Birding extravaganza, a multi day birding break on Texel
Full screen gallery below
To be honest I never really took notice of Texel for birding until I heard several podcasts and checked sightings on Texel and it seems (duh) that it's absolute heaven for migrating birds from and towards Scandinavia. So That needed to be checked out and boy I was in for a treat. I have never seen/spotted (the difference I will explain later) so maybe birds. Still it was quite a challenge to get proper photos as some birds were really far away.
So Texel is the largest island of the Wadden Islands (Frisian island). Did you know that the island without a doubt offers the most variety of all? Especially if you like hiking, bird watching and just enjoying nature in general? Then you're in the right place, because the Dunes of Texel National Park covers more than a quarter of the island. And there are also many nature reserves in the middle of Texel and along the Wadden Sea. Everywhere on the island you will find remnants of the turbulent history of Texel. Go on an adventure! Really! More info here.
About this trip
For me this trip was one I took with my girlfriend for 2.5 days and did that within a group and a guide. The latter was necessary to get to the places at the right time, the places we knew, but local knowledge trumps internet and sightings always! So I encourage you to get a guide when you go somewhere for multiple days. Here I noticed one thing that stood out, realising it at the end that I already knew this but never really sank in.
There is a big difference between a photographer and bird enthousiast and a bird spotter. For me birds are quite fascinating, but the shot is even more important. So seeing, observing and then thinking of a composition and taking the shot is what I do and like obviously. Birders or spotters are all about finding (sorry if I offend anyone) birds, orbserving and then quickly moving on to the next one to get as many as possible - again my interpretation. For me the time in nature, quality of photos and observing the animals or birds is priority. The total amount not so much. So sometimes in these 2.5 days meant that the group moved on and I was still finding my photo so to say. It is what it is. In the end the group saw a staggering 115 species of birds in 2.5 days. I don’t come near to that on my own, let alone photographing the lot.
All that said it was an absolute blast and cool experience, also with a fellow photographer that was 83 and still running around like he never seen anything like it before. How cool is that, big thumbs up for Bob! I really like his mindset and his way of going about photography and just enjoying life! Also our guide, very energetic guide and one that wanted to show us as much as possible, helped in getting to these ridiculous numbers. However he and the group were really enjoying seagulls and geese … for me, we could have spend less time on these species. Ow well, I am not alone in this group so, it is what it is.
I could breakdown this blog into the almost 3 days on the island, but for me that is not what was important. The thing is that we were taken to so many areas but two really stood out and we had an additional nice area direct at the North/North-East of where we were staying. The Eierlandse Duinen is where I saw a couple of beautiful birds, but I had one favourite that stood out - spoiler - I did capture it but not the best photo ever, so a bit of a bummer. My new favourite is the Northern wheatear - Tapuit. What a beautiful small birds.
Muy
Between De Koog and De Slufter lies nature reserve De Muy. The area consists of dunes, an elongated plain, meadows and a small forest called the Warship. The southernmost part (from the parking area at beach post 21) is called De Nederlanden, and here there is a beautiful sheep pen.
This area really surprised me as it was more of a marsh land than dune/sand area. That means that there are many waterbirds here, but also quite a few songbirds as there are plenty of insects to be found here. Even butterflies and even horses in that area. Even before arriving I encountered a new bird for me and a pretty one, a Woodsandpiper - Bosruiter, accompanied by a Redshank - Tureluur, searching for food in the wetlands.
So this was a great start of this area. The route was really cool! This one is different but take a look here. Walking along some of the wetlands and arriving at the bigger areas with water you started to see waterbirds, hunting herons - Blue Herons - Blauwe reiger plus Great White Egret - Grote zilverreiger and curious Black tailed godwits - Grutto’s. Especially these three were fun to observe and photograph. The Black tailed godwit was really posing at one moment.
In this same area I also encounters beautiful insects, butterflies and even horses that were roaming free in the area. So I am going the repeat myself, but man this was a very interesting area. Here we also took lunch a day later, which needs a mention, because this was the best prepared lunch (take away) ever. All vegan, not that it matters, but boy was it delicious. Our guide had arrange something different than the standard lunch you get in The Netherlands, which is pretty boring. This lunch was prepared by Rebecca a place worth to lunch, dine or stay over. See more here.
What made this lunch more special is that a herd of horses came by. Could not resist taking that picture of the lonely horse in the wide open space. Plus after lunch beautiful butterflies as well. Again a real nice area to visit!
Eierlandse duinen / de tuintjes
De Eierlandse duinen in the northern area in Texel is centuries old. It’s a lot older than the Muy and Slufter. Uphill the 16th century this was still sea. Due to this phenomenon and the people of Texel connecting Texel with the Eierlandse duinen this area became a decalcified fixed dune landscape. Together with dry and wetlands, grass areas and hedges birds absolutely love this. So there are many species to be found here. See more here
I visited this area late a the afternoon and the next day in the morning. This area like I said was full of birds, especially with Northern wheatears - Tapuiten and with Meadow pipits - Graspiepers. But also Whinchats - Paapjes and a lot of Common Linnets - Kneus. To add there were a lot of rabbits and even some Common shelducks - Bergeenden, I guess hiding or resting as usually they are more to be seen at the small lakes/water areas in the grasslands.
One thing or two that stood out is that I found my new favourite birds, the Northern wheatear - Tapuit, what a nice little birds that makes use of rabbit holes to build its nests. The second thing was the many rabbits there, but more so this family of rabbit a mother and three youngsters! What a nice sight.
Utopia / Nothern Texel
The last part that I wanted to highlight is Utopia and the overall Nothern part of Texel, the sea shores. Utopia is a beautiful area that attracts many birds, such as Spoonbills - Lepelaars, Redshanks - Tureluurs, Pied avocets - Kluten and more. From the dike the birds are easy to spot, birds are coming from De Schorren at Texel inland and from the sea just on the other side of the dike.
The water features and little islands are not only beautiful to see, but also offer fallbacks to birds such as Waders. The best part here is that you are relatively close to the birds and that there were also a lot of youngsters here, that were playful or challenging their parents or both. See more here.
The overall north of Texel and sea shore is really beautiful especially during the early mornings and evenings. I shot a nice photos, especially in the morning where a flock of Bar-tailed godwits - Rosse Grutto’s, landed in the first morning light. Together with a few in the evening. The blue and yellow purple tones really get to me - still its quite difficult to capture and edit a well balanced blue hour shot of animals I think.
All in all
To summarise this trip was an awesome one. Could it be better, off course, would I liked to be closer to the birds, sure! However this experience together with Klaas (more here) as a guide and seeing beautiful Texel and a whole lot of birds, this trip was a succes. I shots some really cool photos, missed a few really good oppertunities, but really loved to wander around the dune and sea shore areas on Texel. I will definately good back - maybe even this fall already, however May is the best time I heard.
A longer blog this time around, should do more of these, but they take a lot of time. Still will do my best to do more longer blogs. So 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!
