This is a video of a guillemot colony.
Today, to Voorne island.
Rooks. A reed warbler singing.
Back to the Groene Strand nature reserve, where we were last year as well.
Greater yellow-rattle flowering. Many Early marsh-orchid flowers.
A little egret flying overhead.
A cuckoo flying past.
A goldfinch in a tree.
A whitethroat singing from the top of a bush.
Nightingale song as well.
A spoonbill and great cormorants flying overhead.
A male pheasant.
A young, very recently fledged, whitethroat in a bush.
White campion flowers.
At the first bird hide, a redshank, lapwings, and three grey lag geese.
A liitle whitethroat singing.
At the second hide: avocets, shelducks, redshanks, oystercatchers. Five barnacle geese, and ten Canada geese flying away.
A common blue butterfly.
At the third, biggest, hide there are many birds. Including red-breasted merganser; many avocets, including juveniles; Canada geese with goslings; ringed plovers; common terns; tufted ducks; linnets.
An Egyptian goose at the other bank of the wetland. A marsh harrier flying.
As we go back, a painted lady butterfly.
Eyebright flowers.
Two great crested grebes, one with a chick on its back.
A coot.
A Bombus terrestris bumblebee.
A pied wagtail sitting on a pole.
We continue to the new Strypse wetering nature reserve.
House martins and barn swallows flying.
Mute swans. Barnacle geese. Avocets. Gadwall ducks.
A small tortoiseshell butterfly.
Common pochards. Male and female shoveler.
Ringed plover.
A bit further, a lapwing drives a female marsh harrier away.
A bit further, an avocet drives a black-tailed godwit away.
Grey lag geese. Little ringed plovers. A meadow pipit hovering close to its nest.
We cannot continue to the Maasvlakte because of quicksand danger. A rabbit crosses the road.
Then, something special in the Oostvoornse meer: a guillemot swimming. Though this lake is brackish to salt, it is unusual to see this seabird here now, instead of nesting on the rocky coasts of Britain.
A swimming cormorant catches a big flatfish. He manages to gulp it down.
In the Hoekje Jans reserve, Anagallis tenella flowering.
Marsh lousewort flowers attract a Bombus terrestris bumblebee.
Lots of narrow-leaved ragwort, an invasive species from South Africa.
Three linnets.
Mediterranean gulls flying.
May 2011: Experts at the National Trust for Scotland‘s St Abb’s Head National Nature Reserve have recorded the earliest ever eggs from guillemots this year: here.
Texel black guillemot: here.
Britain, July 2010: The bird that is the logo of the RSPB – and a symbol of bird conservation – has had a good breeding season, with record-breaking numbers at one UK reserve and the return after a 16-year break at another. A failing breeding avocet colony on the Humber has enjoyed a dramatic reversal in fortunes with its most successful season ever, thanks to a major restoration project: here.
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