Zwanenwater

Het Zwanenwater is a dune reserve of about six hundred hectares behind Callantsoog holding two substantial freshwater lakes - the Eerste and Tweede Water - which formed in dune valleys where the water table sits above sea level, an arrangement that is very rare in European dune systems and gives the place its ecological importance. It was one of the first areas bought for conservation in the country, acquired in 1935. Spoonbills nested here from the 1920s and it became one of the most significant Dutch colonies, along with bittern, marsh harrier, bearded reedling and large numbers of migrants; the reed beds, wet dune slacks and grazed grassland support a long list of orchids, including a substantial population of marsh helleborine. Trails and hides run through it. The reserve is quiet compared with the dunes further south and takes a paid day ticket.

What you actually see

• Freshwater lakes in dunes - the Eerste and Tweede Water, rare in European dunes.
• A spoonbill colony - nesting here since the 1920s, among the important Dutch sites.
• Wet dune slacks - with orchids including marsh helleborine.
• Hides on the trails - viewing points over the reed and open water.

When to go

April to July for breeding birds. Half a day.

Honest expectations

A day ticket is required. Parts close in the breeding season. Mosquitoes are bad near the reed. It is small compared with the bigger dune reserves and best treated as a bird visit.

Nearby

Callantsoog beach is west; Den Helder and the Texel ferry are north.