Just moved to the port town Den Helder, in the northwest part of the Netherlands and decided to keep a list of the birds I see on my regular walks around town, to work and on the coast.
Den Helder has a variety of habitats; urban, parks, massive dike, open sea, tidal flats, grassy wetlands, dunes, a wet dune valley and a small pine forest. Should make some interesting sightings!
So here's the list, I'll update it every now and then:
1 Little Grebe
2 Great Crested Grebe
3 Northern Fulmar (dead specimen, found on the beach)
4 Northern Gannet
5 Great Cormorant
6 Shag
7 Grey Heron
8 Mute Swan
9 Greylag Goose
10 Greater White-fronted Goose
11 Brent Goose (Dark-bellied)
12 Common Shelduck
13 Wigeon
14 Mallard
15 Gadwall
16 Northern Shoveler
17 Common Teal
18 Pochard
19 Tufted Duck
20 Eider
21 Common Goldeneye
22 Eurasian Buzzard
23 Kestrel
24 Peregrine Falcon
25 Marsh Harrier
26 Hen Harrier
27 Grey Partridge
28 Common Moorhen
29 Common Coot
30 Northern Lapwing
31 Eurasian Woodcock
32 Common Redshank
33 Ruddy Turnstone
34 Red Knot
35 Sanderling
36 Dunlin
37 Curlew
38 Parasitic Skua
39 Common Gull
40 Greater Black-backed Gull
41 Lesser Black-backed Gull
42 Herring Gull
43 Black-headed Gull
44 Sandwich Tern
45 Common Tern
46 Feral Pigeon
47 Wood-Pigeon
48 Collared Dove
49 Great Spotted Woodpecker
50 Pied Wagtail
51 Meadow Pipit
52 Goldcrest
53 Winter Wren
54 Blackbird
55 Fieldfare
56 Redwing
57 Song Thrush
58 Robin
59 Long-tailed Tit
60 Great Tit
61 Blue Tit
62 Eurasian Jay
63 Magpie
64 Jackdaw
65 Carrion Crow
66 Starling
67 Snow Bunting
68 Chaffinch
69 Greenfinch
70 European Goldfinch
71 House Sparrow
Last update: 4 April 2006
Cheers,
J.
Hi Joost
I live not too far from you in Alkmaar, so i'll be following your reports with interest. Do you do most of your birding around Den Helder itself, or do you wander further south, like to Zwanenwater and De Putten ?
Dave
Hallo Joost,
(sorry for posting in Dutch first - to respect the guidelines, a translation follows)
"Birds for which birders (like me) travel to Den Helder"
Op het dak van 'n sekshop in de Zuidstraat moet de Grote Burgemeester nog steeds zitten (die zit daar al jaren 's winters). Anders gewoon even de meeuwen voeren... Langs het fietspad door de polder ten noorden van Huisduinen loopt vaak de Zwarte Ibis rond in sloten. Zoek anders de zeetrektellers bij de vuurtoren van Huisduinen 's op, maar toon wel echte interesse, want ze negeren toeristen (als je er een tijdje zit, begrijp je waarom...)!
--- A Glaucous Gull is nearly always present on the roof of a sexshop in the Zuidstraat (yup, it's Holland!). Otherwise, just feed the gulls.... North of Huisduinen, the Glossy Ibis is a regular sight in the ditches along the bicycle path. If you fail, try to contact the seawatchers always present at the Huisduinen lighthouse... show them you're really interested, because they ignore "tourists" (you'll understand why if you spend some time there...)!