Deadlines

Much of my life is dedicated to my family. From the point of view of seeing birds that is annoying. Family is not as bad as work, but still quite time-consuming. The end of the year is always chock-a-block with festivities and this year January started with an epic amount of snow, followed by miserable drizzle, fog and rain. Not a lot of birding. Still, there’s a deadline to meet. 

Fortunately, Mother Nature has provided. Some foul-smelling hippies would say she always does, but I am realistic enough to consider my recent three sightings both lucky and exceptional. Some of you will now be dreaming of exceptional birds. No, I’m talking about exceptional sightings. Starting with a couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers on a single branch, a mere metre away from me and my dog. The couple were so close and so friendly that we spent several minutes observing them.

Only a few days later, I encountered a Goldcrest. I recently discovered I can no longer hear them. While I watched a flock moving through the rhododendrons in my local park, Merlin lit up telling me they were Goldcrests. “I know that, I can see them”, had been my curt reply to the artificial intelligence, before the realisation sank in that I was watching a silent movie. Bummer. However, news has spread to all Dutch Goldcrests to greet me out in the open to compensate for my shortcoming. And so, this latest one sat on top of a bush looking at me like only a Goldcrest can, slightly quizzical and obviously amused.

On the first day of the new year, I walked through a hidden garden near my home (Historische Tuin Schoonoord for vowel aficionados). The Netherlands have had a long tradition of people shooting off fireworks to celebrate the New Year. In 2025 the otherwise frugal Dutchmen burnt through 129 million Euros in an hour. A last hurrah since private fireworks will be banned from next year onwards. You will think I am making up the next bit, but I am not. While walking through the garden I wondered: “A Firecrest is like fireworks”. I do think weird things regularly, but these thoughts do not materialise. However, this time a Firecrest popped into view. I violated the Eighth Commandment out of sheer joy (for which I apologise). Still, pretty @#$%@# awesome!!

Credits for the photography: Great Spotted Woodpeckers caroline legg, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Goldcrest Alexis Lours, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; and Firecrest Alexis Lours, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.