1998
The winter of 1998 was very mild, no spectacular winter species were seen and it was a great
surprise that the first new species for me this year was an out-of-season White-tailed Plover near
my birth-place Krommenie and Assendelft (where I went to kindergarten - kleuterschool - as it is called here).
Then a white morph Gyr Falcon was discovered on Schiermonnikoog, shortly after that a Black-shouldered
Kite was found on Texel, so who was saying that February and March are usually the most boring months?
Spring was quite normal with goodies like Green-winged Teal and Eurasian Scops Owl, but July and August were
the months for a lot of rare shorebirds like Stilt Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, Pacific Golden Plover,
two Sharp-tailed Sandpipers and another Semipalmated Sandpiper. Autumn was slow and ended without any new species.
Crowd at the Black-shouldered Kite, 29 March 1998, Texel NH; © Leo Heemskerk.
White-tailed Plover
Gyr Falcon (white morph)
Black-shouldered Kite
Green-winged Teal
Eurasian Scops Owl
Stilt Sandpiper
Do you like to go to the main index or to the next year 1999?