More spoonbills and purple herons breeding in The Netherlands

From the March 2007 newsletter of BirdLife in The Netherlands:

1857 couples in 30 colonies of spoonbills bred in our country in 2006, Werkgroep Lepelaar says.

As far as we know, there have never ever been that many!

In the late 1980s, the number slowly rose to about 500 couples, and in less than ten years later, it was over 1000.

After this, there were ups and downs; more ups, however.

By far the biggest growth was in the Wadden region.

In 2006, the biggest colonies were on Texel (De Geul 339 couples), Vlieland (227) and Schiermonnikoog (208)

Not in the Wadden region, many spoonbills nested at Oostvaardersplassen (217) and on Voorne (184).

The population growth extended to the coastal regions of Belgium (19 couples in 2006), Germany (184) and Denmark (32).

The purple heron also did well.

In the Zouweboezem, the number rose further to 174 couples. It is by far the biggest colony of our country and also of North West Europe.

In Nieuwkoop, there were 120 couples, at Kinderdijk, 63.

Also, there were purple herons at the Zegveld colony (15 couples, none in 2005).

However, in Friesland (at least 11 couples) there were not many.

In the Biesbosch, numbers are growing (18 couples, in 2003 just 1).

Breeding birds of the Voorne coast: here.