The godwit, the wheatear, the cockle and the herring gull, but also peat moss: all plants and animal species that determine North Holland’s nature. Dick de Vos wrote a book about it: Canon of Dutch Nature. NH went out with him in the Noordduinen.
NNH 120 Canon of Dutch nature Nature Canon Dick de Vos – NH News
It looks like we got it right: a wheatear. A little later it turns out to be a stonechat and that is much less rare. “The wheatear breeds in rabbit holes,” says Dick. “The rabbits have almost completely disappeared from the dunes due to diseases, so the wheatear is having a hard time. They are still found here near Den Helder. Conservationists keep rabbit holes open by hand so that wheatears can still breed there.” The stonechat, on the other hand, is much more common. “It’s not in the canon.”
Text continues after photo
The godwit is of course also included: the symbol of the North Holland meadows. “A beautiful animal,” says Dick. “Although you may wonder whether it is really a Dutch bird; it spends most of its time in Africa. It comes here around February-March, makes a nest, breeds, and with luck raises some young and in August- he left again.”
Text continues after photo
We walk through the dunes and see the marram grass. “Thanks to that marram grass, the dunes were formed behind which North Holland could grow. Another plant was decisive there: the peat moss. It started to grow en masse in the freshwater ponds that could form behind the dunes. Metre-thick packages of peat were created, where later peat has been cut again, the fuel for the Dutch economy.”
Text continues after photo
On the beach we first enjoy another canon species: the herring gull. But under our feet we trample the species we actually came for: the cockle.
“Clams live en masse just under the sand in the coastal zone that dries up. They filter their food from the water and are themselves eaten en masse by knots (which are a type of waders, SR), shelducks and by us, humans. The shells that wash up are mostly fossils, they died centuries ago and were buried under the sand.”
The book Canon of Dutch Nature is full of these kinds of stories. Highly recommended for those who want to eat more from the nature around us.