The Park
Lepelaarsplassen is a wetlands park in The Netherlands, ironically situated on reclaimed land within the Flevoland polder. When I arrived at the park, the morning mist was still in the air.
Lepelaarsplassen is below sea level. Through the mist, the Flevoland dike holding back the water is visible.
Like many nature reserves in the Netherlands, Lepelaarsplassen is home to a herd of cows.
The herd of cows moving between two dry patches of the wetlands. Just beyond the geese, a spoonbill is hunting. The dike is visible in the background. This picture is roughly representative of the ratio of cows and geese to spoonbills in the park.
The Spoonbills
The name of the park suggests that there are plenty of spoonbills living in the park, but I only saw two. I didn’t mind though, as I was able to get a good view from a bird hide of one of the spoonbills hunting.
A spoonbill hunting while some geese look on.
A spoonbill hunting while some ducks look on.
This spoonbill found something.
There were also some sandpipers hunting as well. This is the same shot as the video below.
This video demonstrates the way the spoonbill moves its beak back and forth when hunting. The calls of the huge flock of Greylag Geese can also be heard in the video. Their ruckus could be heard even before entering the park!
Other Birds
In addition to spoonbills, the park was home to many other species as well.
The geese asserting their dominance over the puddles.
A cormorant on its nest.
A Great Egret. Not easy to see in this photo, but they have green near their eyes.
Juvenile tufted ducks.
A Crested Grebe hunting in the tricky lighting of the sunset. One of my favorite water birds in the Netherlands.
This grebe popped up again with a fish. It’s crest is soggy and slicked back.