Dutch Birding volume 33 (2011) no 1

Wallcreeper near Maastricht in November-December 2010

On 22 November 2010, a Wall-creeper Tichodroma muraria was discovered at a quarry south of Maastricht, the Netherlands. The bird was observed daily until 11 December by a steady stream of birders (c 1000 in total). After this date, it has not been reported but since the quarry where it was found is very large and difficult to search because of limited viewing points and because the number of visiting birders strongly decreased, it is possible that the bird has remained and/or reappeared in 2011. It could be observed (albeit at large distance) early in the morning and late in the afternoon flying out of or into its roosting cave, or during the day in different parts of the quarry. Ageing and sexing is difficult in winter but the strong contrast betweeg white throat and grey belly may indicate a first-winter.
This is the second record for the Netherlands; the first was a female wintering on large university buildings at Amsterdam-Buitenveldert, Noord-Holland, in the winter of 1989/90 and again at the same site (and in nearby Amstelveen, Noord-Holland) in winter the winter of 1990/91. An overview of extralimital records in north-western Europe is given in table 1, including all records in Belgium, the Channel Islands, England (representing all British records), Luxembourg and the Netherlands and a selection of records in northern France and northern Germany.

Arnold W J Meijer, Jacob Catsstraat 8, 2221 JA Katwijk aan Zee, Nederland
(infobluerobin.nl)