Early morning sunshine birding in Meijendel
Full screen gallery below
Meijendel is the largest contiguous dune area in South Holland. The beautiful nature reserve stretches between Scheveningen, The Hague and Wassenaar. The nature reserve consists of a predominantly open dune landscape, water features, forests and miles of sandy beach. (see more here).
A very diverse place with a change to see a variety of birds. Going early mornings is always preferable of course, but with spring really in high gear and summer around the corner I was also enthusiastic to catch some epic sunlight in the birding photos.
Arriving at 6:00h-ish it was obviously very quiet still, which is exactly what you want. The only thing was that it was really cold that night so the hike started with a temperature around 5C. Brrr. The forest area where you start (or park the car) was full of sounds of calling birds. However spotting them was really difficult and this would be the trend for this morning.
So after the forest the dune area waited. This area was also pretty much one loud orchestra of birds, especially whitethroats, nightingales and chiffchaffs signing out load. However only the whitethroats were showing themselves.
I can continue writing, but that was it basically. It was a great morning, but not for birding or I was just very unlucky. Still good to be outdoors and hiking through what is a very beautiful area.
Let me know what you think and don’t hesitate to leave a comment or an e-mail. Click to view larger in a light box and navigate with mouse or arrow keys. Enjoy!
