November 30-December 9, 2025 with Godfried Schreur & Jay VanderGaast
Back in 2019, I had the pleasure of co-leading the inaugural Field Guides Netherlands tour with Godfried. It was a really solid, fun, initial tour to the country, and I was looking forward to doing it again as soon as possible. Little did I know that it would take 6 years before I would be able to get back, but I've got to say, it was certainly worth the wait! Godfried has been tweaking the tour since our initial run, and the 2025 tour was different in many ways than our first run, including almost entirely different hotels (with one exception) and a completely reworked itinerary. And while that first tour was already excellent, the updated version was even better!
A winter birding tour here is a pretty relaxing experience. Being so far north, the days are quite short-- no early mornings or late evenings necessary-- so even a full day of birding isn't all that taxing. And, despite being so far north, the gulf stream makes the Dutch winter pretty mild. I recognize that 'mild winter' won't mean the same to everyone, but for those, like me, accustomed to a Canadian winter or northern US winter, it's a fitting description of the winter in Holland. And this is a large part of why Holland is such a great winter birding destination--the open water and lush green fields are a magnet for huge numbers of overwintering waterfowl and shorebirds, and the spectacles of thousands of geese, or lapwings, or curlews, etc make this an exciting winter birding destination!
Our tour started off pretty gently. After meeting up with everyone at the airport, we drove the short drive down to the Hague, where we made a quick photo stop at the Peace Palace before carrying on to the Haagse Bos (Hague Forest) for an introductory bird walk. It was a nice way to ease into the birding, with great looks at a number of common birds with which we would become well-acquainted by tour's end. A large number of dapper Tufted Ducks were the highlight amongst the waterfowl, while lumbering Common Wood-Pigeons perched overhead, Great-crested Grebes steamed along (and a pair briefly did a little courtship behavior), and a little mixed flock of Passerines introduced us to a trio of charming tits--Great, Eurasian Blue, and Long-tailed-- plus Short-toed Treecreeper and both Goldcrest and Common Firecrest. We then continued on to a delicious lunch at the Brasserie Mauritshuis followed by a guided visit in the Mauritshuis Museum, arguably the best of the art museums in the Netherlands. After coming face to face with Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring", Rembrandt's "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp" and Fabritius's "The Goldfinch" among many other wonderful works of art, we said goodbye to this charming museum and continued southwest to the town of Rockanje, where we checked into the Badhotel, which is significantly better than one might surmise from the name!
The next day was spent exploring the various wetland areas and coastal regions of the southwest. Our first stop at de Kwade Hoek gave us our first experience with the often massive numbers of birds here, as the site held several thousand Eurasian Oystercatchers in addition to smaller numbers of other shorebirds like Pied Avocet, Common Redshank, and Bar-tailed Godwit, as well as a flock of Eurasian Spoonbills. Our only Black Redstart for the tour and a couple each of Rock and Meadow pipits were other nice finds here. Moving on down to Brouwersdam, we found a flock of 30+ Purple Sandpipers loafing on the rocks, as well as a few Red Knots and a small flock of Sandwich Terns, while the dunes area held a little group of Snow Buntings. After lunch spent watching Common Eiders and Red-breasted Mergansers flying past from our coastal restaurant, we turned inland to bird a large manmade wetland known as Plan Tureluur Nature Reserve. This productive area held loads of waterfowl, including several hundred lovely Eurasian Wigeons and our first Common Shelducks, but the most impressive aspect was the number of shorebirds. Our estimates for the site included 4000 each of Northern Lapwing and European Golden-Plover, and 500 each of Eurasian Curlew and Black-bellied Plover, with smaller numbers of many other species, including some Spotted Redshanks. Several Ring-necked Pheasants, Eurasian Kestrel, Merlin, and European Stonechat were among the other good birds seen here, while a handful of lanky European Brown Hares did their best to go unnoticed in the meadows.
Working our way eastward the next day, we made our first stop at the large wetland area known as the Ventjagersplaten. Large numbers of waterfowl kept us busy for a while, and we managed to pick out our first Greater White-fronted Geese from among the throngs of other geese and ducks. Another highlight here was seeing several huge White-tailed Eagles. The first modern breeding record in the country in several centuries was as recently as 2006, the birds having recolonized the Netherlands naturally from large populations in Germany. Since then, the population has risen to roughly 30 breeding pairs! While enjoying the eagles, we also took note of the feral Konik Horses that have thrived here since being introduced. Our next stop was more a comfort/coffee stop at a nearby golf course, though a cooperative Eurasian Green Woodpecker was a fortuitous find as we were about to leave! Our final birding stop of the morning was at the polders of Strijen, perhaps the most reliable place in the country to find the scare Lesser White-fronted Goose. There was a worrying dearth of geese in the fields, which Godfried claimed was unusual, but in the end it didn't matter as we soon found a small group of our target geese foraging in the back of one of the pastures. The presence of some Greater White-fronts allowed us a nice comparison of these two similar species. A flock of about 20 Eurasian Skylarks, our only ones for the tour, were a nice bonus here. We finished the day with a cultural stop at the scenic Kinderdijk, a UNESCO World Heritage Site renowned for its numerous 18th century windmills. It was a truly enjoyable visit to this scenic spot, and of course, we were on the lookout for birds, as always, picking up our lone Western Marsh Harrier for the tour as well as a very cooperative Eurasian Wren.
The next morning started off with a real treat, as we joined local guide, Fokko, for a visit to a long-used day roost for Long-eared Owls. The sidewalk below the roost tree was littered with pellets, a sure sign that there were owls hidden above, and a careful search turned up views of 5 birds. But, with the help of Godfried's thermal scope, we found that that was just the tip of the iceberg, as the heat signatures from at least 18-20 owls was present in that tree, with a few more in a tree across the street! From here we moved on to a nearby park, where a lovely Tawny Owl sat in the opening of a hollow tree peering out sleepily. Once satisfied with our views, we headed back to the bus, but were stopped in our tracks when a Hawfinch flew in and landed on the spire of a nearby conifer, where it paused just long enough for us all to see before winging off again. Always a great find, and our only one for the tour! We finished our morning birding at the lovely Hoge Veluwe National Park, where, despite rather low bird activity, we still came away with some new species in the shape of Mistle Thrush, Marsh and Crested tits (the latter quite elusive) and finally, a very cooperative Middle Spotted Woodpecker! After a delicious lunch at the visitor center, we spent the remainder of the afternoon enjoying the great selection of Van Gogh's at the wonderful Kroller-Muller Museum before heading back to the hotel.
We started the next morning right around our hotel, where Song Thrush and Redwing gave us some decent looks before we loaded up and began working our way north. Approaching the polders, we stopped in at Nuldernauw, one of the chain of randmeeren--shallow lakes left behind when the polders were reclaimed from the sea. The lake was teeming with waterfowl, including some firsts for the tour: a flock of "Bewick's" Tundra Swan, and a small group of much-wanted Smew! Amongst a large flock of lapwings and curlews on the muddy verge, we turned up good numbers of Dunlin and a few Ruff, and an electric-blue Common Kingfisher perched briefly along the reedy fringes. A Common Chiffchaff and a couple of vocal Cetti's Warblers were other good finds here. Moving on, we arrived at the Oostvaardersplassen Nature Reserve for lunch and some more wetland birding. Water Rails were one of our hoped-for targets here, though they are often tricky at this time of year. And our results were a bit mixed, with a few of us getting excellent, though brief, looks from the visitor center as we ate our lunch, while others had to settle for glimpses in the reeds, or had to mark it as heard-only. A couple of Eurasian Sparrowhawks and another White-tailed Eagle added some excitement, and a small flock of European Goldfinches and decent looks at a skulking Dunnock were also enjoyed here before we had to move on in time to catch the ferry to Texel.
Texel is rightly considered one of the Netherlands premier birding regions. Not only are there plenty of regularly-occurring species that frequent its shores, wetlands, fields, and woodlands, but it attracts more than its fair share of vagrants, one of which we'd be searching for later in the day. But first we met up with excellent local guide, Nils, for some birding at Mokbaai. The wetlands here held the usual swarms of waterfowl and waders, including some of the few Brant we saw on the trip (just one distant one earlier at Brouwersdam), our only Black-tailed Godwit, the Netherlands national bird, and Nils also picked out (and taught us how to distinguish) a couple of unexpected Caspian Gulls, which apparently have been increasing in the country in recent years. One of our key targets in the vast reedbeds here was the unique Bearded Reedling, which played pretty hard to get, but eventually rewarded us with quick looks before dropping back into deep cover. Moving on, we had pretty decent views of a flyover Eurasian Goshawk from the bus, then moved onto a coastal site to search for the island's most famous current vagrant, a Spectacled Eider which had been present from January to May, then went missing for a few months before turning up again in October. There had been no sightings yet that day, but we set out to look, and as the dark clouds finally started unleashing the rain, we spotted the bird feeding not far offshore. Spirits were high despite the wet conditions as we got great scope views of the spectacular vagrant, which was close to being in full breeding plumage. Shortly after our tour, the bird was starting to show signs of illness, so it was captured and brought to a rehabilitation center. Word is it was successfully rehabbed and will soon be released back on Texel! Good news! After refueling and drying out during lunch, during which time the rain tailed off, we were back out in the field, making a series of stops in wetlands and flooded fields, picking up species like our only Whooper Swans for the trip (with nearby Tundra Swans offering a direct comparison), a huge flock of Tundra Bean-Goose, and our only Common Greenshank, which is decidedly scarce here in winter.
Starting the next morning along the west coast of the island, we first stopped in at the beach at Paal 17, where we enjoyed a large movement of Red-throated Loons as well as a handful of Northern Gannets., We then turned inland and ventured into a lovely area of woodland, where Godfried put his thermal scope to the test, scanning the leafy forest floor for Eurasian Woodcock as we birded along a sandy track. A small party of tits, including the lone Coal Tit for the trip, kept the rest of us occupied until Godfried announced that he'd found a woodcock! The thermal scope had proved its worth as we enjoyed lengthy scope views of the woodcock without having to disturb from its roost! With that our time on Texel was at an end, and we headed back to the ferry terminal for the return to the mainland. Our list of potential new species was also dwindling, so we put eBird to good use to plan out further stops. Our first stop failed to turn up the hoped for Gray Partridge, but did produce another Eurasian Green Woodpecker, but our second stop proved more successful, as we quickly tracked down some of the few Bramblings reported in this region of the country in recent days! After that success, we stopped in for a traditional fish and chips lunch, complete with the chance to savor one of Holland's famous delicacies, salted herring. We made one more brief birding stop, enjoying great looks at a number of Common Pochards and another Caspian Gull before finishing the day at the Netherland's oldest museum, the Teylers Museum in Haarlem. A fascinating collection of natural history artifacts and a temporary exhibit of Michaelangelo's drawings were the main draws of our visit to this charming museum.
Our final day was another mixed day of birding and art. We began our morning with a walk around the expansive hotel grounds looking for anything new, and just enjoying some final moments with a good assortment of local species. The walk was highlighted by close views of a pair of White Storks strolling through a verdant meadow and our only Gray Wagtail bobbing its long tail next to a wet area in a soppy horse pasture. We then headed in towards Amsterdam, with one more birding stop, mainly to search for one final target species which had so far eluded us. Happily, our hoped-for Fieldfare was found quickly and cooperated beautifully, allowing long scope views for all! We then headed into the city, where we enjoyed another Dutch specialty--rijsttafel--a veritable feast of delicious Indonesian dishes, before visiting our final museum, Amsterdam's renowned Rijksmuseum, with an excellent collection of works by various Dutch masters, including Rembrandt's famous "The Night Watch".
Having been looking forward to this tour for such a long time, I can now look back on it and say that it was every bit as much fun as it was the first time! It was a real pleasure to share the joys of winter birding in the Netherlands with you all. Having such a fun, compatible and enthusiastic group of birders along for the ride made it all the more special. On behalf of Godfried and myself, thanks so much for joining us for the tour, you were all great company! I also want to give a shout out to our fantastic driver, Tom, who did a great job getting us everywhere we needed to go, and also provided some insight into Dutch culture and lifestyle. Until we meet again, happy birding to all, where-ever your travels take you!
Mammals seen on the tour:
European Hare (Lepus europaeus): quite common, and seen most days.
European Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris): all our sightings were around Hoge Veluwe NP and the Kroller-Muller Museum
Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina): one near the ferry terminal on Texel
Gray Seal (Halichoerus grypus): seen offshore at Brouwersdam
Western Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus): a couple out front of our hotel at Rockanje, and a couple in a field at Ventjagersplassen.
Top 3 birds: (three-way tie) Including guide's picks:
1) Middle Spotted Woodpecker 1) Spectacled Eider
1) Eurasian Woodcock 2) Eurasian Woodcock
1) Smew tied 3) Middle Spotted Woodpecker
tied 3) Smew
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/438046
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/hol25TRIPLIST.pdf
-- Jay