Spring waits silently in the meadows.
Spring formerly announced itself with meadow birds singing, cheering, shouting,
including melancholy songs and exotic choreographies of flight and sky fighting.
Nowadays Spring waits silently in the meadows.
There are no longer enthusiastic acoustic selfies of the black-tailed Godwits.
No veiled, atonal selfie of the Lapwing.
No escalating communal singing by the Oystercatchers.
No melancholy sounds of the Redshank or the Curlew.
Total silence, only broken by the sedulous continued plowing agriculture machinery.
However, there are still sanctuaries like De Heanmar (Staatsbosbeheer) near Koudum and the Workumerwaard, (It Fryske Gea),
places where birds still have space and are left in peace.
These are areas, where during Springtime the old atmosphere predominates.
The former sounds remain, including the beautiful flight acrobatics.
In these two Sanctuaries, I photographed three successive spring seasons and tried to capture the awesome movements of the birds.
Especially Godwits, Ruffs, Oystercatchers, Lapwings and Redshanks appeared in front of my camera.
It is beautiful to watch them busy with their pursuits and it is sad to realize how fast the meadow birds decline in number.
The threat of their disappearance from our country is huge.
An overview of my experience has been shown at an exhibition of my photos shown at the Visitor Centre Mar en Klif, Oudemirdum in the summer of 2017. It is openend (zie Facebook) by prof. dr. T. Piersma.
- Lagwings
- Lapwings
- Lapwings
- Blacktailed Godwits
- Blacktailed Godwits
- Blacktailed Godwits
- Blacktailed Godwit in the grass, calling
- Low flying Blacktailed Godwit above meadow.
- A classic: Blacktailed Godwit on the lookout
- Ruff in shallow water
- Ruffs in airbattle
- Ruff, showing.
- Two ruffs in nature reserve Heanmar, Koudum, Friesland. Spring 2018.
- Two ruffs in nature reserve Heanmar, Koudum, Friesland. Fighting above the water.
- Two ruffs in nature reserve Heanmar, Koudum, Friesland. Redshank in the foreground.