Maastricht in April (1 Viewer)

[Lerxst]

My wife and I will be here for a week next month -- she will be working, and I will have some time to look for birds. Is anyone here familair with the area and any good spots, beyond the few locations marked in eBird? Short train trips are a possibility too. Thanks.

 

[Xenospiza]

My wife and I will be here for a week next month -- she will be working, and I will have some time to look for birds. Is anyone here familair with the area and any good spots, beyond the few locations marked in eBird? Short train trips are a possibility too. Thanks.

A really nice, but far from typically Dutch city!

The better database to use is Waarneming.nl (just set it to English).
Or set it to the province level at Vogelarchief Limburg (you can also search per site/municipality etc.)

The Sint-Pieterberg southwest of Maastricht has breeding Eagle Owl (it's obscured, but the viewpoint is called "Kiekoet Oehoevallei" – google maps will guide you).
You should be able to find all woodpeckers in nearby forests (waarneming.nl will be helpful). The forests east of Epen (Vijlenerbos) have the woodpeckers as well as Eurasian Treecreeper, which is far less common than Short-toed.
For general birding, the Eijsder Beemden and Itteren are probably the place to be. These areas attract migrants along the river Meuse ("Maas" in Dutch) and could hold some surprises.

The fields north of Groot-Welsden are managed for Field Hamster (Sibbe, Hamsterreservaat) and can be good for Hen Harrier and some of the last Dutch Corn Buntings.

Non-bird distractions: April is a good time for forest flora – Savelsbos and Bunderbos near Maastricht are very nice, if not particularly exciting ornithologically. It's a bit early for the chalk grassland flora or butterflies.

 

[Lerxst]

A really nice, but far from typically Dutch city!

The better database to use is Waarneming.nl (just set it to English).
Or set it to the province level at Vogelarchief Limburg (you can also search per site/municipality etc.)

The Sint-Pieterberg southwest of Maastricht has breeding Eagle Owl (it's obscured, but the viewpoint is called "Kiekoet Oehoevallei" – google maps will guide you).
You should be able to find all woodpeckers in nearby forests (waarneming.nl will be helpful). The forests east of Epen (Vijlenerbos) have the woodpeckers as well as Eurasian Treecreeper, which is far less common than Short-toed.
For general birding, the Eijsder Beemden and Itteren are probably the place to be. These areas attract migrants along the river Meuse ("Maas" in Dutch) and could hold some surprises.

The fields north of Groot-Welsden are managed for Field Hamster (Sibbe, Hamsterreservaat) and can be good for Hen Harrier and some of the last Dutch Corn Buntings.

Non-bird distractions: April is a good time for forest flora – Savelsbos and Bunderbos near Maastricht are very nice, if not particularly exciting ornithologically. It's a bit early for the chalk grassland flora or butterflies.

Thank you, this is great!!!!!!!

 

[Lerxst]

Today I wandered over to the Belgisch monument east of town, This is a great area with mixed stands of woods and farmland and I found a lot of variety. Plan to do a day in Eijsder Beemden also.