Going Dutch

In late autumn 2013 there was a bit of an influx of Hawk Owls further south into Europe than usual (though sadly none made the sea crossing to Britain). In particular, one took up temporary residence in the city of Zwolle in the Netherlands. It seemed an ideal opportunity to see a much-wanted bird on a relatively cheap day trip. So, early on Monday 2 December I flew from Gatwick to Schiphol, picked up the hire car, and drove the hour and a half or so east to Zwolle.

The site, though easy to find, seemed pretty unlikely for a forest owl, and was hardly picturesque – a line of trees along a service road sandwiched between an industrial estate and the Marsweg, one of the main routes south out of the city. But I knew l was in the right place, as there was a healthy enough crowd of Dutch birders (for a Monday morning, and a bird which had been present for a few days) looking up into the trees, big lenses trained on one spot.


And there it was! A stunning, magnificent Northern Hawk Owl, sitting there looking down at me! Wow! I would be lying if I said that the setting didn’t detract just a little bit from the moment (seeing a pair in the more traditional setting of a Finnish forest was at that point in the unforeseen future), but it was fabulous views of a dream bird. And the location also provided a comedy moment – a security guard from one of the industrial units came out to have a chat with the crowd and the owl, swooping from tree to tree, nearly took his head off.

It appears I had got lucky – the previous day it had been over the road in the nearby park, and much trickier to pin down. But today the owl was moving up and down the same line of trees, and showing well nearly all the time, so I spent another hour or so watching it and chatting to some of the Dutch birders.

At last, however, I had had my fill, and besides, I had another target in mind. There was a Two-barred Greenish Warbler at a small nature reserve (Kamperhoek) by the Ijsselmeer, only about 40 minutes away. Having missed a couple of British ones, it would also be a world tick.

I knew where the site was, sure, but little about access or where to look for the bird once there, so it was a bit of a wing and a prayer job. But, as back home, if you want to find the bird, find the birders. I saw a few cars parked in a layby alongside the reserve, and noticed a birder walking back towards them, so stopped and piled out. In the end it was a fairly short though muddy walk to where the small crowd was gathered, and I settled down to wait with them.

After an hour and more of no joy, my mind was turning to when I had to leave for my flight back, when suddenly there was a shout. My Dutch is non-existent, but the excitement was unmistakable – the Two-barred Warbler was showing! It was being a typical phyllosc, flitting rapidly among the trees on the other side of a small dyke, so getting on it was tricky. But the Dutch birders were again very friendly and helpful (and most spoke good English), so I managed to follow their directions and get a few good if brief looks at it. It sat still for a minute or two and a couple of guys got scopes on it, so we all had scope views, albeit partially obscured. Not great views, but good enough.Then, suddenly, it vanished, and that was it for the afternoon.

(There's a brief YouTube clip of it, from another day, which gives a fair idea of what it was like: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=27&v=zIALJgG67is&feature=emb_title)

By now time was running on, so I headed back towards Amsterdam, checking fields on the polders for geese etc. without much success. Still, I reflected as I jumped on my return flight, it had been a cracking day.