The clay pit of the Vatrop nature reserve is normally a place where birds are only too happy to land to look for food or to rest in the water. But due to the ongoing drought, there is not a drop of water left in many nature reserves. According to Marc Plomp, of the Bird Information Center in De Cocksdorp on Texel, the drought is causing a lack of food for migratory birds.
The breeding season is now fortunately over, but birds such as curlews, oystercatchers, redshanks and pink godwits still experience many problems due to the persistent drought. “All those young birds that have fledged now have to go looking for food,” explains Marc Plomp, “but they can no longer use their beaks in the hard ground.”
“That is a loss for migrating birds,” says Plomp. After a long journey, those birds look for a place where they can easily find insects. For example, in the clay soil near the nature reserve near Vatrop, but no insects live there anymore.
“It’s a bit of a switch for those animals”
In addition, the birds also miss their safe resting place, which they normally find at a nature reserve or lake. “Predators cannot get to that,” says Plomp. But there are fewer and fewer of them due to the drought, so nowadays migratory birds have to look carefully for a suitable place to rest. “They also find those places, but it does take a while for those animals,” says Plomp.
Possibly more dead birds
Plomp cannot say for sure whether the drought also leads to more dead birds. Due to the bird flu, many birds are already dying. He does, however, suspect that additional birds will die due to lack of food. “Birds now have to look for food in a smaller area than usual, which causes extra victims.”
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