Birding

Finally, Summer is Over

October 10, 2026 by Peter No Comments

Surely the most horrible season: summer. Birds are moulting and quiet, pre-dawn rising is at 3:00 hrs and there are ticks and biting insects everywhere. And then add the minor issues of glaciers melting, trees dying and major rivers not having enough water to float a ship. Thankfully, in the northern hemisphere it seems to be over now.

While walking my dog, I realised Mother Nature had dumped a lot of European Robin and Great Tit on my local park. This could only mean one thing: migration had started in earnest and whatever I had planned for Friday morning was now much lower priority (who needs a coronary bypass when birds are around?). I needed to get to the coast and check out the Kapittelduinen before the wind would turn north and send all the birds to warmer climes.

Marvelous it was: less than 10 minutes out of the metro and I had already seen or heard Meadow Pipit, Hawfinch, Greenfinch, Chaffinch and Woodlark. Large swarms of Starlings flew over the dunes, followed by Eurasian Siskin (picture by Kai) and Common Linnet. A few Eurasian Goldfinch popped up in the shrubs and thus I had seen a full suite of finches within the hour.

I crossed the dunes onto the beach and checked out a group of gulls. Backlit by the lovely industrial landscape of the Europoort, I spotted Herring Gull and Lesser Black-backed Gull of various ages and some Black-headed Gull flying over.

Common Ringed Plover kept their distance, both from me and the gulls. I walked a few steps towards them to get a better picture but they immediately ran away. No surpise as we learned recently on this very website. You will have to settle for the header picture’s quality since I didn’t bring a competent photographer with me. A juvenile gull was checking out the recycling bin for edible morsels or PET bottles with unclaimed deposits.

Walking back into the dunes and towards the station, a Tree Pipit and a pair of Skylarks bid me farewell. What these birds lack in colour they do make up in manners. Such nice birds, and a fitting end to a well-spent Friday morning with a grand total of 33 species in 90 minutes.

 

Written by Peter
Peter Penning is a sustainability management consultant who spends many weeks abroad away from his homes in The Netherlands and Portugal. Although work distracts him regularly from the observation of birds, he has managed to see a great many species regardless. He firmly believes in the necessity of birders to contribute to conservation. He supports BirdLife in the Netherlands, South Africa and Portugal (SPEA – Sociedade Portuguesa para o Estudo das Aves). Peter sees himself as a great photographer - a vision cruelly conflicting with reality.