Pied-billed Grebe - Podilymbus podiceps
In the afternoon of Saturday April 19th 1997 Jan Wattel, retired head of the
Ornithological part of the Zoological Museum in Amsterdam and living near
the Alkmaardermeer was enjoying the early spring along the lake and suddenly saw a grebe which could well be a Pied-billed Grebe Podilymbus podiceps, but he wasn't quite sure. Later that afternoon he warned his former colleague C.S. (Kees) Roselaar (one of the authors of The Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle east and North Africa), who managed to get to the Alkmaardermeer near Akersloot (about 25 km north of
Amsterdam) where he saw this summer-plumaged Pied-billed Grebe, the first for the Netherlands! The news was released on the Dutch Rare Bird Alert
('Dutch Birding Vogellijn') and the next morning at 6.15 am it had been discovered again.
Lots of birders came to watch this American vagrant.
The bird stayed till Monday April 21st and was not seen again (cf Dutch Birding 19 (2): 83, 95-96, 1997).
21 April 1997, Dorrgeesterpolder, Uitgeest NH; © René Pop.
20 April 1997, Dorrgeesterpolder, Uitgeest NH; © Hans Gebuis.
This is the first record of Pied-billed Grebe for the Netherlands and the second new species for the Netherlands in 1997.
Do you want to go to the main-index, to the 1997-index or the next species, the Spanish Sparrow?