Description
The "Goudse Hout" is a large city park on the northern part of Gouda en consists of an old peat meadow area with many high bushes, forested areas, ditches and ponds. There's a large body of water in the western part of the area. Many species of waterfowl can be found here, like konopnica, čopasta črnica, žličarica and belolična gos. Also, scarce species like tatarska žvižgavka can be found here. In summer, navadna čigra uses the water body as foraging area. Large areas of reedbeds surround the water body, which are being used as breeding habitat for srpična trstnica, bičja trstnica and močvirska trstnica. Also, scarce species like svilnica, trstni cvrčalec and kobiličar can be found here.
The "Goudse Hout" mainly consists of old pastures with high bushes and forested areas. Within these areas, species like mlinarček and rumeni vrtnik breed. Other species, like kukavica and zelena žolna can also be found here. škrjančar and rjavi lunj use the area as hunting ground. If you're lucky, small groups of črna čigra, črnoglavi galeb or even an ribji orel pass overhead.
In winter, the area is mainly used by large flocks of mixed songbirds, like finches and thrushes. Large groups of čižek and lišček use the area as foraging area. In the ditches, velika bela čaplja can be found.
Details
Access
There's a large parking spot in the southern part of the park. You're able to walk a circular route around the park on (mostly) paved roads. You can either choose to go on foot or by bike and is about 5 km long. There are several information boards in the park telling about the old peat landscape. In the central part of the park, just south of the large water body, a wildlife garden is located. You can enter it for free and walk around the garden.

