Spoonbill Sinagote, which received its YfLY/aLY color rings on Vlieland in the Oude Huizenvallei in 2006 and a UVA bit transmitter on Schiermonnikoog in 2013, has “disappeared from the radar”. She bred in various colonies on Vlieland from 2014 to 2022: from 2014 to 2016 in the Oude Huizenvallei and from 2017 to 2022 in De Cranberryvallei. A book about Sinagote was published in 2021: Sinagote, The Life Story of a Spoonbill. Below we provide information about what happened after the book.
Summary of observations from March 2021 to September 2022
The first to see her in 2021 in the Netherlands was A. Goutbeek
| 26-3-2021 | A. Goutbeek | Ezumakeeg | Foraging |
From July 30 to August 25, 2021, she was seen on the Lutjewad near Hornhuizen on the Groninger Coast by Arjen de Boer, Marycha Franken, Petra de Goeij and Sven Prins.
The last observation of 2021 in the Netherlands was made by:
| 6-9-2021 | Petra de Goeij | Lutjewad, Hornhuizen | Resting, sleeping |
The first sighting in autumn 2021 was made by:
| 21-9-2021 | Francois Hemery | Marais de Séné |
The last sighting in France in autumn 2021 was made by:
| 25-10-2021 | P.de Goeij &T. Piersma | Marais de Séné |
The first to see her in 2022 in the Netherlands was:
| 15-3-2022 | Roos Piek | Ezumakeeg | Resting, sleeping |
The first to see her on Vlieland in 2022 were:
| 15-4-2022 | Marloes van Diggelen, M. Muller en C. Zuhorn | Vlieland Lange Paal | Foraging |
| 22-7-2022 | Michiel Muller | Wad Westerseveld | Together with two young |
| 16-8-2022 | Michiel | Nieuwe Kooi | Foraging |
| 23-8-2022 | Theunis Piersma | Lutjewad | Foraging |
The last person to see her is:
| 1-9-2022O | Petra de Goeij | Lutjewad, Hornhuizen | Resting, sleeping |
The southward and northward migration of Sinagote in the years 2013 to 2021
How is Sinagote doing now?
The question many people are asking now is “is she still alive?” Well, we don’t know. Her transmitter stopped working in the spring of 2022. The last observations are from the late summer of 2022. Carl Zuhorn and Michiel Muller saw her with her young on the mudflats in August. Theunis Piersma saw her foraging on the Lutjewad at the end of August. Petra de Goeij was the last person to see her at the high-water refuge of Lutjewad on September 1, 2022. Guillaume Gelinaud, the manager of the Marais de Séné in de Golfe du Morbihan, has not seen her behind her office all winter either. It looks like she’s gone. But it is known that spoonbills sometimes skip breeding a year and stay in their wintering area. Our only hope is that she is in an area such as the salt pans of Guerande, where no one comes and therefore no one sees her. Guerande is one of the three areas where Sinagote winters. Her transmitter data shows that every winter she first spent two to three months in the Marais de Séné, then went to the Guerande and then stayed for another month near the Loire in the Marais de Prinquiau in March. So who knows, she might just show up again next year at the Lauwersmeer or on Vlieland!
During the winter Sinagote stays in the white areas.
Well-known Spoonbill
Sinagote has become a well-known bird. Michiel Muller, the photographer, was approached every day in recent years by people who saw him sitting along the Posthuisweg. He has done a lot of educational work for the spoonbills. She has a group of loyal fans!
Breeding success
Did Sinagote breed successfully in the years 2014-2023? Yes, the UVA bit transmitter stores a position and a movement every 10 minutes. When a spoonbill forages, this movement is recorded, as well as when it swallows prey. Standing still and resting, it’s all registered. This allowed us to see exactly how long she stayed on and near the nest. This means that, except for one year, she stayed with the nest so long that she must have raised young, otherwise she would have left the colony sooner. However, only once was it possible to precisely locate her nest and ring her small chicks. That was in 2014. One of those two young was photographed together with Sinagote in 2022. See the photo. In 2022, Sinagote was also photographed with two large chicks on the breakwater on the Postweg. We have no idea who her partners were during those years because the times that Carl Zuhorn or Michiel Muller saw a partner in the colony, it was unringed. So she could have had one partner, but there could also have been 9.
Sinagote on the mudflats near Vlieland 2021, with one of her youngsters from 2014: aBG/LBYf. 6 years old here. She has been seen a lot on Vlieland for 7 years and occasionally on Texel, but never in a wintering area. - Photo: Michiel Muller
Sinagote with her two cubs on the breakwater along the Postweg, Vlieland, July 2022 - Photo: Michiel Muller
The last sighting of Sinagote, 1-9-2022 at the high-water refuge at the Lutjewad, Hornhuizen. - Photo: Petra de Goeij