Blogging at 22:15 on Monday 22nd July from intended overnighting spot N 53.37872°, E 08.21071° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:53.37872%2C08.21071
The day started with some concerted birding efforts over the awesome Lauwesmeer reserve, plus a bit of casual taking-notice-of-things-in-general in the immediate vicinity. Ruff and knot were the best returns from the primary activity, whilst a superbly presented tjalk was the best result from the second.
More bumbling through the Netherlands followed, as did more respect for the way the Dutch do business. We passed such potentially hateful things as vast industrial areas, gas processing plants and solar farms, but nothing was particularly offensive or visually intrusive. Nothing jarred, everything sat quite sublimely in the landscape. Everything is clean, everything seems to work, people go to restaurants on their bicycles. Even things like the thousands of dedicated cycleway bridges over dikes deep within the countryside are beautifully constructed in finely finished timber using countersunk stainless fasteners.
How hard should this level of civility be. The country just seems to do so many things so much better than most others. Chapeau the Netherlands.
Once into Germany we headed for a known-good overnighting spot next to the Wadden Sea that's also a good base for running, biking and generally hanging out. Emma ran (pic), I biked and the general hanging out saw us randomly discovering an utterly sensibly German solution to providing drinking water for sheep, plus a restored nodding donkey. We make no excuses for the kind of things that hold our attention.
As a result of discovering a very promising-looking bird watching / overnighting spot whilst out on the bike, we eschewed our known-good spot and headed for it, and that's where we're currently to be found.
We're now overlooking what appears to be a flooded pit that was perhaps initially excavated for aggregates or something. Whatever the provenance, it's now clearly extremely attractive for bird life. Most unusual sightings have been Egyptian, barnacle, and white-fronted geese, plus a really good sighting of a goshawk being mobbed by terns, gulls and lapwings.
We only saw two other people here all evening and one was a local chap birdwatching. Not only was his English impeccable but he also shared a couple of good local sites and the location of a white-tailed eagle nest.
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