This week, I finally managed to return to Texel for yet another international twitch, this time for the 1st-winter Black-faced Bunting that has been there since mid-December. Since the bird has been showing best in the mornings, I booked an overnight stay, but I still had a few hours of daylight left once I arrived and so headed straight there from the ferry. After a two-month stay, there was nobody else around but the friendly owner of the garden told me where it is usually seen and said I was welcome to walk around his property. After almost an hour I had more or less given up and was just about to leave when a couple from The Hague arrived, so I decided to have one more look with them and found it within 10 minutes of their arrival! We got an excellent, close-up view but it disappeared again before we could take any pictures. The plan was to go back again the next morning but I awoke to heavy mist and, since already I'd seen it so well, I decided to do a bicycle tour of the southern half of the island instead. This was very atmospheric, with the calls of invisible geese and singing Skylarks echoing all around. It took several hours for the mist to finally clear but, by the time I boarded the ferry back to the mainland, I'd seen/heard at least 71 species, including a family party of 4 Bewick's Swans, Spoonbill, Ruff, a male Hen Harrier and a hunting Merlin.
