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 Meadfow 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 a local guide 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 flocks 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 a 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.
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/438046
Jay