Birds from all over the world are migrating through the Netherlands. What is there to see?
Thousands of birds are migrating from Africa through the Netherlands over the next few weeks. Bird watchers with telescopes and binoculars are on the road everywhere in nature reserves. What drives the bird watcher? “As a birdwatcher, you feel you are in the center of the world right now.”
“Do you hear that?” It’s a Friday afternoon in mid-April, and Wouter Vansteelant, a migratory bird ecologist and guest researcher at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), is standing on the Griene Dyk in Friesland. This green dike near Sneekermeer Lake is surrounded by marshy grassland and willow thickets that wind like a green ribbon through an otherwise flat landscape. It is a vital foraging and resting place for song, meadow, and water birds. “That descending, swirling sound is the fitis, an African warbler that comes to the Netherlands in early April. In just one night, tens of thousands of fitises fly into the Netherlands.”
The green dike, which to the layman looks like an “ordinary” piece of nature, is full of stories to Vansteelant’s practiced eye and ear. Since January, Vansteelant has already seen 132 different bird species there. “The birds are ecstatic. It’s spring, they are passing through or settling down and want to defend their spot or secure a mate.”
Peak time
Mid-April is the peak time for bird migration in the Netherlands. Vansteelant says: “As a birdwatcher, you feel like you are in the center of the world right now. The Netherlands is a major transit point between Africa and Siberia. Almost the entire world of birds migrates through here.”
In this period, the last typical winter visitors such as the barnacle goose and white-fronted goose are still in the Netherlands. In the coming weeks, they will fly to Siberia to lay their eggs just before the snow melts there. Many species that spend the winter in Southern Europe such as the skylark and the stork already returned in February. Since the end of March, more and more African birds have been entering the Netherlands, including many songbirds such as fitis, reed warblers, and the barn swallow, while species such as the marsh harrier and the black-tailed godwit have already started nesting again. Vansteelant comments: “For the past 10 days it has been buzzing. Every day I see a new species of bird that has just returned from Africa. Yesterday I heard the first blackbird and nightingale. Every year it’s a celebration.”
So on the Griene Dyk in Friesland, almost every hiker walks with binoculars in hand. Vansteelant likes to go there, not for his research, but for relaxation. “I often just sit somewhere for half an hour in front of a bush, listening to the songbirds. You’re so in the moment that you’re not concerned with anything else. It gives you enormous peace and relaxation.”
1. Leave the traveling to the birds. The coast and the Wadden Islands are famous places to see rare birds, but actually all of the Netherlands is a particularly suitable birding country, Vansteelant says. “Even if you live in the heart of Amsterdam, you can experience migration and the seasons in the Vondel or Sarphatipark.”
2. Go into a field. For half an hour, sit on a bench in front of a bush and listen to the birds you hear. When a bird shows itself at some point you will automatically link the sound to the bird’s identity.
3. Start at the beginning. Recognizing rare birds is something for later. Try to recognize “common” birds first. What does the bird look like and what does its call sound like? There are also apps that can help with this.
4. When? From the end of February until the end of June, birds migrate through the Netherlands. On waarneming.nl you can see what bird species are arriving in the Netherlands this week.
Climate change
The increasingly earlier onset of spring is also causing migratory birds to arrive earlier in the Netherlands. Vansteelant says: “Migratory birds have to ensure that their young hatch when food availability peaks. Over the last two weeks, all shrubs and trees have been sprouting leaves, which means insect life is also picking up. This is happening earlier and earlier so species like the barn swallow now come to the Netherlands as much as a month earlier than they did a few decades ago.”
Due to the increasingly mild winters in the Netherlands, more and more southern bird species are also settling in our area. Like the cetti’s warbler, a songbird that until a decade ago was mainly found in Spanish and French marshlands. Vansteelant heard six of them in just one day along the Griene Dyk.
Spoonbill
The ongoing drought in Spain is driving more Southern European waterfowl to the Netherlands, such as the stilted grebe and black ibis. “Just last weekend, two black ibises were seen at the Griene Dyk, probably arriving with a group of spoonbills.” The spoonbill is another species that has become increasingly common in the Netherlands since the 1990s, breeding mainly on the Wadden Islands. Vansteelant remarks: “The return of the spoonbill is often claimed as a success of nature conservation, but the spoonbill really did it itself. They like to breed on the ground, and since they found a safe nesting place on the fox-free Wadden Islands, things moved quickly.”
Although the ibises have already left, spoonbills can still be found on the Griene Dyk. Vansteelant knows exactly where they are. Through his telescope, he sees how the spoonbill moves its broad beak sideways through the water, looking for something edible. “The spoonbill is at its best now, with an impressive crest and yellow on the breast and shoulders, its courtship plumage for mating season.” Right when he goes to take a picture, the spoonbill flies off, on to Schiermonnikoog or some other part of the marshland. “That’s how it goes. There is no other purpose to it; bird watching is just experiencing and witnessing. It’s a mindful activity.”
