Eleonora’s Valk Falco eleonorae in de duinen bij Castricum

On 20 August 2015 an ‘immature Hobby’ Falco subbuteo was photographed in the dunes near Castricum. One of these photos was included in the ‘portrait gallery’ on waarneming.nl, as an example of a second calendar-year Hobby. On 5 August 2022, it was discovered that this bird was in fact a second calendar-year Eleonora’s Falcon Falco eleonorae, the first observation of a ‘light morph’ in The Netherlands. This record was accepted by the Dutch Rarity Commission.