Good northern wheatear nesting news

This is a 2015 northern wheatear video.

This week, Dutch site waarneming.nl reports that the 2019 nesting season was good for wheatears in the Netherlands.

After many years of decline, the number of northern wheatear nesting couples rose from 28 in 2018 to 42 in this year in the Aekingerzand nature reserve in Drenthe province.

In the coastal sand dunes near Den Helder, the number went from 25 to 42.

In the dunes in the northern part of Texel island, from 29 to 37.

Also the numbers of eggs per nest increased. So did the numbers of second broods. There was few predation. About two hundred young northern wheatears fledged in 2019, double the usual number.

Probable causes of these good result are conservation measures. And drought killing much grass, as wheatears don’t like dense grass.