De Lepelaar is one of the successes of the Bird Protection: around 1970 there were only 170 breeding pairs in our country, now more than 2,500. In recent years, that number remains stable.
More and more experience with people
Last year, seven of the twelve pairs actually have boy In Alkmaar. This year about twenty spoonbills have already been spotted. So it could just be that a number of couples will breed again.
Jeroen van Wetten finds that De Lepelaar breeds in a city forest. “They used to fly away if you came to the polder a kilometer away,” he says. “It seems as if they are getting more and more experience with being among people,” Jeroen concludes.