There is no more Dutch landscape than the Eilandspolder. Between Alkmaar and Zaandam the ditches and the meadows string together. You won’t get anywhere without a boat. Chris Rost sails us along the most beautiful places. We see avocets, black-tailed godwits and the first lapwing chicks. Landscape Noord-Holland does everything it can to help the meadow birds here. And the effort pays off: even the skylark sings out loud.
The first meadow bird stuff in the Eilandspolder – NH Nieuws
It is navigating with the large workboat of Landschap Noord-Holland through the narrow ditches of the Eilandspolder. Whenever the wind seems to get a hold of it, Chris deftly steers the barge away from the side and so we push further and further into the polder. When the engine is turned off, our ears fill with the sound of meadow birds. Lapwings, redshanks and black-tailed godwits are making themselves heard.
The most beautiful song comes from a tiny speck high up in the sky; the skylark! “Everywhere the lark is disappearing from the polder, but here it is still singing,” says Chris. “That’s because we mow very late here, so that the eggs have time to hatch.”
A lark makes its nest in the middle of the grass. That nest is small. While meadow bird nests can sometimes be noticed by a mowing farmer, that of a lark is virtually invisible. Many lark’s nests are flattened.
air force
We see a crow being chased by a string of meadow birds. Moments later, a buzzard is killed. “If many meadow birds breed together, pullen robbers have little chance.”
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We see one after the other black-tailed godwit and redshank giving chase. Others give up and return to their nests. “The birds of prey fly from one meadow bird territory to another and are thus continuously hunted.” Herons and gulls are also under fire by the Meadow Bird Air Force.
Shortage of insects
Meadow birds have no problem with what is there, but with what is not there. At least not more: insects. Chris says gloomily: “Because it gets drier and the water level in ditches for the mechanized agricultural industry is kept low in the summer, about 80 percent of the insects have disappeared.”
“Many herb-rich grasslands have also been replaced by ryegrass and there is not much life in it. That grass is also too dense, so that young meadow birds cannot get through and they have to forage for their own food.”
Fortunately, where the conditions are right, meadow birds can be seen to flourish. Like in the Eilandspolder. You cannot walk or cycle there, but you can rent a whisper boat or a kayak in the surrounding villages. Come and enjoy the magnificent meadow bird concert!