a heavy thunderstorm and rain came closer and closer and we decided it would be safer to leave the open fields and return to the visitors centre.

We took the little ferry and returned to our car.

In the meantime the weather had improved and we decided to continue our trip. We tried the Scherpenissepolder. A Marsh Sandpiper had been reported and we quickly found the bird. Areas like the Schakerloopolder, Het Stinkgat, Krammersluizen were visited. Het Stinkgat looked nice when we arrived. There were some waders present near the viewing point, but when we walked towards it, a group of bored cows decided to bully our day. They decided to take a walk and scare away the birds... On the right, in the picture you can still see the flock of birds flying off...

Yellow-wort Blackstonia perfoliata along the path to the hut of the Krammersluizen:
Kinderdijk:

Our last destinastion of today was Kinderdijk. Kinderdijk got worldfame by it's Dutch mills, but also have a look at the way it got its name (it's a nice legend!). Nowadays these mills are UNESCO world heritage. It's the only place in the world where you can see so many of these types of mills together and it therefore attracts many visitors from all over the globe. To help you out of your dreams: Holland is not full of tulips, we don't walk on wooden shoes and most of the old windmills have already vanished long ago. Nevertheless the mills and hydraulic systems are an important part of our history and it is a good thing this site got on the UNESCO list. I had never been to Kinderdijk before and I must say, I was impressed by the view of so many old windmills. We stood between two newly built houses next to a busy road and looked over the fields towards the mills. It was like watching through a keyhole into the past.

Our goal was not the mills though. A white-winged tern Chlidonias leucopterus had been reported on the ponds right behind the houses. The pond was filled with floating leaves of Yellow Water-lily Nuphar lutea and on these floating leaves there were nests of the closely related Black Tern Chlidonias niger. Black Terns breed in small colonies and prefer to breed on floating plants in fresh water marshes. Sometimes they breed on man-made small rafts, specially created for this species. In winter they stay in large flocks at sea in Western Africa. The numbers of Black Terns decline. In the breeding atlas "Teixeira R.M. 1979. Atlas van de Nederlandse Broedvogels. Pp. 182-183. Natuurmonumenten, 's Graveland" a couple of reasons are hypothesized: Most important reasons are probably the fact that marsh areas and agricultural grassfields were drained and waterlevels were lowered. Other reasons probably are the strong decline of the plant Water Soldier Stratiotes aloides, the decline of large insects, and increased watertourism. I can understand the watertourism problem; when we arrived there were two people fishing, their boat was very close to a nest of a black tern. The fisherman probably weren't even aware of it. The nests are not strong at all and a large wave would probably make it sink...

Just immediately after we parked the car, we saw the White-winged Tern. We were very lucky, since 2 minutes later a Marsh harrier (a bird of prey) arrived. All the terns were alarming and trying to get the harrier away from their nests. The White-winged Tern joined the other terns. But then when the Harrier flew off, so did the White-winged Tern without any obvious reason. We waited for about half an hour (and enjoyed the still present Black terns), but the White-winged didn't return. We decided to leave it, and went home.

The Goat-Sucker - Caprimulgus europaeus

No, I'm not talking about cryptozoology. So sorry, this is not a story about the Chupacabra monster, also called the Goatsucker. Nor is it about new swearing words or strange sexual obsessions. It's about nightjars and other nocturnal birds.


The European nightjar Caprimulgus europaeus, bears in many countries a name that's related to the sucking of goats. Goatsucker, what a strange name, isn't it? Does it really suck goats? No, they prey on large insects. The name goes back to ancient Greek times and is based on folklore. Nightjars are active from dusk till dawn. The birds can sometimes be found near catle, probably because the cows and goats flush large insects, which the nightjars eat. Mysterious birds, night active and in the neighbourhood of goats... what would you think? Off course: they must be drinking the milk of the goats and make them sick.


Nightjars and the combination with the landscape in which they live, leave a mystical impression. If you go to the right places (moorland, forest clearings, heathlands) in the right time of the year (they are summer residents and migrate in winter to Africa) you might be able to find one. Numbers are increasing in the Netherlands, so your chances of seeing one will also increase. When the sun sets and night comes, you hear a churring sound*, first coming from far and flowing over the moorland. It is not monotonous, the churring changes a bit in highth and slowly you get hypnotised. It's a pleasant feeling, the temperature is warm for a night, moth are flying around you and you dream away. Then you hear a "sqeek" sound * and then a rolling and a bit gutteral "kroo...kroo..kroo". All of a sudden you're out of your dreams, the bird flies above your head. Fantastic! If you're really lucky you can also hear them clapping their wings. I'm not sure how this "kroo..kroo.. kroo" sound is produced, it might be made with the wings, you can hear it at the end of this recording: http://waarneming.nl/sound_details.php?id=902. The males have a white patch on their underwing, probably used in courtship. It is said the males strongly react on white objects. I'm not so sure about this. I still lively remember an episode of Bill Oddie goes wild, where Bill Oddie runs over the moor with his white handkerchief, without succes... We however did try the white object trick with a white shirt and it seemed to work, we got a nice view of a bird flying over our heads, so it might be worth trying!

Tonight we (Ben, Reinder, Luuk and me) left for a long trip. On the programme were Common Quail Coturnix coturnix, European Nightjar Caprimulgus europaeus, Corncrake Crex crex, Baillon's crake Porzana pusilla, Spotted crake Porzana porzana, and with some luck maybe some owls. Apart from the Corncrake, we got them all. It was a nice night, and also Luuk's birthday, which we celebrated at midnight. The evening started with Common quail. When we arrived at the place where we hoped to hear them, there was no activity at all. When we gave up hope and just wanted to go, we heard a bird calling from a ryefield. We heard the "wet my lips" call *. We waited for about half an hour when we suddenly saw a bird crossing a path between a grassfield and the ryefield! My first real sighting of a quail ever. All my other birds were only on sound. That was a good start! We even saw one flying, which is a rare sight, since they are reluctant to fly. Even when they are flushed, they prefer to crawl away under the vegetation in stead of flying. They do however fly over large distances: they migrate to Africa in winter.
(I made the drawings of the nightjar and the quail, since I couldn't get pictures this night. I also don't want to take too many pictures, since you sometimes have to be careful putting too much effort in getting a picture while you should actually enjoy the birds you are watching!)

We decided to go on and searched for a good spot for nightjars. We didn't have an exact location, but the area looked suited. When we were waiting for the nightjars, we got a magnificent sighting of a hunting Long-eared Owl Asio otus. I had never seen a Long-eared owl like this, in the back we heard it's young calling. A couple of hundred calling Natterjacks Bufo calamita (toads), blurred the first nightjar. Then when we walked on, we heard the nightjar better and got to see it. Beautiful birds with their strange jarring sound (they get their common name from this jarring in the night), their long wings and tail and their rather slow flight. There were at least two birds calling at this location.

We left the area and headed for the Baillon's crakes. Luuk and Ben hadn't been there this year, for me and Rein it was the second time this week. But it was Luuk's birthday so we didn't care. We tried a Corncrake but weren't succesfull. Tired, but still hungry for more species, we got a nice Little owl and ended the night with a Spotted crake (we heard it's call, which sounds like a whip). Birding by night, fantastic experiences, but it's a shame you always get so tired of these fanatic tours.

* The churring, the "Squeek" and the "wet my lips" soundrecordings can be found on Latvian Birding: http://www.putni.lv/index_balsis_eng.htm

Creatures of the night - Baillon's Crake

Learn to reverence night and to put away the vulgar fear of it, for, with the banishment of night from the experience of man, there vanishes as well a religious emotion, a poetic mood, which gives depth to the adventure of humanity. - Henry Beston - *


Last night we (Rein Genuït, Remco Hofland and I) did some nocturnal birding. Birds at night is something completely different from birds by daylight. It's a whole new dimension, which I discovered about 10 years ago, when I helped as a ringing assistent on a project for Corncrakes Crex crex. First of all you have to get used to the fact that there's no or hardly any light. Your eyes are useless, it's your ears that count! Although this looks obvious, it took me some time to get used to this idea. Even up to now, you can find me wearing my binoculars by night, even when it's pitchdark and impossible to see anything. I'm probably still in denial...

Our main goal this night, was to hear some of the recently reported Baillon's crakes Porzana pusilla. Baillon's crakes are beautiful birds, but they are very hard to see, at least in the Netherlands they are. If people see one, it is often a glimpse, like in this youtube movie:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=08GJg8MxpPI

You have better chances at night. You won't see them but you will hear them. Their calling activity is higher at night, like most raills. I never saw a Baillon's crakes and they are rare in the Netherlands: Between 1800 and 1997 there were at least 93 sightings in the Netherlands (but I wouldn't be surprised if numbers of sightings were higher). In 2005 there were at least two confirmed succesfull breeding attempts (where young birds have been seen) in "Polder Achteraf" and in the "Nieuwe Keverdijkse Polder". This was the first time since 1972 that breeding was confirmed.

Apart from the confirmed breeding records in 2005, there are a few historic reports of breeding Baillon's crakes in the Netherlands (about 15 between 1863 and 1972) and I think I have also heard of eggs and nests in old English museum collections that were once collected in the Netherlands. At the time these eggs and nests must have been collected there were not as many people concerned with birds as nowadays but still they managed to collect nests and eggs of this illusive species. These old records (if they really do exist and if they are correctly tagged) might therefore suggest that Baillons crakes used to be a commoner breeder in the Netherlands. Baillon's crakes are of least concern according to IUCN criteria, they have a large distribution in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. The African and Australian population is resident, the European and Asian population are migratory. Although the world's population is probably large, there's to my opinion a need for more research. The migration routes and the population size is not well known. This bird is one of the least known birds in Europe, mainly due to it's illusive lifestyle. The European population is very scattered and as far as I know they are nowhere abundant. The population may have declined, and if so, it is probably due to habitat destruction. They are very illusive in their breeding territories and are maybe commoner than we think because birds get overlooked. On the other hand, their calls can sometimes be confusingly similar to frogs or a Garganey, so some of the identifications from the past might be wrong and numbers could be even lower. Beaman and Madge for example, warn in their book "the Handbook of Bird identification for Europe and the Western Palearctic" for published sound recordings of this species that were in fact recordings of frogs!

If you like to read more about them, this site is a good starter'and off course Wikipedia.


We heard the two of the reported birds of Polder Achteraf in Breukelveen in the province of Utrecht. It was a strange experience, standing there at night, in the middle of nowhere with your hands behind your ears to be able to listen even better, with about ten other birdwatchers. We heard frogs everywhere, two grasshopper warblers, a Mole cricket and a Waterrail and then we heard the Baillon's crakes callinig. Apart from the joy of listening to this species (for Rein it was even a lifer), we also came to hear the specific calls these birds were making. They were not producing the usual male advertising calls *, but made a strange and interesting sound *. I recently found out through the Waarneming.nl forum that in 2005 some Dutch birdwatchers were confronted with a call they suspected to be of a Baillons crake, but nobody knew for sure if it was really that species. They recorded the sound* and when they played back the call, all of a sudden a Baillon's Crake showed up, they were even able to film the bird. They had lured the bird with the sound they had recorded and were able to pin this sound to the species. At least in 2005, 2007 and this year the same call was heard at Polder Achteraf (it was also recorded and compared to the Friesian recordings). Rumours are, these calls might be of female birds, but this needs to be confirmed. There's still so much for us to discover, especially in birdsounds and most of all in nocturnal birdsounds!

I ended this night with a Savi's warbler singing on my newly discovered local patch and with two very nice Hedgehogs of which this is one:


* (I'm not so much into quotes, I'll be honest to you, I got the Henry Beston quote through this website: http://www.quotegarden.com/ To be even more honest, I'm always a bit annoyed about those webpages that start with quotes. So my humble excuses to the people who feel te same. But I liked this one and since I didn't have many pictures and since I had to start with something I fell in the trap and used it anyway.... so I wouldn't be surprised if you'll find more quotes on my blog in the future... )



*The soundrecording of the "strange and intersting sound" of a Baillonscrake was recorded on the 1st of June 2008 by Mathias Ritschard and can be found on the http://dutchbirding.nl/ website. Click in the left menu on "sound gallery" and search in the gallery for Baillons crake ("kleinst waterhoen" in Dutch).


*The sound recording of a usual male advertising call was made by Teus Luijendijk on 22nd of June 2004 and can be found on the http://dutchbirding.nl/ website. Click in the left menu on "sound gallery" and search in the gallery for Baillons crake ("kleinst waterhoen" in Dutch)


*The soudrecoring of 2005 is from Dusan Brinkhuizen and can be found on the http://dutchbirding.nl/ website. Click in the left menu on "sound gallery" and search in the gallery for Baillons crake ("kleinst waterhoen" in Dutch)

Spring Migration in Breskens

Breskens is the best place in the Netherlands to view migrating birds in spring. On days when the winds are good (East/ South-east, 4 Beaufort scale) and the temperature is nice, birds pass in impressive numbers. The best time is the last two weeks of April en the first two weeks of May. This year the winds were extremely good and it rained rarities. Also commoner birds like swallows, swifts and meadow pipits were seen in high amounts and more than 100 species were observed while migrating every single day! That's why Frank and I decided to have another try at the Breskens migration point (it was our 4th time this year). Our main goal was to get a good view of red-footed falcons. Normally Red-footed falcons are quite rare in the Netherlands but occasionally they can show up in larger numbers. There seemed to be a small invasion going on and they were reported from many places in the Netherlands.

After a 2,5 hour drive, Frank and I arrived in Breskens. There were not as many birders as the days before (on good days there can be more than 150 people, today there were not many more than 50) and there were not many birds either. We got some really good species, but views were bad and numbers low. And although we got the Red-footed falcons we didn't go home completely satisfied. Maybe we got spoiled by al the good stuff we got the week before, or maybe we were a little jealous on our friends who decided to try their luck at other places (and were more succesfull), who knows....

Anyway, the best things I saw today were 2 (maybe three) Red-footed Falcons, 1 Red-rumped swallow, 2 Black Kites, 1 Osprey, 1 Montagu's Harrier, about 10 Hen Harriers, a few Hobbies and a few Merlins and 1 very nice Short-eared owl.

Candy of the day (translated directly from Dutch and probably not a proper English expression, but I like it anyway) was a Cattle egret in summer plumage in an area called "De Braakman". Frank got the sighting through his pager and since it was on the way back we decided to have a go at it. It's discoverers were still present and they pointed the bird to us. Otherwise it might have been quite difficult because the bird sometimes vanished into some pine trees which appeared to be a new Grey heron, Little egret and Spoonbill breeding colony! It collected sticks and small branches and apparently was building a nest. Wheter it was paired or not, we couldn't tell. We saw only one bird. Nevertheless a nice sighting. Also my first Cattle egret in breeding plumage in the Netherlands.

You can find the total results of the counts of today on the migration database Trektellen.nl , but don't forget to change the date to the 10th of May.