Pictures: Teus Luijendijk

17 August 2004, Bokkedoorns, Bloemendaal NH

17 August 2004, Bokkedoorns, Bloemendaal NH

Nowadays an extreme rare breeding bird in The Netherlands, but in the past it used to be breeding nearly everywhere where there were large reed beds. Dramatically decreasing numbers were noted for instance in the area of Reeuwijk ZH, where there were 112 pairs breeding in 1970, a figure that plumeted to zero 5 years later.
Now (apart from the few breeding records) only occasional stragglers are seen, like this juvenile in a dune pond near the North Sea.