Van wieg tot graf: natale dispersie en het te korte leven van een vrouwelijke Wespendief Pernis apivorus

On 12 september 2014 a (rather) freshly dead adult female Honey-buzzard was found in the Forestry of Smilde, northern Netherlands. This bird had been ringed as a 25 days-old chick on a nest in SE-Friesland, some 35 km to the west of its place of death (presumably killed by Goshawk Accipiter gentilis). The previous year, this bird had been photographed at the nest with a wildlife camera, 2.5 km away in the Forestry of Smilde. Comparison of its plumage as a breeding bird in 2013 (when the ring could not be read) and the bird found dead in 2014 showed unequivocally that the same female was involved. This bird was the only Honey-buzzard (out of 5 pairs) that successfully raised one chick (starting with two) in the Forestry of Smilde in 2013. Moreover, based on plumage descriptions of Honey-buzzards during intensive observations from tree tops in July and August 2012 the female might already have been present in that year as a non-breeding bird. Therefore, the bird probably settled in this forestry in 2012, bred successfully in 2013, failed (to breed) in 2014 and was depredated in early September 2014. The natal dispersal of this female amounted to 35 km, and the bird remained faithful to her breeding territory (for two successive years). Intraguild predation in Drenthe has distinctly increased in the past two decades. In 2014, for example, two other adult Honey-buzzards were found depredated, i.e. an adult male underneath its nest (with 2 eggs) on 17 June, and an adult female underneath another nest on 25 August (2 eggs). In a forested area of some 45 km2, no Honey-buzzard chicks were raised in 2014, and only 1 chick in 2013. Depredation of chicks and adults has become a significant factor in the breeding success of Honeybuzzards in The Netherlands, where the population has been in decline for some time. Intraguild predation has become particularly important after the food supply of Goshawks had crashed (leading to a decline in Goshawk numbers but also to greater diet diversity of Goshawks with a higher proportion of raptors and owls), an increase in Pine Marten Martes martes density and woodland fragmentation following a change in forest management.