Of Spoonbills and White Storks (1 Viewer)

Hi,

yesterday I was in Holland's Nationaal Park Weerribben-Wieden near Giethoorn and spotted 7 Eurasian Spoonbills, the first since 2011 when I saw my 1st in northern Germany. Are these migrating from Denmark/Northern Germany or is there a local population at Weerribben-Wieden?

I also saw 9 White Storks, two of which had large lumps of vegetation hanging from their feet. They weren't ringed so it was just vegetation from the reedbeds, but can they pick it off or do they have to carry it around till it falls off? If they are migrating and not a sedentary population, how much will this affect their energy usage during migation?

Thanks

Andy

I'm not sure if Spoonbills breed in that area but they certainly do in Noord-Holland so there's every possibility that you saw local birds. I had a flock of 42 last week just to the north-east of Amsterdam.

White Storks are also tolerably common in the Netherlands and increasingly sedentary. I would imagine that any vegetation would drop from their feet quite quickly once airborne.

David

Dankevaal David,
you saw 42 and I thought I was doing well with 7 Spoonbills.:-C
The vegetation was on the feet of the White Storks the whole time they were airbourne and seemed to be moving around as the flew causing drag, but they weren't flying for very long. Also in Germany there are increasing numbers of sedentary White Storks.