CES Constant Effort Site - Bird ringing

CES, or Constant Effort Site is a specific method of bird ringing. The idea is to monitor birds over a long period of time, with standardized methods. If you keep record of the age and sex of the birds and if you also record recaptures (i.e. when you catch a bird, that you've already ringed before), you are able to tell something about the demography of the birds in your area. The ratio of adult and juvenile birds give an impression of productivity, the recaptures tell you something about survival and site fidelity. Off course the power of your reasearch is in numbers. Not only the numbers on your own location but also the numbers of the hundreds of other CES ringing locations in Europe. This large dataset could be a powerfull tool for monitoring population changes. I'm not going into more details about the CES methods and guidelines. If you want to read more about these things, please read the EURING guidelines for CES ringing in Europe (Pdf)

One of the important things in CES ringing is the ratio Adults:Juveniles. If you want to produce data for this ratio, you have to have knowledge about the plumages of the different age classes. Sometimes it's very obvious a bird is a juvenile: There are bird species that have a juvenile plumage which is completely different from their adult plumage. For example the well known Robin Erithacus rubecula: On the picture below you'll see a juvenile bird on the left and on the right an adult bird. The juvenile looks completely different, doesn't it? You could hardly believe that the spotted brown bird grows into a brightly coloured individual. The Pictures are taken at "Vogelringstation Meijendel" in the dunes of Wassenaar.

In those cases it's easy to tell the age, but you have to know how the juveniles look like, otherwise you might think you're dealing with a complety different or even unknown species.

There are also cases in which it isn't that easy to tell the age and you have to look for more subtle differences. Sometimes it might even be possible that those subtle differences don't exist and you have to do without an age classification. Some feathers (or all, depending on the species) get moulted during the season. When feathers are moulted, it might be more difficult to age the birds. Have a look at the Winter Wren Troglodytes troglodytes: On the left you see a juvenile bird, which lacks the white tips of the undertail feathers. On the right you see a bird that was photographed in October. It shows white tips of the undertail feathers. Is it then an adult? No, sorry, you can't tell. First calenderyear birds (1cy) moult their body feathers in the end of summer (so also their undertail feathers). Once moulted, there's no difference between the undertail feathers of adults and of juveniles.

So during CES you constantly have to be alert to make the right ageing decissions. As I help as a volunteer on the Bird ringing station Meijendel, I will try to show you more often what we are doing over there and how you could age, sex or identify different birds.

During CES, we spend quite some time around the ringing area, in the middle of a beautiful nature reserve. As a bonus for our efforts, we often get to see a lot of other nice birds, plants, mammals and amphibians. Today was really special, I got a magnificent view of two Golden Orioles (male and female) Oriolous oriolus. We heard the male calling all morning long. But getting to see them is something different. Orioles spent most of their time high up in the canopy. Deeply hidden between the leaves and branches of the trees. But if you're willing to put some time into it, there's a good possibility of seeing them. So I decided to wait and search the canopy. Then all of a sudden the male showed itself. It was singing completely free on a dead branch (I made a painting, so you get an impression of the splendor of this species). There we no leaves or branches blocking the view. It was absolutely marvellous! Then I even got to see the female. I was daydreaming of catching them on our ringing station, but off course this will never happen. Ah well... it's always good to keep something to wish!

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)

Do it yourself Lesser yellowlegs

Yesterday we participated in a Birdrace. The whole idea of this Birdrace was to combine a Big Day with casual birding. It's the combination of both that make things interesting. We discovered a nice surprise on this event. (The picture above shows my four friends (Luuk, Frank, Ben and Sjaak) with whom I participated)

On a normal Big Day you start with a team and you get as many birdspecies as possible in a fixed area within 24 hours (period can be shorter but has to be within a calender day, so from midnight to midnight). The area could be a province, a municipality, a place where you often go birding, a country or whatever geographical borders you and your friends like to set. The rules themselves are not that important, but it's important everybody who participates, plays according the same rules. Most of the important rules are about:

• Which birds are countable and which aren't? (How to cope with injured birds, introduced species, escapes and established species?),


• How many people of a team have to see a species, before it gets a tick on the list? Most days work with the rule that all members of a team have to see a birdspecies (or at least a high percentage of the team members). There are two main reasons for this. First of all, for the fun of the team; everybody likes to see as many species as possible. The team has to stay together because only this will give them the highest daylist. It's communal benefit, your teammembers help you and you help your teammembers in getting as many species as possible. The other reason to have this rule is to diminish problems with wrong identifications. On days like this, you're prone to make mistakes because you're in a hurry and want to see... nééd to see ... a species. On such moments it is always good to have a critic second opinion by a teammember.


• Are you allowed to use information by people who are not members of your team, during the day?

To get an idea of these rules, read the rules of the American Birding Association:
http://www.stanislausbirds.org/Events/big-day-rules.htm

Many birdwatchers in the Netherlands don't like this way of birding. They probably think it's much to stressfull and overdone. Often it is hard to get enough people who want to join you on such a day. The Birdrace we participated was however different from normal Big Days. The most important thing (apart from just having fun) was to realise a big specieslist. Not for individual teams but for the total of all the teams. There were prizes for the best discovery of the day ánd for the team with the longest species list. So therefore teams could chose wheter they would come for quality or numbers, or off course both. Actually there were no rules, apart from time and area. The area (provinces of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe) was an area where we were not really familar with. That is, we didn't know every exact location of commoner species. It is clear we could therefore probably never win a normal Big Day in this region without days of extensive pre-research. We didn't put effort in pre-research, since we just wanted to join for the fun of it. And because we already wanted to go to the area and because we liked to contribute to the total list, we subscribed ourselves.

Our real idea behind this subscription was off course, to profit from the succes of other birdwatchers ;-) About 50 good birdwatchers joined and it was only waiting for something good to show up. We decided to take it easy and look for some stuff around the Lauwersmeer. We didn't receive any phonecall from the organisers of the race. What was going on, no rarities? We phoned Martijn Bot, but he was also surprised that nothing really good had been seen. Apparently it was up to ourselves whether we would see something good that day. Things were not really bad, we had seen a White-tailed eagle Haliaeetus albicilla, a brown variety female Cuckoo, heard a Eurasian Golden Oriole and seen some other nice birds, but we were a bit disappointed by the low numbers of waders. When we arrived in the Ezumakeeg (probably the best place in the Netherlands for waders), things were looking bad. The birds where we had hoped for (Broad-billed Sandpiper, Black-winged Stilt, Red-necked Phalarope) were all gone. Then we got a telephone call by an other team. They discovered a Little Bittern Ixobrychus minutus. Before we would go to there, we decided to finish our check of the Ezumakeeg first.

What a fantastic decision! Only a few minutes later we discovered a Yank! An american wader: the Lesser Yellowlegs Tringa flavipes. It was Frank van Duivenvoorde who found the bird first. He first thought it was a Marsh Sandpiper Tringa stagnatilis but things weren't right. Then the bird flew a few metres, and things were getting clear. About the size of a Redshank, but much more slender. The bill was fine, the neck gracious and the bird looked longer. The legs were yellow to yellowish orange. But most important, there was no sign of a white triangular rump patch. There was only a square white patch, like in Wood Sandpiper Tringa glareola. It was flying towards us and landed at about 30 metres away from us. Luuk, put the sighting on the pagersystem and I called the co-ordinator of the Birdrace, so that everone was aware of this rarity. Then within a few minutes, it flew off to another place where it was later rediscovered by some other birdwatchers at far greater distance. We were really lucky, to get such magnificant views.
See better pictures from Sjaak and Luuk here:

http://waarneming.nl/wn_details.php?id=4413884
and
http://waarneming.nl/wn_details.php?id=4412563
And even better pictures from one day later:
http://waarneming.nl/foto_details.php?id=345508

We won the prize for the best discovery and got a lot of congratulations (and the total of all the teams together was 181 species!). It made birding that day a lot more relaxed. We scanned some other places and then returned to the Ezumakeeg to have a last look at the Lesser Yellowlegs. At the north part of the Ezumakeeg, where we discovered the Lesser Yellowlegs, were some Ruffs displaying. Before leaving we enjoyed their magnificant plumages and beheaviour, then we went home. Satisfied after a good day of birding!

The Nine Killer (Red-Backed Shrike)

The Red-backed Shrike Lanius collurio looks so sweet and harmless, but behind their mask these birds are ferocious killers! They eat large insects, small reptiles, small mammals and young birds. You wonder where the colloquial name "Nine Killer" comes from? This is an old folk name, it was thought that the Red-backed Shrike killed nine prey before eating them. Shrikes have a habit of impaling their prey on branches or barb wire. They don't eat everything immediately and that's where the story originates; that they kill nine animals before starting to eat them. It's remarkeble that this bird got this name in several countries (German: "Neuntöter", Dutch: "Negendoder"), so you almost start to wonder whether there's some thruth in the name. There's no other bird family in Western-Europa that impale their prey. So if you ever find impaled prey animals, you know there's a species of shrike present.


These beautiful birds were once widespread as breeding birds all over Europe. Nowadays numbers are declining, especially in north-west Europe. In the UK there's hardly any breeding birds left. In the Netherlands the species also declines, but there are also some new colonisations. The species needs the old European structure rich landscape, with small waste lands, scrub areas and hedges, which was rich on insects. These types of landscapes vanish and so do the birds that depend on them. Birds like Ortolan Bunting, Corn Bunting, Whinchat (see picture), Little Owl and Red-backed shrike are all declining in the Netherlands or are already extinct as breeding birds. There's some hope however. Some of these area's are restored as cultural and natural historic areas. Global warming might also help, the species have their strongholds in the southernparts of Europe, maybe if temperature will increase this will give good opportunities for these species to return.


Today, I got a telephone call by Jaap. He discovered a Red-backed shrike in an area called Lentevreugd. I couldn't come immediately, but called some friends to tell them the good news. A Red-backed Shrike is a rarity nowadays in the province of Zuid-Holland and even if it wasn't, you could still never get enough of shrikes, they are simply beautiful! When I arrived later in the afternoon, the bird was still present. It was a beautiful male in full colours with it's grey head and the black mask throug it's eye. He had a beautiful pink breast and a very nice chestnut coloured back. Red-backed Shrikes migrate in winter through south-east Europe into East Africa, on the way back, they take the same route. This bird just arrived (probably it was still migrating) and was wearing a metal ring. The ring looked rather large and new and it was a shame we couldn't read the inscription, since it didn't look like a Dutch ring. I had great views of the shrike, which was catching insects and was even singing! At a certain moment I even saw it regurgitating a pellet of indigestible insect parts.


Very very very nice!
For some better pictures of this bird see the pictures of René van Rossum:
http://waarneming.nl/wn_details.php?id=4403171

European Scops Owl (Otus scops)

It was 11.00 p.m. when I got the first telephone call, I didn't even noticed it. The second and third call came by 11.15 p.m. The calls were made by two brothers and great friends. I wasn't very disturbed since they are able to call me for almost any small thing in the middle of the night. Probably a mouse, or a young Tawny owl or maybe they were playing some kind of practical joke on me... I was tired and decided to call them back tomorrow. Then, when I got the fourth call by another birder (Rein), I knew things were serious. When I picked up the phone he told me there was a European Scops owl calling at only 10 kilometres from my home! Amazing, but was it really this species? And how did I get there?

I was suspicious: two years ago some of my friends made the classical mistake in identifying nocturnal nature sounds. They mistakenly took the sound of a Midwife toad Alytes obstetricans for an European Scops Owl. How could you mistaken the sound of an owl with that of a toad, I hear you think? Well, the sounds are very similar and I must admit there were also some extenuating circumstances:
-When they heard the sound, they just returned from a long night of birdwatching and were very tired,
-they weren't aware of a feral population of Midwife toads which was close to the location of the discovered sound, no excuse off course ;-)
-There were a couple of toads present. This made the sound look as if it was moving: One toad could be calling for a few minutes, fell quiet and another toad 10 meters away would start calling.
-They saw something flying (whatever it was, it probably wasn't a scops owl...)

The sighting fooled experienced Dutch birdwatchers, even people who had experience with both species (toad and owl) abroad, so be aware! The next day, the truth was revealed, when we arrived, we saw a nice midwife toad walking through the grass in the sandy dune, although it wasn't a Scops owl, I liked it anyway since I had never seen an adult Midwife toad before. I've heard (I'm not sure whether it is just rumours or whether it is really true), that there are apparently even Birdsound cd's with recordings of Midwife toads in stead of the Scops owl (the species they claim to have recorded), so even learning from cd's might give you the wrong ID. The picture is from that second day, photographer is Maarten Wielstra. If you want to learn more about confusingly similar animal sounds, read this interesting article:
Insect, Amphibian or Bird? British bird, 77, No. 3, March 1984
(link will only work for a week, after that period, you have to search for it in a library or subscribe to British Birds)

So what about this new sighting? News spread quickly and within a few minutes transport was arranged. I got another phone call, a sleepy voice at the other end of the line: "Hi, they called me out of bed, I'm putting on my clothes now and I'll be at your place as soon as possible. It was hard to explain to my girlfriend, she'll probably never understand it, but I was able to get her car anyway. Be ready!"
Then another phone call of a friend (Maarten) who was already at the spot: "Wouter, it's the real thing!!" he said. I could even hear the bird calling through the telephone. When we arrived, there were about 30 people present. Mainly local birdwatchers. It looked ridiculous: 30 people, mainly men, staring with their binoculars in the dark, talking with lowered voices and pointing with their microphones to a ...tree...
No pictures this time, but this is what we heard:
http://waarneming.nl/sound_details.php?id=850
A fantastic scops owl! Apparently the bird was already present since the 12th of May. Residents heard already for a couple of days some kind of alarm... So it's not only Midwife toads that can be confusing.

The next day there were a little more people than the 30 I described above... About 300 (!) people came to visit the Scops Owl:




The European Scops Owl breeds in Southern Europe, North Africa and parts of Asia. In the Netherlands there are about 7 previous records of which 3 were found dead and 2 were caught. This was only the second twitchable bird for the Netherlands, the last twitchable bird was already ten years ago, so it is still a true vagrant. However it is a species that's supposed to benefit from Global warming and it is thought to expand it's breeding territory northwards. So maybe we can expect this species more often in the oncoming years.

Fochteloër Veen

The Fochteloerveen is a special type of peatbog, called "hoogveen" in Dutch or raised bog in English. It's the final stage of a vegetation succession. Succesion starts with a pond or lake, waterplants die and the pond gets filled by layers of dead leaf material. Under water oxygen levels are very low and therefore the plantdebri hardly decays. Slowly the pond gets filled completely by non-decaying dead plant material. When the pond is filled, slowly a forest can devellop. But even the forest will not be the final stage. Rainwater is the only source of water, which is low on nutrients and it has a relative low PH (it's a bit acid). Nutrients will be washed away and acidity will increase. A lot of plants and trees can't cope with this and die. In the end, you get a very special vegetation of all kinds of rare plants and peat moss Sphagnum. Peat moss can grow continuously. It dies at the bottom and grows at the top. It forms a kind of lens and the area gets a bit uplifted. That's why it's called raised bog.

In the past, large area's of the east part of the Netherlands were covered with this "hoogveen" habitat type. But in the past centuries most area's were destroyed for turf collecting. Now only a few relatively small area's remain, of which the Fochteloërveen is one. There is hardly any turfcollecting left and the area could be retained as an important nature conservation area. You can find here very rare animals and plants. Nowadays waterlevels are being kept high artificially and some other restoration is taking place. The Fochteloerveen restoration is a successtory. Amphibian and reptile numbers are high, numbers of dragonflies are impressive, rare plants are doing well and rare bird species returned or discovered the area. The best succes so far, was the return of breeding Common Cranes Grus grus. (The picture of the crane) isn't from today. The Fochteloereveen becomes one of the most important area's for species that are declining in the rest of the Netherlands.

Our return to this beautiful area wasn't a successtory, though. We wanted to have another look at the group of Red-footed falcons, but they were gone. The last birds left the day before... We couldn't find the reported Red-backed Shrikes, and a possible sighting of a Short-toed eagle was far from satisfying. Things got even worse when friends (Ben and "lucky"Luuk) discovered a red-throated pipit in a different part of the Netherlands. When we started the day there was some sort of funny competition between our two cars, who would find the best birds and the most species and it seemed as if we were the losing today. But although we "lost", we did see some good stuff like European Honey Buzzard, loads of Hobbies, two Red-necked Grebes (in Diependal) and two displaying Common Snipes. To see displaying Common Snipes is a rare thing nowadays and we were very happy with the sighting.

Because there were not as many rare birds as we had hoped for, we had to do with other stuff, like these two species of carnivorous plants:





<-- Round-leaved Sundew Drosera rotundifolia







<-- Oblong-leaved Sundew Drosera intermedia
(the leaves are covered with willow seeds)




Even though things were not really succesfull today, the Fochteloerveen remains a beautiful place. So I can only say:
I'll be back!!!