It happens quite often that we see older spoonbills in the same place as the years before, before or during or after the breeding season. In fact, we may even see that old acquaintance then with another old acquaintance. In the book Sinagote, the life story of a spoonbill, Sinagote and Ryan visit each other briefly near Anjum every year before the breeding season. Keimpe Bleeker from Friesland saw two of these old acquaintances together for the first time in northern Friesland last April 10. See the message below.

Good evening Harry, Petra,
This afternoon two old acquaintances, each on the other side of the same ditch near Ferwert. These beauties I had not seen together before. The first “good friend” is B[BZ]/aR[BZ] and the second is YfLR/GaG. The time/location was: 10 April 2024 15:14, Ferwert, N53°21'17.65", E5°49'20.14".
Kind regards,
Keimpe Bleeker
Oentsjerk

I did get curious if these two spoonbills were seen every year at Ferwert and if anyone else had seen them together before. Well that wasn’t the case. B[BZ]/aR[BZ] is now 20 years old, we do not know if it is a male or female, only that he/she was ringed on the Boschplaat of Terschelling on 25-5-2004 by Harry Horn. YfLR/GaG is a ‘‘only’’ 12 year old female and was ringed on Ameland, the Hon, by Otto Overdijk. Looking back in the life history it appears that both have been observed very often at Ferwert or close to it by different readers. YfLR/GaG in 7 different years and B[BZ]/aR[BZ] in 10 years. Keimpe has never seen them together before, but neither has any other observer who visits there regularly. B[BZ]/aR[BZ] has been seen on Ameland almost every year since 2016, but only once in the breeding colony by Jan de Jong in 2023.

YfLR/GaG has been seen only twice on Ameland, but in the breeding colony. B[BZ]/aR[BZ] has only been seen abroad twice in all these years, in September in France, once in Marais d’Orx and once in Le Teich. Beyond that, we know nothing about this spoonbill. YfLR/GaG most likely winters in south-west Portugal, there she has been seen in four different years in Vila Franca de Xira. Could they know each other from Ameland or the Frisian coast? Either way, they are beloved by the readers who see them every year at the regular spots! I think it would be fun to do an analysis of all our ringed spoonbills sometime to see who was seen where with whom.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)