The 2024 breeding season of spoonbills on Schiermonnikoog has miraculously gone reasonably well. After an elevated tide on the night of April 19-20, which caused most spoonbills to lose their nests, fortunately many restarted, along with spoonbills that arrived later from their wintering grounds. Then the spoonbills experienced cold and wet weather, which resulted in most pairs raising only one chick in contrast to last year when most spoonbill pairs did see two chicks fledge.
In recent years, we have acquired transmitters for a number of chicks. Those transmitters give a GPS position every 10 minutes and therefore we know exactly where the birds are staying. Pucci, a chick from the summer of 2022, returned to his native island of Schiermonnikoog as early as this spring. He was named after the salt marsh grass Puccinellia maritima, where his nest was located. From October 2022 through April 17, 2024, Pucci spent his time in tidal flats, salt pans, and rice fields in northwestern Spain and Portugal, along with hundreds of other spoonbills. That Pucci was never alone we know because many birders in Spain and Portugal followed him and sent messages with photos.
On April 17, he left Spain and flew to the Netherlands via the west coast of France. On April 30 he landed on Vlieland, in a spoonbill colony. But after a day he flew on, ignoring Schiermonnikoog to our horror, and flew via Rottumerplaat to the island of Borkum in the German Wadden Sea. Fortunately, he turned around after a week and spent the spring in the Westerplas on Schiermonnikoog. He made trips to the Oosterkwelder, where most spoonbills breed, and got his food from the mudflats south of Schiermonnikoog.
Pucci - Illustration: Marycha Franken
On June 13, he decided to do a tour of the Wadden Sea and went via the Frisian coast to the mudflats near Den Oever to return to Westerplas after a week. As we actually expected, given his age, he did not go breeding on Schiermonnikoog after all. But he has clearly been here looking for a place to build a nest in the coming years. We eagerly await which spot and which female he will choose next year.
Meanwhile (October 2024) Pucci is back in his wintering grounds from last winter in northwest Spain near A Coruña where Miguel Lorenzo, Antonio Gutierrez and other observers are watching him.
Translated with DeepL.com