Dialling back to last January one of the surprise birds of 2025 was reported just off the coast of Texel island - a fine male Spectacled Eider keeping loose company with several of its common cousins.
After what seemed like ten days of frustrating delay (reduced winter ferry service/bad weather etc.) four of us (Tony Armstrong Jimmy Pattinson Doug Smith and Mike P.) finally set off via the ferry service - Newcastle to Ijmuiden then taxi/car hire/ferry to the location.
There it was - to us a near mythical once in a lifetime species far out from its normal range north of the Bering Strait of Arctic Siberia/Alaska.
