FW: The Low Countries

As the name tells us, the Netherlands are a low country, with some 40% even below sea level, and a lot of water everywhere. The water level in the many polders is traditionally regulated by the many windmills, of which there are still quite a lot left. The water is eutrophic, and in fact much effort is necessary to keep it from getting too much so; this has succeeded better in the last decades, and the water is clearly cleaner, even in the main river, the Rhine.

In Odijk, where I spend this March month in an incredible weather– sunny every day, and I still have not experienced any rain, unheard situation for Holland—, what we here call the Rhine is in reality the Kromme Rijn0, until the Middle Ages the main course of the Rhine, but now a quiet backwater. We walk along the Rhine every day, and enjoy the many many Coots–now often busy fighting for territories and partners. They are the dominant water birds here, but there are also Mallards, Moorhens, Great Crested Grebes (much increased in numbers since my youth), and occasional Cormorants, Grey Herons, Tufted Ducks, Egyptian Geese and Mute Swans. 

For some reasons we rarely see gulls on these walks, otherwise a very common part of the Green Heart of Holland –the low lying areas of mostly meadows. Another  very common–in my eyes almost too common– presence are the innumerous Greylag Geese, now usually in pairs. Now in early spring there are also still flocks of White-fronted and Barnacle Geese. The meadows are dotted with white spots, and earlier they could be confidently be identified, even far off, as Mute Swans, usually in pairs. But the last decades the Great White Egret has returned to the Netherlands with a vengeance, while the White Storks are fast recovering from a severe decline, making better view necessary.

(Also the  Little Egret has recolonized the Netherlands, but they are mostly concentrated in the brackisk water areas in the SW)

Ducks there are galore, and on a short visit to one of the many newly organized wetland areas we found lots of Wigeons, and also Teals and Shovelers, while there no doubt also were Gadwalls present. Here there was also a large flock of Bar-tailed Godwits, still on migration, and fortunately also a few of our National Bird, the Black-tailed Godwit, sadly in steadily declining numbers in later years. Many displaying Lapwings and Black-headed Gulls, a few Redshanks and Common Gulls, and of course Oystercatchers, here in Holland not exclusively coastal birds.

In one of the harbours in Rotterdam, where my brother lives, there are still Coots, Grebes and Mallards, and surprisingly many Egyptian Geese, but the many gulls here are mainly Herring,  Great and Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

We have not really been birding these weeks, largely occupied by visits to and from families and friends, so this is just a first fleeting view. The main impression, certainly for somebody from northern Norway, is the sheer numbers of birds; the streams, lakes and meadows are dotted with them! Sadly an increasing number of grasslands are so much ‘improved’, that they offer neither protection nor food to the traditional meadows birds, and they are shunned by all of them.

Wim Vader, Tromsø, Norway

(Just now Odijk, Netherlands)