What a Spectacle

 On the 13th January 2025 a Spectacled Eieder was found by Elian Hijne, a female Dutch birder, off the island of Texel in the Wadden Sea, which is just north of Den Helder in northern Holland. This enigmatic sea duck which breeds in Alaska and north east Siberia, but winters on the pack ice in the Bering Sea, is a real rarity in the Western Palearctic.

Over the next week or so, birdwatchers from all over Europe were traveling to Texel to get a sighting of the Eider - including lots of birders from the UK.

My mate Dave Gray started putting a plan together around the 25th of Jan for a visit to Holland for what would probably be a once in a life time view of a bird I thought I'd never see. So with Dave doing all the logistics and getting another couple of friends to join us (Paul Powel and Andy Kyriacou), on the 29th Jan we were on the overnight ferry from Harwich to the Hook of Holland on the Stena Britannica. After an uneventful seven and half hour crossing we arrived in Holland aound 8.00am, it was then a couple of hours drive to Den Helder to get the ferry to Texel. Dave did really well navigating through rush hour traffic around Schiphol airport in time to get the 11.00am ferry across to Texel. After 20minutes we were on the island of Texel then 30 minutes later there it was - a sea duck I never thought I would ever see........ Spectacled Eider; it was  a fair way out - too far for images with the camera, but really good views through the scope, which the images below were taken using a hand held Iphone 13.

Spectacled Eider

Spectacled Eider

After a couple of hours spent with the Spectacled Eider and some Common Eider which it was associating with, we also picked out Black-necked Grebe and Red-breasted Merganser with a few Turnstone on the shore line and a flock of Dunlin. Paul had been told by one of the local birdwatchers that when the tide went out the Eiders came closer, which was going to be about one and a half hours away, so we went for a drive around the back roads of Texel to look at the Geese flocks.

As we drove around, there were really big flocks of Brent Goose, White Fronted Goose, Barnacle Goose and Greylag Goose and also the most  Egyptian geese I've ever seen in one place!

Driving back to where the Eider were, we picked up Marsh Harrier, Buzzard and Merlin, arriving back hoping the Eider flock was closer - but sadly, if anything they had moved further out.

 After a brilliant few hours on Texel seeing our target bird, it was time to head back to the Hook of Holland for our overnight ferry back to Blighty (UK). Our mate John Hague (Shrike Birding Tours) travelled the following day to see the bird, but stayed on Texel overnight and saw a lot more species than we did, so I don't think this will be our last time on Texel

As always thanks for stopping by