yorkslister

It's been a while since my last post, after getting back from Holland I've been flat out for the last week and a half, plus I've been getting my laptop updated (cheers Darren).

So anyway Holland.....

Last year I went to see Jim, it was mostly for a party and we did very little birding, we did however go to Texel (pronounced tessel, think of nipple) where we saw a Snedge Owl and sod all else but horizontal rain, it was without doubt the worst days birding I've ever had. So when Jim told me the weather forecast was for rain I was overjoyed, Gooses and more fecking rain......sweet.

I arrived at the ferry terminal to be greeted with gorgeous bright fog, and set about trying to find my way to Eindhoven without a map, where Jim was going to meet me to look for Crested Lark (his idea not mine). After only one wrong turn I got to the station which was bathed in blue skies and sun and met up with Jim who immediately pointed out a black guy who appeared to be feeding the ducks whilst facing a stone wall!!!

The Lark was seen within a minute or two and then we set of for Maastricht to look for Eagle Owl.

The Eagle Owls are in a disused corner of a massive quarry that's been allowed to scrub over and viewing isn't easy with only a few good vantage points, the first point we came across had well worn earth so we had a look, there were some blokes in the bottom making some noise so we didn't hold out much hope and Jim walked off in search of a better place to look from just as he did a maseeve Owl flew across the quarry, I couldn't see where it landed from my position but the racket the corvids made for the next 10 mins gave us a good idea, despite searching though we couldn't see it. We went to look at some Gooses and saw 3 Red breasted and lots of Barnacles and White fronts. We returned to the quarry later but there was no further sign despite staying til dark.