With a knot in the stomach, the employees of Het Zeeuwse Landschap are walking around in Waterdunen to clean up the victims of bird flu. There are thousands.
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Bird flu is raging along the entire Dutch coast, worse than ever. The deadly virus is spreading, especially in the colonies of the sandwich tern: at the Haringvliet, the Waterdunen nature reserve near Breskens, the Hooge Platen, in North Holland and the Wadden Sea. Fred Schenk of Het Zeeuwse Landschap just finished a round of Waterdunen on Wednesday around noon. “You won’t come back happy with that,” sighs Schenk. “I’ve been dealing with sandwich terns for decades and I’ve never experienced this before.”
At the beginning of this year, the mood was still euphoric, says his colleague Marcel Klootwijk. “Last year we had almost five thousand breeding pairs. This spring there were seven thousand. An unprecedented success.” The bird flu hit Zeeland in January. At that time, it mainly affected barnacle geese, sandpipers and great black-backed gulls. Klootwijk: “They have now moved elsewhere. We see for the first time that the bird flu continues in the spring. Now it’s the turn of the summer visitors: spoonbills, common terns and sandwich terns. We also see sick black-headed gulls and black-headed gulls.”
Not only the spread, but also the intensity is striking. When a disease is rampant, it’s not uncommon for one in ten birds to die. Populations can have such fluctuations, says ecologist and bird researcher from Delta Environmental Projects Dirk van Straalen. “But now it is taking on enormous proportions. The mortality is approaching 50 percent more. As far as France, thousands of deaths, and the end is not yet in sight.”
Many birds crash sick and weakened
Employees of Het Zeeuwse Landschap Bas de Maat (front) and Awie de Zwart on their way to clear up carcasses.
Employees of Het Zeeuwse Landschap Bas de Maat (front) and Awie de Zwart on their way to clear up carcasses. Photo: Fred Schenk
Employees of site management agencies such as Staatsbosbeheer and Het Zeeuwse Landschap walk along the coast to pick up the corpses and put them in thick, plastic bags. Many birds fall sick and weakened to the shore to die there.
Zeeland has about seven colonies where sandwich terns breed. Waterdunen is one of them. Fred Schenk of Het Zeeuwse Landschap started the sad and lurid task with five men on Tuesday afternoon, dressed from head to toe in protective clothing. “Yesterday we ran the first round in Waterdunen”, he says around noon on Wednesday. “I have been involved with sandwich terns for over forty years. This spring that joy about all those breeding pairs, and now this low point…”
Thousands of infected birds are already in the freezer, waiting for processing by the specialized rendering company Rendac. “The freezer is full of bird flu victims. We will make appointments with Rendac on Thursday,” said Schenk. “This is really a horror story. I’m taking a shower this afternoon and then I’ll try to let it go for a few days. In two days we’ll be clearing another round of cadavers.”
The sandwich terns live together in ‘crèches’, he says. “All in all, I have now counted about six hundred chicks. I estimate their chances of survival low. The parents of these chicks will still be alive, otherwise they would have already died. It often happens that young birds do not make it, because of unfavorable weather or lack of food. But now the adult birds are dying. They need their parents, if they are not fed, they die.”
Breeding birds on the islands in Waterdunen.
Breeding birds on the islands in Waterdunen. Photo: Bureau Waardenburg
Dead Dalmatian Pelicans
Wild birds meet in summer or winter areas. “And that’s how it spreads all over the world”, Dirk van Straalen notes dejectedly. “The impact on populations is starting to take on critical proportions. In the Balkans, half of the Dalmatian pelicans are dead, in other countries the gannets and great skuas have been affected, now it’s the sandwich tern, who knows? next year it’s the common common tern. Vulnerable species can’t take this. As researchers we walk around with a knot in our stomach. We register the breeding success and what we see now: thousands of pairs of which all young are dead. All. Even though I your scientist: this does something to you.”
Bird flu victim on the breeding bird islands in Waterdunen.
Bird flu victim on the breeding bird islands in Waterdunen. Photo: Fred Schenk
The virus has only been able to develop this way because of the way we treat animals, bird lovers say. Too many animals in a few square meters when it comes to the poultry sector. In countries where there is also little control over living conditions, things can quickly go wrong. “This virus seems to have originated about 25 years ago in the poultry sector in Asia and then jumped to wild birds,” says Marcel Klootwijk of SOVON Zeeland. Ecologist Dirk van Straalen holds his heart, also for other bird species. And even man must be on his guard. “It is still negligibly dangerous for us, but you do not know what will happen if it mutates. As a citizen you should not think: ‘I will go and collect dead birds on the beach’. Leave that to the nature managers.”
Dead Tern on Texel.
Dead Tern on Texel. Photo: Ecomare
Failed breeding season
Approximately 17,000 to 20,000 sandwich terns breed in the Netherlands each year, with the largest breeding area at Waterdunen near Breskens. The species breeds in more countries in Northern Europe and from there comes the same bad news. Colonies near Petten in North Holland and Texel have already been completely wiped out, and entire colonies have also disappeared in France and England. Het Zeeuwse Landschap expects that the breeding season can be written off throughout Northern Europe. One bright spot, as far as it can be said: Sandwich terns can live to be very old. Specimens of 14, fifteen years old are no exception, some even reach the respectable age of 20.
On the other hand, there is no cure for bird flu. “It is a terribly contagious disease, and you cannot keep wild birds,” says Marcel Klootwijk. There is no medicine. The only thing that helps is the culling of carcasses, which reduces the risk of contamination. Infected animals can be recognized by a stuffed head, head shaking and other neurotic movements and being unable to stand or fly.