New great egret nesting colony in the Netherlands

This video is about a little crake, a rare bird in the Netherlands, in Lepelaarplassen in 2011.

Translated from BirdLife in the Netherlands:

Tuesday, July 8th, 2014

For the first time, great egrets nest in Lepelaarplassen nature reserve. Three couples have nests in the Plan Bittern, an area that is reconstructed by Flevolandschap as part of the BirdLife protection plan for marsh birds. Great egrets nest only in a few places in the Netherlands. ….

“It’s wonderful that great egrets expand their breeding grounds in Flevoland province from Oostvaardersplassen national park to Lepelaarplassen.” …

The reed lands were too dry for many wetland birds. By the dredging of shallow ditches and by making deeper puddles in the reeds in the western part of the Lepelaarplassen the area became wetter. The project had immediate success: the first year after completion a bittern couple, the namesake of the plan, nested there.

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