Birding

Let’s Have a Chat!

September 26, 2026 by Peter No Comments

The sun was shining and although rather late in the morning I decided for some carpe diem, jumped on my bike and rode to Polder Schieveen. This was going to be birdwatching, not birding. No specific targets, just going out and see whatever would be out there. Greylag Geese, Egyptian Geese and Canada Geese were to be expected, as were the ubiquitous Grey Heron, Great White Egrets and Northern Lapwing. Migration has started in earnest now. Large flocks of Western House Martins were fattening up on the flies around the sheep farm. My guess is that all it takes is a good northerly wind for them to leave. The Eurasian Curlews have arrived to take the place of the small birds flying south.

Time for a chat. Or maybe even two or three. Chats are a confusing and rather large bird family, not just a chinwag. Chats are now classified as members of the Old World flycatcher family, but I am becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the expansion of that taxonomic group. It reminds me of the tendency to blame all environmental mishaps on climate change and if everything is climate change, than nothing really is. If everything is a flycatcher, well… My first chat of the day woke me from these useless philosophies. The bird was sitting in a very remote sapling and I managed to take some awful pictures which I was going to need to identify this bird. Short wings, brown rump, chest orange, reaching upper belly and flanks and a white mark on the wing. After much deliberation I labelled it European Stonechat.

The next chat was easy peazy lemon squeezy: Northern Wheatears. One of my absolute favourite birds. They’re not doing too well in the Netherlands, but conservation measures are being put in place to restore their habitat. Slight overgrazing by rabbits is key, but rabbits aren’t living up to their reputation these days. Fewer rabbits mean fewer Northern Wheatears. Less than 300 breeding pairs remain but fortunately tens of thousands still come through on passage.

And then, on a fence I saw another chat. It behaved very differently, sallying, returning to its post – like a flycatcher… What if? Could this have been a day with three different species? However, the thought of a Whinchat was dismissed almost immediately, as was Pied Flycatcher: this was of course a Northern Wheatear too. Albeit a weird one, or a taxonomist.

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.