First Dutch shags’ nest attempt

This video is about shags.

Translated from the Dutch SOVON ornithologists:

Friday, July 6, 2012

This spring was the first breeding attempt by a couple of shags in our country. On March 20 SOVON volunteer Sander Lilipaly saw on a breakwater at Neeltje Jans in Zeeland, a pair of adult shags in a great cormorant colony. The breeding effort ultimately did not produce young shags.

17th-century English naturalist John Ray reported that “shags” nested in the Zevenhuizen marshes in the interior of the Netherlands. However, that is improbable, as shags are real seabirds; contrary to cormorants which nest inland as well.

So, probably, this really is the first ever shags’ nesting attempt in the Netherlands.