birding-aus

A walk in Odijk, the Netherlands

To: Birding-Aus <>, Birdchat <>, sabirdnet <>
Subject: A walk in Odijk, the Netherlands
From: Willem Jan Marinus Vader <>
Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2018 12:10:30 +0000
A walk in Odijk, the Netherlands


My partner Riet lives in Odijk, a commuter village near Utrecht in the 
Netherlands, and everytime I stay here, I make the same walk of c one hour, 
mostly along the little river Kromme Rijn and through suburbia: I have written 
about this before, just as I feel I have written about everything before by 
now. Odijk is a green village, with lots of trees, but most gardeners leave 
little opportunity for ground-nesting birds. It is a village full of Jackdaws, 
and in the evenings large flocks, consisting almost exclusively  of pairs 
(Jackdaws mate for life) fly around in the village, preparatory to roosting.

The banks of the Kromme Rijn (In Roman times the main course of the Rhine, now 
a backwater) have been 'restored' to a more natural state recently, with as 
initial result a most luxuriant growth of various thistles, Cirsium spp, now 
just coming into flower. Other flowers are the  beautiful white beakers of the 
slingplant Calystegia sepium (I don't have an English plant book here, 
unfortunately), which in my youth we irreverently called pispotjes, while 20 km 
further east in Catholic Noord Brabant they were known as the 'drinking beaker 
of the Mother of God'. The waterside is many places blue of the marsh 
forget-me-not Myosotis palustris. There are coots and mallards in the river, 
both with half grown chicks, while the Great Crested Grebe as usual here , is 
alone. The inevitable (these latter years) Egyptian Geese have no less than 8 
goslings.

There is less bird song here than when I last walked here 10 days ago, but 
there are still a lot of birds singing> Wrens, Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps 
predominate in the woodland along the Kromme Rijn, while in the gardens in the 
village the European Blackbirds and Chaffinches predominate. In the evenings 
here always is a wonderful blackbird concerto, as there is a pair in every 
garden, and they compete for hours. they are wonderful songsters and I hope the 
global warming will bring them to Tromso in my lifetime---there are a few 
already now , mostly in winter time.

Other very common birds here are the Woodpigeons and Collared Doves, while Barn 
Swallows  and Common Swifts hunted over the river. To my surprise a Reed 
Warbler sang lustily from a minuscule reed field along the river; they are 
calle onomatopeically Karekiet here, one of the many cases where Dutch bird 
names derive from their calls (Other examples are Kievit for the Lapwing, 
Tureluur for the Redshank, Kluut for the Avocet and Kwak for the Night Heron).

There are other birds that are common here, but don't sing much just now. 
Riet's little garden has nesting European Robins and Dunnocks,  daily visiting 
Great and Blue Tits, and also regularly Tree Sparrows, Long-tailed Tits and 
Nuthatches, while most walks along the river net  Mute Swans and Grey Herons, 
now and then also Moorhens. House Sparrows are common, though not abundant, and 
the fields along the river hold Starlings and every year a few pairs of 
Oystercatchers.

Wim Vader, Tromso, Norway
<HR>
<BR> Birding-Aus mailing list
<BR> 
<BR> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
<BR> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
</HR>

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
  • A walk in Odijk, the Netherlands, Willem Jan Marinus Vader <=
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU