Two eaglets born, Lauwersmeer, the Netherlands

This video from the Netherlands is about ringing a young sea eagle, born in Lauwersmeer National Park in 2011.

Staatsbosbeheer in the Netherlands reports that recently, on 6 May, two new-born sea eaglets were seen in the white-tailed eagle nest in Lauwersmeer nature reserve.

Also in 2011 and in 2012, the Lauwersmeer eagles nested successfully. In both years, one young eagle grew up, and learned to fly. I saw the daughter, born in 2012, getting flying lessons.

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White-tailed eagles and lapwings

Sunday 30 September 2012.

As my earlier blog post said, our ship passed through the lock in Lauwersoog from the Wadden Sea to the Lauwersmeer.

Like on 28 September, we were in Lauwersmeer national park again.

A great cormorant.

Five gadwall ducks flying.

Then, a highlight of our journey to Schiermonnikoog and Rottum islands and back: first, we see one white-tailed eagle.

Then we see two white-tailed eagles.

Finally, three eagles: the adult couple nesting here are flying around with their daughter, fledged this year.

As the ship comes closer to Zoutkamp harbour, scores, then hundreds, of lapwings flying.

A bit later, mute swans.

And a great egret.

The ship lands in Zoutkamp. We disembark, with many good memories.

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From Rottum to Lauwersoog

This is a video about birds in Lauwersoog harbour in 2007. It shows common terns, black terns, black-headed gulls, herring gulls and a few turnstones.

Sunday 30 September 2012.

After our beautiful visit yesterday to uninhabited island Rottum, today we will sail from Rottum to Lauwersoog; and then on to Zoutkamp.

While our ship is still on the sandbank, we hear curlews calling.

Ten oystercatchers pass, flying, also calling.

Twenty brent geese fly close above the sea.

A bit higher flies a meadow pipit, calling.

We are on our way. A swimming harbour seal passes, its head above the water.

We arrive in Lauwersoog harbour. Many turnstones on a dock, like when we were here two days ago.

On the same jetty, a bit further, black-headed gulls.

On the next dock, herring gulls.

And a few greater black-backed gulls.

Quite some ships are waiting to pass through the lock, from the sea to the fresh water of Lauwersmeer lake. We are lucky, we don’t have to wait very long.

Birds of the Wadden Sea

Friday 28 September 2012.

As I described earlier, our ship passed through the lock joining the Lauwersmeer lake to the Wadden Sea.

On a jetty in Lauwersoog harbour just outside the lock, scores of noisy turnstones. Black-headed and herring gulls as well.

When we have sailed about half-way to Schiermonnikoog island, two male eider ducks fly past.

When we are just a few hundred meter away from the island, another four eider ducks flying. Six brent geese fly over the harbour.

On the harbour jetty, again turnstones. And redshanks.

A flock of curlews lands on a mudflat.

We see the south-west coast of Schiermonnikoog island, looking red from the autumn colour of many glasswort plants.

Birds of Lauwersmeer national park

Friday, 28 September 2012.

Yesterday evening we went aboard the ship, originally built for fishing.

In Zoutkamp harbour early in the morning, coots and a great crested grebe swim. Herring gulls fly.

The ship passes five flying lapwings. Six flying barnacle geese.

This is a video about birds in the Lauwersmeer national park in the Netherlands.

A female marsh harrier. The weather is a bit foggy this morning in Lauwersmeer national park. Not really good conditions for seeing ospreys and white-tailed eagles, which we won’t see this morning. We do see other birds.

A grey heron.

Lots of grey lag geese on the banks.

A bit further a great cormorant.

Two tufted ducks in the water. A great egret on the bank.

A lesser black-backed gull.

An Egyptian goose flies past.

Mute swans swimming. A juvenile great black-backed gull swimming.

Barn swallows flying. If all goes well, their autumn migration will bring them to Africa.

Twenty spoonbills standing in the water. Most of them will migrate to Africa as well.

Meadow pipits flying across the water, calling. Some will winter here; some in south-west Europe; some in Morocco or even further south.

A buzzard on a tree.

The Lauwersmeer used to be a part of the Wadden Sea. In 1969, a dike was built. Our ship passes through a lock in the dike to the Wadden Sea.

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Lauwersmeer sea eaglet fledged

This is a Dutch regional TV video on the Lauwersmeer sea eaglet.

Translated from an e-mail from the Dutch Wadden Sea Conservation Society of today:

The sea eaglet in the Lauwersmeer nature reserve has fledged. Government foresters have found this out. The chick hatched in late April. It was the first successful breeding attempt of the white-tailed eagle couple in the Lauwersmeer.

The young sea eagle now is as big as its parents, which means it weighs about eight kilogram and has a wingspan of over two meters. The foresters would like to hear from birdwatchers whether they have seen the juvenile eagle. On the ring on the leg of the eagle there is the code A4Y1. This code is well noticeable for birders who are equipped with good binoculars.

January 2012: the young eagle is in the Zuidlaardermeer area.

August 2011: Sixteen white-tailed sea eagles have taken their first flight in Scottish skies, as a successful reintroduction programme enters its penultimate year: here.

Lauwersmeer sea eaglet ringed

This is a Dutch video about the ringing of the Lauwersmeer sea eaglet today. In the video, a warden says that the eagle chick has been eating carp, bream, tench, rudd, wigeon, and coot.

In a later interview, zander as food was mentioned as well.

Translated from Dagblad van het Noorden daily in the Netherlands of today:

Lauwersoog – The eaglet in the Lauwersmeer nature reserve today has been ringed, weighed and measured. It turns out to be a healthy male weighing 3.6 kilogram. He is probably about five weeks old. As far as is known, this is the first time ever in the Northern Netherlands that a sea eagle has been born.

After the failed breeding attempt last year, there was much joy among employees of Forestry and SOVON Bird Research in the Netherlands that this young eagle is in good condition.

Britain: Wildlife experts ringed rare peregrine falcon chicks today amid fears that poor weather and poaching have taken their toll: here.

July 2011: Sixteen white-tailed sea eagle chicks, gifted to Scotland from Norway as part of a major reintroduction project, have been settling into their temporary home at a secret location in Fife, Scotland: here.

Sea eaglets hatched in Dutch Lauwersmeer

This is a video about birds in the Lauwersmeer national park in the Netherlands.

Sea eagles have been absent as breeding birds from the Netherlands for centuries. In 2006, eaglets hatched for the first time in Oostvaardersplassen nature reserve; where this species then kept nesting. Oostvaardersplassen continued to be the only place in the Netherlands with a successful white-tailed eagle nest.

Until this spring. According to a report from today, wardens in Lauwersmeer reserve say that sea eagles at a local nest have changed their behaviour, indicating that very probably, babies have hatched from the eggs.

Last year, there was a sea eagle nest in the Lauwersmeer as well. However, it did not produce eaglets then yet.

Dutch sea eagle and spoonbill chicks

This is a video about the Oostvaardersplassen sea eagle nesting season in 2007.

For the sixth year now, after an absence of centuries of nesting sea eagles in the Netherlands, this spring at least one eaglet has hatched in Oostvaardersplassen nature reserve, Staatsbosbeheer in the Netherlands says.

There is a white-tailed eagle nest in Lauwersmeer reserve as well this spring. The birds there started breeding a bit later, so people don’t know about hatched eaglets yet.

This April, spoonbill chicks in the Quackjeswater reserve have also hatched.