Around 3 June 2001 Wiel Bonten discovered a bird with an unknown song in a large wood called Malbecker Höhe at the Dutch-German border near the Dutch village Belfeld, south of Venlo, Limburg. He consulted Jeu Reinders, a birdwatcher well familiair with the birds in the Malbecker Höhe, but he could not find out what it was. Next he warned Patrick Palmen, a fanatic twitcher and photographer living in near-by Horst. Together they took a close look in the morning of 4 June 2001 and soon they identified this bird as an Iberian Chiffchaff Phylloscopus
ibericus, the 11th record for The Netherlands (and the xth record for Germany). Most of the time the bird sang from a tree 100 meters from the border in Germany, but another songpost was just 10 meters from the border into The Netherlands! The last record in the Netherlands was in 1994. For several birders this was a welcome opportunity to get familiar with this phylloscopus.
The bird stayed till 24 June 2001. It was the 11th record for the Netherlands and the first for Limburg (cf Dutch Birding 24 (6): 342-343, 2002). Previous records were in 1967, 1971, 1981, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1992 and 1994 (cf van den Berg & Bosman's Rare Birds of the Netherlands, 1999, page 310).
