Just returned from the Netherlands, where I was attending a contaminated sediments conference in Rotterdam. Had a few days off to go birding, and given the large area I was trying to cover in a short time, rented a car for the weekend.

Birding in the more highly developed parts of Europe is a somewhat disappointing experience. I was continually surprised at the "lack" of terrestrial birds in most of the Netherlands, even the city birds that are so ubiquitous here. Since 75% of the country is artificial land, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Only a few small pockets of natural or created habitat are present. All this makes me appreciate my own back yard all the more!! It's nice to see real forest, even if it is only second-growth.

The attitude that land is there to be manipulated was fully in evidence at the conference as well, although they have figured out that they can create some wetland/intertidal habitats with their dredged material. Land and soil are considered a raw material, useful for building and development, not something with habitat value. Huge saltwater estuaries are diked without a second thought to create large areas of land and freshwater lakes.

The big exception is the northern coastal areas, where shorebirds, waders, and ducks flock with abundance this time of year. Their migration seems somewhat earlier than ours, as already migrating south were flocks of geese and ducks, along with the shorebirds that are also migrating here. Below are some of the highlights.

First we went to a large national park in the center of the Netherlands, called Hoge Veluwe. This is a forest (of sorts) which was once the private hunting reserve of a very wealthy shipping baron, and his wife. His passion was hunting, hers was art. I highly recommend this place, though not for the birds. It's an interesting ecosystem (forest on sand dunes) and has a fascinating history. One of the best van Gogh and other art collections you'll ever see is here, out in the middle of nowhere. There is a sculpture *forest*, where you wander around in the trees and come upon random and strange sculptures. We searched in vain for birds in the forest, and came upon only a lone nuthatch and some tits. Other wildlife were nowhere in evidence. The word wildlife is kind of a misnomer to start with, there are very few wild animals in the Netherlands and most of those were imported for hunting or as curiousities. Rabbits and muskrats are everywhere, breeding out of control with no natural predators.

The rest of the workweek was spent in Rotterdam. I actually saw the most birds in a little park outside my hotel window, where there was a splashing fountain. These included woodpigeon, chiffchaff, blue tits, great tits, jays, and blackbirds (which seemed to fulfill approximately the same ecological function as robins do here, poking around on the lawn). Also three molting juvenile greenfinches In and around the canals were mallards, occasional grey herons (probably my favorite european bird), coots, moorhen, mute swans, rock doves, and house sparrows (though not nearly as many as we have here!!). Starlings and carrion crows were in evidence overhead.

Friday I went up the coast to a national park that was primarily dune habitat, the Zuid-Kennemerland National Park. Here you can hike around various successional stages of dune habitat, along with several lakes and forested areas. Very interesting from a habitat perspective and beautiful, but again strangely lacking in birds. This was odd because there were huge thickets of berry-producing bushes of every variety, large lakes, a variety of deciduous and coniferous stands of trees, and more underbrush than is usually found in the Netherlands. Here I thought there should be huge flocks of thrushes, waxwings, and other birds feasting on the berries but I didn't see a single bird eating the berries. In the stands of conifers I did find small flocks of tits, great spotted woodpeckers, and in the shrubs, stonechats. the only other birds were on the lakes, including great crested grebe, pochard, tufted duck, greater scaup, and coots. A hen harrier (northern harrier) was seen in the distance, and unidentifiable gulls flew overhead.

Determined to find some birds, I then scoured my bird-finding guide for sites that would have large flocks of geese, ducks, gulls, terns, and shorebirds in migration, and visited these areas on Sunday. This was a more successful strategy, though I wished many times that I had been able to bring my scope. The first area visited was on a recently reclaimed "polder" called Flevoland, NE of Amsterdam. Here they have left a large area called Oostvaardersplassen as wetland and open water, and this is great birding area. Seen along the dike were great crested grebe, great cormorant, common pochard, tufted duck, greater scaup, mew gull, great black-backed gull, black-headed gull, little gull, and black tern. In the large lakes were mute swans, greylag geese, shelduck, grey heron, great egret, eurasian spoonbill, coot, black tern, pied wagtail, and pied avocet, along with the ever-present tufted duck, pochard and scaup combination (these three are present in the hundreds of thousands over the winter). The great egret was causing a several carloads of birders to pull off the dike road - so I gather not that common a bird. Here I met my first birders, who generously shared their scope so I could get better views of the spoonbills, geese, and shelducks off in the distance. In spite of no ability to converse, the language of pictures was quite successful. There were many other ducks and probably grebes off in the distance on this very large lake, which were too far away to identify.

I then drove across the very long dike which divides the former Lake IJsselmeer in half, which is in turn protected from the North Sea by another long dike. This drive took about 20 minutes! Along the dike on the lee side were many mute swans, tufted ducks, pochard, and scaup. Sitting at the top of the dike on the windward side were many black-backed gulls. A surprising observation was, at approximately even intervals, harriers hovering over the lee side of the dike. I could only imagine what they were finding to eat way out there, but they certainly had their territories mapped. Here, as in many places in the Netherlands, it was impossible to pull off the road and get a better look at the harriers, to conclusively ID them.

Another very good area was the area northwest of Amsterdam. At the very top of this peninsula is an area with large mudflats and fields that is very good for shorebirds (and reminded me a lot of driving around the Skagit flats area). In the area around Den Oever and Vatrop I found eurasian oystercatcher, eurasian golden-plover, and northern lapwing in large flocks in the fields, along with black-headed gulls. A few eurasian curlew could also be seen with the golden-plovers. All of these birds were very beautiful and interesting-looking. The northern lapwings with sun on them were so colorful as to be almost unreal-looking, like something a child might color. And the golden-plovers were very golden (much more so than pacific golden-plovers), and the oystercatchers eyecatching black and white with red beaks and legs. Near Julianadorp, in flooded bulb fields, I found ringed plover, along with other birds already mentioned.

The last place I stopped was called "De Putten" meaning The Pits. It was a little nature reserve of potholes and mudflats only a couple of acres in size, surrounded by fields and livestock. Nevertheless, it had quite the assortment of ducks, geese, and shorebirds. In among a large flock of greylag geese, there was a bar-headed goose - very elegant and cool-looking bird. According to my guide, probably escaped, but I was thrilled anyway. Teal and wigeon were present, along with shelducks and coots. Also got my first sighting ever of a godwit. I could tell it was a godwit by the overall size and shape, but the light was failing, a squall was coming up, and I didn't have my scope. I was just about to