Pictures: Teus Luijendijk

6 April 2005, Fochteloërveen Dr

6 April 2005, Fochteloërveen Dr

The reserve of Fochteloërveen is not only good for Cranes Grus grus and Short-toed Eagles Circaetus gallicus, but also provided food and shelter for this Desert Wheatear, a major rarity in The Netherlands: it has only been recorded 8 times before, mainly in late autumn. Especially the month of November seems to be good to find this bird in W Europe.
This record constituted the second spring record for our country. The first one, a female, was discovered by a biking birder near Oud-Alblas ZH on 24 April 1989.