Cretzschmar's Bunting - Emberiza caesia

On 5 May 2013 around 11:30 hours Jeroen Breidenbach was looking for migrant birds at Lauwersoog in the hedges of the summer cottages at camping Robbenoort. He flushed a bunting which landed on a grassy playfield and identified the bird as an Ortolan Bunting Emberiza hortulana. He put the record one the site waarneming.nl with a photograph and warned some friends. Folkert-Jan Hoogstra was quickly present and could see the bird continuously, but he had the feeling this could be Cretzschmar's Bunting Emberiza caesia and put the record on the Dutch Bird Alerts at 13:03 hours.
Max Berlijn and Gerard Steinhaus were birding in the vicinity and arrived some 15 minutes later. Both familiar with this species, they identified it immediately as a Cretzschmar's Bunting, the fourth record for the Netherlands. Meanwhile, at home in Zevenhuizen ZH, Garry Bakker came to the same conclusion somewhat earlier, when he saw the photo on his laptop. Now c 300 birders who could spare some time rushed to Lauwersoog and all had close and prolongued views of this beautiful bird, while it was feeding in the gardens of the summer cottages till around 21:30 hours.