Olivaceous Warbler - Iduna pallida elaeica

On Tuesday 19 October 2021 Roel Olieman saw a bird in the garden of his vacation home at the Roompot Beach Resort Nieuwvliet-Bad Zld (the very most southwestern part of the Netherlands). He took some photographs and uploaded these with his observation on the waarneming.nl site as a possible Booted Warbler Iduna caligata. Only the next day Maarten Wielstra (the expert on Yellow Wagtail calls) noted this observation and reported it on the Dutch Birding site at 16:05.
The next morning (Thursday 21 October 2021), only two birders were present at the site, Diederik Kok and Enno Ebels. They were invited to look for the bird in the garden of Roel's house and almost immediately at c 10:00 the bird made an appearance. Diederik took several good pictures and it was immediately clear to Diederik and Enno it was an Olivaceous Warbler Iduna pallida, the first record ever for the Netherlands! They made their observation known to the public with the DB Alert system and waited for the first birders to arrive. The bird was quite elusive and was gone for several hours.
I made the trip again with fellow birder Nick van der Ham. As I was at the office in Amsterdam-Zuidoost NH, I had to make my way with public transport to Hoofddorp NH, where Nick picked me up at 11:25. We arrived at 14:10, but the bird was seen for the last time at 12:30 hours. We look in the gardens of the house of the holiday resort, but the hard blowing wind did make looking for a songbird very difficult. At 16:15 I noticed a small bird and heard it calling. Some birders were at the old spot and found the bird again. Till dark the bird was observed with irregular intervals in the garden of Roel's vacation house. I was able to have better views as late as 17:20 and just before we left at 17:35.
The next days this pattern repeated itself and considering the amount of photographs uploaded at the waarneming.nl and Dutch Birding sites, it was quite elusive and difficult to photograph. On Sunday 23 October, the weather improved and a larger amount of photographs became available.


21 October 2021, Roompot Beach Resort Nieuwvliet-Bad, Sluis Zld; © Arnoud B van den Berg. The whitish tips on the secondaries have been worn off. Note the absence of whitish tail tips.

21 October 2021, Roompot Beach Resort Nieuwvliet-Bad, Sluis Zld; © Toy Janssen. Note light wing panel, dark alula, light lores, curved culmen and tail pumping down (see photo below).

21 October 2021, Roompot Beach Resort Nieuwvliet-Bad, Sluis Zld; © Toy Janssen.

22 October 2021, Roompot Beach Resort Nieuwvliet-Bad, Sluis Zld; © Wim van Zwieten. Typically hiding in the bushes.

20 November 2021, Roompot Beach Resort Nieuwvliet-Bad, Sluis Zld; © Daniel Boer.

The bird was present till 20 december 2021. It was accepted as the first record for the Netherlands.

Go to the main-index, the 2021-index or the next new species, the Western Swamphen?