Ten thousands dunlin, one curlew sandpiper, six seals

This video is about avocets nesting in Breebaart nature reserve in the Netherlands, and about a visual artist painting them.

7 September 2013. From Losdorp to Breebaart nature reserve.

As we come near the reserve, a buzzard on a pole.

Grey lag geese flying. Also many gray leg geese in the reserve.

Scores of avocets.

This video from Britain is called BTO Bird ID – Knot and Dunlin.

Dunlin by the ten thousands. Every now and then, they fear, rightly or wrongly, a peregrine falcon or other attack. Then, flocks of thousands of the small waders start flying synchronically, looking white at first, then black as they turn.

Northern lapwings fly along with the dunlin.

In the hide, there is a barn swallow nest with young chicks. Every now and then, the parents fly in, bringing insect food. A poster asks to leave at least one of the windows of the hide open, in order to not lock the parents out.

Ringed plovers along the shore. Shoveler ducks and teal swimming.

A black-tailed godwit. Redshanks.

Then, a relatively rare wader. A young curlew sandpiper; slightly bigger than a dunlin.

We walk to the Dollard bay. Near the shore, six harbour seals rest on a sandbank. Also many dunlin here. Scores of black-headed gulls.

Four shelducks fly past. A bit later, twenty ducks of the same species.

As we walk back, a red admiral butterfly.

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