News

Due to circumstances, the domain name werkgroeplepelaar.nl has expired. It was our plan to reclaim that name, but another party beat us to it. They are using AI to create a site with some of our original content and some of our other messages. Read more

In 2023, the Spoonbill Working Group ringed 657 spoonbills and read 14590 spoonbills. Here you can read our annual report 2023. Read more

In 1840, the ambitious and then 26-year-old Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax developed a wind instrument that should incorporate all the good qualities of classical musical instruments. That first “saxophone” was a very large one, a bass saxophone with a very deep sound. Read more

June 7 was one of the days that we went ringing the delta spoonbills this year. At two different locations even. Left Middelburg early, first picked up two people in Goes and then someone at the carpool place near Yerseke. Read more

In addition to scientific research, the working group also tries to protect the spoonbills and little egrets themselves as much as possible, as well as their habitat. One of the causes of death in spoonbills is caused by collisions with power lines, especially the top two wires, which are the thinnest and therefore least visible. Read more

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. Keimpe Bleeker from Friesland saw two such old acquaintances together for the first time in northern Friesland on April 10. Read more

In a recently published article, we show that the agenda of a female spoonbill during the breeding season looks very different from that of her partner, both in time and space. Read here about our most interesting findings and a link to the original article. Read more

On March 19, Wouter Vansteelant made a sighting of some spoonbills being hunted by a White-tailed Eagle. Here you can read what happened. Read more

Nowadays it is possible to see spoonbills in the Delta area in every month of the year. That was quite different in the past. In the late 1980s, the population of spoonbills in the Netherlands was still recovering from the major blow inflicted by pesticides in the aquatic environment. Read more