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

Montagu's harrier - Circus pygargus

In the North-east part of the Dutch province of Groningen is a small stronghold of a magnificent species: the Montagu's Harrier Circus pygargus. These harriers were quite common in the nineteenth century, but the habitats it inhabited (open dunes, moorland, reedbeds) changed and got apparently useless for the harriers. Above the changing landscapes came the DDT problems. Montagu's harriers feed on rodents and large insects, and the use of DDT as an insecticide took its toll on the harrier population. Apart from the accumulation of poisoness chemicals there were also no large insects left. The numbers of Montagu's Harriers declined in the Netherlands and by 1987 there were only 3 pairs left. Things didn't look very promissing.

By 1990, when everybody probably gave up on the Montagu's Harrier as a Dutch breeding bird, things changed unexpectedly. In that year the European Union decided to no longer subsidize the wheatfarmers in order to get rid of the surplus of wheat and to get a better and more natural wheatprize. Instead of subsidizing the farmers for their production they subsidized the farmers when they took agricultural land out of production. Since the wheatprizes were so low, the farmers could better set-aside some of their land and benefit from the European money. Unexpectedly this set-aside agricultural land, had an amazing side effect. Many species that were having difficulty in surviving in the barren Dutch agricultural landscapes, florished in this newly created mozaic. Two species that were never seen before breeding in agricultural land started to breed in the Oldambt area. One was the Corncrake and the other was the Montagu's Harrier. The area became some kind of surrogate Steppe area. But because this was off course still agricultural land, the birds needed some kind of extra protection. In order to provide the birds with this protection, a Foundation was created: Stichting Werkgroep Grauwe Kiekendief. They were succesful, numbers increased to about 40 breeding pairs, last year! the project co-operates closely with its German counterpart.

The project is really nice. Everybody seems to co-operate, from politicians, to farmers, to volunteers and to scientists. The birds are ringed, wing tagged and some receive a satellite device. The volunteers build nest-protectors and the farmers don't harm the nests. In order to keep people involved, they name some of the satellite birds after the farmers or the volunteers. The project gathered a massive amount of information about these beautiful birds. Read all about them on the website of the foundation: http://grauwekiekendief.nl/index_eng.php

The satellite tracked birds gave us more insight into their lives, especially during the time they were on migration into Africa. It all started with two females Marion and Beatriz. Read here about their sad but fascinating stories. Every satellite bird tells his or her own story, which makes it really personal and very interesting, more birds got a satellite device and I can advise you to read their stories as well. If this got your interest, there are more projects concerned with satellite telemetry of Montagu's harriers: http://malimbus.free.fr/trakindx.htm

My friend Vincent van der Spek, joined the project for an internship. He invited me and some other friends to help him with his project. It was mutual benefit, since we would be able to enjoy the Montagu's harriers and he would have some company and a car to drive him around. I'm still very thankful, since the two days I was able to visit him, were absolutely fantastic. And especially the first day, was one of the best Birding experiences I ever had.

One of the nesting sites

Nest protector

Vincent showed us that the Montagu's Harrier is colony breeder. Don't think of a colony like that of herons, but think of a couple of nests in the same wheatfield a couple of hundred metres apart. All kinds of interesting facts were told and seen in the field. We saw the adult males bringing food to the nests and females co-operatively chasing away a Marsh Harrier. What beautiful and elegant birds! We heard their calls, saw a young and tagged bird and enjoyed the landscape. Then when our survey time was over, Vincent had another surprise.

There was a nest to be ringed that afternoon and we were allowed to be present. Wow! That was a great wish. It was just as I hoped it would be. We measured, ringed and wingtagged 3 birds. Have a look at the pictures (from both days) and you probably know how I felt.

female of the second day.

The ringer: Erik Visser

The day wasn't over yet. There was a good wader area called Polder Breebaart. A few days before, there was a sighting of two Broad-billed Sandpipers and a Marsh Sandpiper. We (Ben Wielstra, Luuk Punt, Vincent van der Spek and me) had already been there in the afternoon, but then things weren't really promissing. When we returned in the evening, with the right tide, things were completely different, there were many, many birds. At least a thousand Dunlins and a couple of hundred Spotted Redshanks. We scanned the area and saw a few Curlew Sandpipers in breeding plumage, a few Red Knots and then Ben discovered a Broad-billed Sandpiper. We didn't have much time to enjoy watching it, because Vincent discovered an odd looking Golden Plover. It was indeed odd and after an identification discussion (small bird, long-legged impression, dark undertail coverts, barring on the sides, yes, ...dark underwings, ...) we agreed it was a Pacific Golden Plover! A bird that can look much the same as an American Golden Plover, with which it was considered conspecific in the past and as a Golden Plover, so we had to be careful with the ID. But everything was alright for this species. What a discovery and what a day!!

The second day I was with Kasper Hendriks, Rob van Bemmelen and Maarten Verrips. We weren't as lucky as the first day, but this was also a very nice day. We could join two ringing sessions of two different nests. But this time much more people were present. A nice thing was that the proud farmer was also invited. The wader area was however less succesful. We weren't there with the right tide, which did matter! I did see about 75 Common seals and a couple of thousand Common Shelducks, which was also nice.

The farmer, who owned the land where this bird hatched.

Common Seals at the Dollard.

The Montagu's harriers might be under pressure again. This year, for the first time in 18 years, there were hardly any lands set-aside. The European Union stopped subsidizing this out of production taking, since there is a shortage of wheat and other agricultural food products on the world market. This year will therefore be a very important year for the harriers. How will they cope with this change of land use? Will they be able to get enough food? And will they be able to adapt? Please contact the foundation if you like to support them!

Balearic Shearwater - critically endangered

Sorry for my low output lately. I just couldn't make time to write and also lost a bit of interest in writing (June is always a bit of a quiet period for birds in the Netherlands). But things changed completely yesterday!

My friends (Luuk, Frank and Ben) called me to go birding in the province of Noord-Holland. Their main goal was to try to get a view of a Balearic shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus. Problem with Balearic Shearwaters is, it takes hours and hours of watching over an empty sea to get a short glimpse of this bird. The species is really hard to get in the Netherlands. Not really promissing, certainly not when the weatherforecasts were also not really nice. I had plans visiting some Musea and said no to them. After an hour, fear took over me. Ben was quite convincing, Lucky Luuk was part of the team and although early in season it was the right time of the year: Saturdaymorning 5.20 a.m. I stepped in Luuk's car to visit Camperduin (the best place to see this species in the Netherlands!). On the way, clouds became darker and darker and there was heavy rain. When we arrived at the spot, there was no way we would go and watch this empty sea for hours in the rain. We decided to change plans and visit a sad grounded Eurasion Griffon Vulture in Wieringen. (our luck with the Balearic Shearwater would change later that day, please read on!)

The Eurasian Griffon Vulture Gyps fulvus, was discovered two days before. Probably due to the bad weather the bird had stayed here. Vultures need thermal vents to fly without using too much energy. It was a sad sight, the bird didn't move at all and looked more like a beheaded stuffed bird than a large fearcefull scavenger. A bit boring, but it was at least something.

The wheather changed a bit and things looked more promising. We went to Den Oever, where a few White-winged terns had been seen lately. There were loads of beautiful Black terns (it's closest relative). They were foraging in flocks, have a look at Luuk's weblog to see a picture of the Black terns: http://vogelverslagen.web-log.nl/mijn_weblog/2008/07/vaal.html

We didn't see the White-winged terns, however.

We visited some more bird areas (Saw a nice juvenile Little owl and some breeding plumage Sanderlings) and then we decided to have another try at Camperduin. There's a hut (without a roof though...) built as migration point where we settled ourselves. Within half an hour we were succesful! Incredible, I discovered the bird at really close distance, only about 150m away. We had splendid views, better than this you probably won't see a Balearic Shearwaters in the Netherlands. We followed the bird until we lost it behind the dike. We just couldn't believe it and we were really happy with this sighting.

To read something about their identification: http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/gg/SWSW/id_guide.html (sroll down to the Balearic Shearwater identification article)

The hide:

The dike where the bird vanished (called Hondsbossche zeewering):

As I already said, Balearic Shearwaters are really hard to see in the Netherlands. The only place where you probably have a reasonable chance to see one is Camperduin. But only if you are willing to put time and effort into it. There's another thing, which makes it more complicated to see one: Balearic Shearwaters are rare on worldscale, and they become rarer and rarer everyday! The total population is probably about 2000 breeding pairs, they breed on the Baleares (Mallorca, Minorca, Ibiza, Formentera and Cabrera). Predation by feral cats and rats takes a large toll at the breeding grounds. After breeding the birds leave the Mediterranean Sea and forage in the Atlantic. Adult mortality is also unusually high, probably due to long line fishing. The birds live close to the shores, closer than other close relatives. They have learned to follow fishingships to profit from fish discards, but with long-line fishing this trait is not very profitable to the birds... Read this interesting article to get a better insight into the problems Balearic Shearwaters are facing: http://bycatch.env.duke.edu/species/balearic-shearwater

If things aren't changed the bird might go extinct within 40 years!

Although the birds become rarer, chances of seeing one in the Netherlands might paradoxically increase. The birds are actually cold water specialists. The cold waters are much more productive in food for the Balearic Shearwaters than the warm parts of the oceans. Since the temperature in the oceans is increasing due to Global Warming, the birds have to travel further north to get their food: http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2006/09/balearic_shearwater.html

See also:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/content/articles/2006/09/20/balearic_shearwater_feature.shtml

But things are probably more complicated than this and a lot of research is still needed:

http://rom.ex.ac.uk/documents/Bios/sb312/Votier%20et%20al.%202008%20Biology%20Letters.pdf

For more overall information and some pictures:
http://www.birdguides.com/species/species.asp?sp=011074

and:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balearic_Shearwater

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.

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)