Spring has been quite cool and very wet so far. It ensures that flora and fauna are a few weeks behind ‘normal’, say naturalists in Groningen and Drenthe. But the race to catch up has begun.
‘Tak-tock-tock’. And then times a thousand. “I thought: great, the dancing mosquitoes are awake again,” says Gabi Milder-Mulderij (Bureau Biota) when numerous insects crashed into her windshield during a ride on the highway this week. I am an ecologist, but I was relieved that nature is finally waking up again. That made me hopeful.”
It has been far from an exuberant spring so far in terms of budding greenery, flying insects and foraging and breeding birds. It was cold and extremely windy and therefore nature lags behind ‘normal’. “About three weeks, I estimate,” says Joop Verburg, chairman of the Zuidwolde Nature Association.
Ten nest boxes, two occupied
Verburg has been keeping a close eye on the nature around his home for decades. His attention is mainly focused on bees, butterflies and birds. What he observes this spring does not make him happy. “I now have even more concerns than in recent years,” says Verburg. “I see even fewer butterflies and even fewer bees. Only two of the ten nest boxes around our house are occupied. That is very little.”
Verburg specializes in wild bees. “There are very few of the spring varieties that you normally see,” says Verburg. “What I do see are searching cuckoo bees.” This species (like the cuckoo) lays eggs in the nest of the subspecies it resembles, after which the larva feasts on the food supply of the host. But those other bee species, there are hardly any. “In a place where normally hundreds of sand bees dig their holes, I now only see a few dozen.”
Barely seen
The cold and wet spring plays a part, says Verburg. The flowering willow is an important source of nectar and pollen for the bees, but the willow was late. “Now it still blooms, but you don’t see the bees. The same goes for butterflies, I have hardly seen them until now.”
In general, it is certainly the case that the insect population is declining, says ecologist Milder-Mulderij. Pesticides play a major role in this, just as modern humans design their living environment. “We make our homes tight, so that insects, but also, for example, swifts and bats, have more and more difficulty finding shelter,” says Milder-Mulderij.
A fresh and wet spring will then follow. “It’s not a problem that it’s wet, after a number of summers that were considerably drier. Look around you, nature has suddenly gone wild in the past week.”