De Boomvalk Falco subbuteo als broedvogel in de zuidelijke Gelderse Vallei

In the mid-1970s, when a complete survey was made of the raptor population on the southwestern Veluwe in the central Netherlands, Hobbies were breeding across woodland and heathland, but were absent as a breeding bird from the extensive farmland of the southern Gelderse Vallei. In the latter area observations of Hobbies started to become more frequent from 1980 onwards, possibly with first nesting in 1983. A mapping survey located two nests in 1987, with annual indications of nesting from 1989 onwards (and the first nest on an electricity pylon in 1999). In the period 2008-17, a total of 13 successful nests were located in the farmland of southern Gelderse Vallei, five of which in electricity pylons, the remaining in trees. Meanwhile, nesting in woodland in nearby Veluwe almost entirely ceased, probably as a result of predation by (mainly) Goshawks Accipiter gentilis. This pattern of switching of nesting from woodland to open farmland has been recorded in several regions in The Netherlands in past decades, but on SW-Veluwe already materialized in the 1980s.