As much as avid birdwatchers love to travel the world and explore local areas hoping to observe avian behavior and plumage, some of us are more like ‘armchair birders,’ and this is for the stay-at-home watchers.
Vogelbescherming Nederland, the Dutch bird protection association, has turned on a series of cameras aimed at breeding birds as part of a program called Beleef de Lente, or Experience Spring. A group of volunteers will also be blogging about the birds’ progress. Over a million viewers looked in last year.
Birds featured in this year’s program include the tawny owl, little owl, stork, osprey, sea eagle and great tit. The association is also setting up more cameras to include blackbirds, swifts and common redstarts. A special feature will be an oystercatcher nest, featured because the species has been declining and 2023 has been proclaimed as ‘Year of the Oystercatcher.”
Another featured performer is an osprey pair who have returned to the same nest five years in a row and have raised 14 chicks, marking an apparent successful comeback from a low in 2016.
Title Image: A barn owl, ready for his close-up
