By now it is no longer as conspicuous as it used to be, spoonbills in the Netherlands during the winter months. Nowadays, especially in the Delta area, there are places where groups of sometimes 50-70 birds can still be found at this time of year. For the most part, these are 1st year birds that may not have been fit enough to

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.

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.

In 2023, the Spoonbill Working Group, in collaboration with the University of Groningen BirdEyes, local nature conservation organizations and the crews of the Asterias and Harder, provided 671 spoonbill chicks with a color ring.

Within the Spoonbill Working Group, it is possible to adopt one or more favorite spoonbills for a small fee. As long as this bird is observed, you will receive an overview of the life history of these adopted birds once a year.

Mariette Haagsma took these beautiful photos of an orange spoonbill at the Balgzandpolder bird observation screen on July 29th, 2023. Is it a different color variety? Is it due to iron-rich water? Could eating shrimps lead to such beautiful pink-orange spoonbills? We have no idea!

Despite concerns among the Staatsbosbeheer nature managers on Vlieland, as was broadcasted by Omrop Fryslan, we still have hope that Sinagote will return.

The 2023 ringing season is over again in the Delta area. Limited access to the area, bird flu and threat of foxes made it exciting again this year. A review.

On April 23, 2023 Keimpe Bleeker was able to photograph a very old spoonbill near Ferwert on the Frisian Wadden coast. It is an old acquaintance, ringed by Harry Horn on the Boschplaat of Terschelling on June 14, 1994, and he or she is still looking great.

Amie en Rumex zijn twee volwassen lepelaars die in 2022 op de kwelder van Schiermonnikoog een zender op hebben gekregen. Lauwers heeft al een zender op sinds 2016. Amie Amie was dit jaar al heel vroeg terug uit haar overwinteringsgebied, 13 maart op de kwelder van Schiermonnikoog. Na een geslaagd broedseizoen verliet ze vorig jaar…