Thousands of bird watchers came to Texel last year to see the special vagrant. “The bird has accomplished a lot on the island,” says Hilliene Reistema of Ecomare. “After intensive care here in the shelter and in The Hague, he unfortunately did not make it.”
The spectacled whale is native to the polar regions and almost always remains near the polar ice. They only leave in the spring, during the breeding season. During his last trek, the spectacled leader probably took a wrong turn.
‘By far the rarest bird ever’
Bird watcher Marc Plomp from the Bird Information Center in De Cocksdorp can still remember the arrival of the duck on Texel: “He was discovered in mid-January last year and from then on it was very busy on the island. As long as he was visible on the water. Bird watchers from all over the world came to Texel: India, South America, from all over Europe. With dot the rarest bird ever on Texel.”
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