Little Whimbrel - Numenius minutus

On Monday 23 December 2019, Sytze Algera was counting Curlews Numenius arquata around Barsingerhorn, east of Schagen NH. Around noon between the Curlews he found a smaller curlew, so he asked Fred Visscher for advice. Fred showed him a picture of an Upland Sandpiper Bartramia longicauda first, but Sytze rejected the suggestion. Next Fred sent him a picture of a Little Whimbrel Numenius minutus and Sytze immediately replied with a firm "that's the bird!". Fred warned his contacts and at 13:23 a spoken message in my WhatsApp group made everyone panicking. As fast as we could we drove to Schagen and at 14:30 we arrived and started searching. Our group, Nick van der Ham, Sander Lagerveld and me decided to look for groups of Curlews west of the orginal spot, but soon we found out there were none. A phone call from Anton Duijnhouwer at 15:05 came in with the message that he had seen a smaller shorebird between the Curlews at Poolland. We turned the car 180 degrees and several minutes later we could see the bird through the telescope, though with head-on light. After 20 minutes we decided to drive to a small parallel road 800 meters south. From there we could see the bird till dusk and we were able to see all diagnostic features.
It stayed in the general area till 18 January 2020 and proved to be elusive from time to time. A Little Bustard Tetrao tetrix caused some excitement on 24 and 25 Deecmber at the same location.