Spoonbills nesting in Warmond nature reserve

This is an Eurasian spoonbill video.

This spring for the first time ever, two spoonbills are nesting in the Huys te Warmont nature reserve in Warmond, Teylingen local authority, the Netherlands.

The birds use a grey heron nest where the young herons have already hatched, and are improving it with beech twigs. This is unusual, as spoonbills usually nest in marshes, not in woodland like the Huys te Warmont reserve.

They feed at the Kagerplassen lakes and Polders Poelgeest, not far away.

Grey herons, non-migratory contrary to spoonbills who go to Africa in winter, nest earlier than spoonbills.

I really hope that this spoonbill couple will have more success at Huys te Warmont than a white stork couple which tried to breed in the heronry years ago. The grey herons stole the twigs of the stork nest. The storks moved to an artificial nest a few hundred meters outside the reserve, where they still are.