Cees Dijker found Texel’s first lapwing egg in the Eendracht yesterday morning. It is not the first time that the 81-year-old Texel has found the first lapwing egg. “I’ve lost count,” he confesses.
Dijker does not have very special techniques, but he still finds almost every hair the first egg of the island or even the province. “I saw the lapwings in another area, but found the egg again in the Eendracht,” says Dijker. “It’s not always easy, but now the egg was quite easy to find.” After Dijker has found the egg, he puts it back on the nest.
Dijker says about the time of the discovery. “It’s middle time, neither early nor late. You’ll always find one between the 10th and the 15th.” He’s been doing this for a long time now. “I’ve been looking for them for 70 years. I used to be able to run and now I still do,” he says. Then a prize was awarded to whoever found the egg first. “Then I did it for the money and now for the fun.”
Fewer nests
Dijker does not know how long he will continue to search. “I say every year that I quit,” he says. Still, he thinks it won’t be the last time. “It is also difficult for me to drive past it, then I want to take a look.”
Dijker notices that in the past there were many more lapwing nests on the island than now. “There used to be a hundred nests on the field where I walked yesterday,” he says. “Now there are about five. There are also many robbers here such as crows, rats and cats, the harrier and the buzzard.” Dijker thinks it is a shame and thinks that not many young lapwings grow up.
“There will always be lapwings, but it is now very moderate. We can’t do anything about it.” Dijker says that nowadays it is easier for farmers to drive around the nests. “I used to put a stop to it and now you can do that with GPS.”