Goggle-eyed for a Spectacled Eider on Texel

I had been contacted by Rob H about the possibility of a twitch to Texel island in Holland specifically to see a Spectacled Eider, an extremely rare visitor to Northern Europe, a species usually inhabiting the high Arctic in the extreme north of Alaska and Russia. A difficult bird to see, A bird I had first seen in pictures of birds and wildlife in the National Geographic Magazine (which my parents subscribed to in the early 1970's) and a bird I had always wanted to see. normally in virtually inaccessible Arctic regions, indeed its breeding grounds were only discovered in the mid 1990's. I was certainly up for that. We drove down to Harwich on Thursday 23rd January and took the 1pm Stena overnight ferry to the Hook of Holland, arriving at 6.30am. The cabin was compact but had 2 bunk beds, a TV and toilet and shower. It's all you need! Then Rob drove north through Holland past the Hague (through rush hour!) and Amsterdam Airport and we took a second ferry at Den Helder to the island of Texel, where it was a short 20 minute drive to Oosthuysen where the Spectacled Eider was. The island habitat had a lot of cultivation and could have doubled for Norfolk, Suffolk or even Lincolnshire as it was very flat! Much of the land being polders and having been reclaimed from the sea there were lots of dykes around often bordering the road, where we saw small groups of Tufted Duck, Cormorants or a bevy of Coots. However the sheer parties of Geese were an instant feature partularly gaggles of Geese, first we saw big groups of Egyptian Geese anything between 30 -150, and then larger flocks of Greylags. There were also smaller parties of White- fronted Geese too. Rob drew up and leapt out of the car and ran up the bank, whilst I got all my equipment together I locked the car and walked up a couple of minutes later, but I was too late! I was greeted with the news that Rob had already seen it and photographed it, but it had flown right and seemingly right out of the bay, perhaps never to be seen again. Typical! We arrived at the south end of Wagejot, Oosterend, Noord Holland. The viewing site at Lancasterdijk, composed a green bank we had to walk up and over the fence onto a sloping concrete wall leading to rocks by the sea. I walked right past the steel structure, where I saw several Common Eiders and a Black- necked Grebe on the sea. But conditions were extremely difficult with Storm Eowyn in full flow and galeforce winds of up to 50 mph winds, making photgraphy nigh in impossible. The weather wasn't on our side whilst we were on Texel with Storm Eowyn raging on the Friday and drizzle then heavier rain on the Saturday morning. It took a further and very frustrating 1 hour 50 minutes walking up and down, constantly checking all the birds on the sea before Rob shouted the bird was flying right out in front of us and over the sea distantly (nearer the horizon) and I could see a very black- bellied Eider with white head, it was the fantastic Spectacled Eider. I followed it flying and it passed a green buoy and I noted it dropped down and settled onto the sea near the end of groups ofsticks in the sea. I then walked right couldn't see it and then I spotted it reasonably close near a short stick, I looked at the bird, it was slightly smaller than nearby Common Eider with completely black underparts extending onto the mid breast with base white head, cheeks, neck and mantle, the mantle was also very pale grey. It's eye area was white showing a black eye. The white around the eye was bordered by a thick black spectacle line and a peach green area in front and a pastel green behind the black lined spectacle encompassing the wider eye perimeter, a truly striking species, almost if it had come straight out from a colouring book, duly coloured with varying shades of green. Or the head looking like a patchwork quilt of whites and greens! The bird was soon swimming left and I switched to the camera and sadly it disappeared completely. Rob later found it again further back amongst the sticks where it was seen occasionally. Having settled into our accommodation on the other side of the island, it was like the 'Krypton Factor' as it wasn't clear how to access our quarters, we were in the North Hamptons 1 & 3, we found a chap residing in North Hampton 2 who was a Hotel worker and having a perfect command of English as well as his native Dutch, he was thankfully able to decode our message which truly was to us in double Dutch!!! Apparently, we had to go up to the nearby Hotel to get the card keys, we did but they had set them both for the same accomodation so I had to go back and get my card changed to no.3 my quarters! Incident the Hotel had a display of high end Swarovski binocular that they lent out for people to try for the day, can't see that happening in the UK! We walked into a very pleasnt low key tourist town with picturesque Estonian style Church and old tree with a thick iron supported supporting gnarled bent old trunk. The local restaurant which served excellent Texel beer (so good I consumed 2 pints of the stuff!) but the local beef burger was properly cooked in the middle, no pink has to be cooked throughout! The accommodation was one of these so called smart houses but nothing properly worked, perhaps it was my fault as the operator, but I was sure I had set the room heating to the maximum allowed 18 degrees celsius but nothing worked! The temperature was freezing and the shower was lukewarm at best, pity. However the saving grace I was extremely tired so I kipped on the bed from 5pm to around 11pm with a double duvet wrapped like a thermal glove, I then had a cup of tea and another sleep until 6am the following morning. I had to brave the lukewarm shower again and having handed the cards back at the hotel, Rob and I did a spot of first light birding in a local wood and dune system that could have doubled for Winterton Dunes! The wood was productive with a posse of crests including 3 Goldcrest and a fiery Firecrest and Rob heard a ST Treecreeper and I spotted an excellent Short- toed Treecreeper creeping up a tree. We then drove back to the Eider site, where again we saw Goose flock this time with more small parties of European White- fronted Geese being seen, plus 2 Bean Geese stood in a field. Back at the Eider again, we quickly got onto it again with Eiders by the stick about half way to 3/4 of the way out, I managed some distant pics, but there was a light drizzle which was threatening to increase to heavy rain, so after seeing the bird again for 45 minutes we left. Driving around Rob spotted an excellent Hen Harrier flying away from us down a dyke and an incredible flock of 1000+ Bean Geese all fairly close to the road, annoyingly I couldn't get any pics as my camera was in the boot, I couldn't fit it into the car and to get out would have completely disturbed the birds. We then went to Texel Bird shop, where well stock feerders attracted a variey of birds and inside the shop the most striking thing was the sheer number of immacutely stuffed birds in many cases lining the walls of the shop, like a retail version of the hotel from Hitchcock's famous 'Psycho' film, the birds in cases included Siberian Rubythroat and Pallas' Warbler all looking remarkably fresh and stuffed by a taxidermist who truly knew their birds. We purchased some very but well made cheap home made bird boxes (made from silver birch trunmks) here and we also bumped into Texel island's biggest lister, who gave us a lowdown on the islands interesting avian visitors, aside from the Brileider, the rather appropriate Dutch name for the Spoectacled Eider, a Brileider indeed!