Sea eagle and spoonbills in Oostvaardersplassen

This is a video of an avocet in Oostvaardersplassen nature reserve.

Today, in Flevoland province in the Netherlands, a tour around Oostvaardersplassen nature reserve.

Before we arrived at the birdwatching hut of the Lepelaarsplassen reserve, to the west of the bigger Oostvaardersplassen, a great spotted woodpecker.

From the hide: many tufted ducks and pochards. Coots, grey lag geese, great crested grebe, great cormorants, black-headed gull. Many barn swallows flying over the water.

And two little grebes swimming close to the reed beds. Edible frogs call.

Before we reach the Trekvogel information center, a red admiral.

A bit further, standing in a pond, a great egret.

Along the Ijsselmeer dike, a common gull and a black-headed gull sitting on poles, and a lesser black-backed gull swimming close to them. A flying common tern.

On the cycling path along the dike a crossing caterpillar, slugs, and dead shrews.

Pied wagtail and marsh harrier flying.

As we go to our first Oostvaardersplassen hide of today, we hear the call of a water rail.

Juvenile common toads and edible frogs cross the path.

We see a speckled wood butterfly.

Somewhat to the south: four Eurasian spoonbills and a great egret.

At the next hide, ‘De Kluut’: also four Eurasian spoonbills and a great egret. Two Egyptian geese; four common sandpipers. And a European goldfinch.

At the “Krakeend” vantage point: over a hundred red deer.

At the Jan van den Boschpad: a white-tailed eagle and a buzzard flying together, showing the difference in size. About white-tailed eagles in Germany, see here.

Further, twelve spoonbills, great cormorants, a great egret, grey lag geese, a marsh harrier.

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