10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 9, 2024

Here in Suffolk we now have impressive wintering flocks of Barnacle Geese, often numbering 1000 birds or more. The purist birders take little interest in them, regarding them as no more interesting, or exciting, than the flocks of Canada Geese that have long been established in the county.

Netherlands 211

Netherlands Geese Birds Denmark 211

10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2024

However – and I am not saying this out of misplaced national pride – there is one bird in the Netherlands that proves Jefferson wrong and Buffon right: the White-tailed Eagle (or Sea Eagle ). So yes, I needed to see this beast, this flying door, this scourge of all things’ geese, this modern Roc. It’s the only Dutch eagle.

Beavers 141

Beavers Netherlands Eagles Geese 141

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 17, 2019

A Great Egret , a few Pygmy Cormorants and, by the middle of the Danube, about a hundred Greylag Geese. Two hundred yards further, the first Common Goldeneye and Smew started to appear and, while counting Smew and geese, a Great Bittern took flight from one stand of reeds to another, right in front of us.

Geese 144

Geese Serbia Birds Estonia 144

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 1, 2012

The Rose-ringed Parakeet’s European (=feral) range is surprisingly coherent for an introduced bird that is dependent on large metropolitan areas, and the species occurs in very decent numbers from UK’s London throughout the Netherland’s large cities all the way up along the Rhine to Germany’s Heidelberg.

Germany 244

Germany Netherlands Zoos Geese 244

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 26, 2024

A first-winter Red-breasted Goose at Cley, North Norfolk As a general rule, geese are birds of subtle, even dull, plumage. All the so-called grey geese – Greylag, Bean, White-front, Lesser White-front, Swan – look very much alike, and it takes experience to identify them by their calls and their shape and size.

Bulgaria 130

Bulgaria Geese Romania Estonia 130

10,000 Birds

JULY 25, 2014

On 22 January 1879, a pair of Egyptian Geese sat quietly on top of Isandlwana Hill and watched closely. When I started birding in earnest during the 1980s in south-west Germany, no one talked about Egyptian Geese. And for the first time ever in Europe, I encountered a few Egyptian Geese somewhere around Amsterdam.

Germany 150

Germany Geese Netherlands Kenya 150

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2016

Skrins, Friesland, The Netherlands. Skrins, Friesland, The Netherlands. Harlingen, west of Leeuwarden, Friesland, The Netherlands. Harlingen, west of Leeuwarden, Friesland, The Netherlands. Exminster Marshes, Exe Estuary, Exeter, Devon, SW England. North Killingholme Haven, Immingham, Humber Estuary, North lincs.,

Iceland 135

Iceland Netherlands France Kuwait 135