Now that the mowing season has started, volunteers are ready to save bird nests from lawnmower death. They use sticks to mark off a safe zone for the farmer, so that he knows where to stop mowing. “You don’t mow over a nest, you don’t do that.”
Four strong guys from Mariahout, on a wall, in a row. All four with a green cap and heavy binoculars around their necks. They look for bird nests in the grass. Or better said: the activity of birds around that grass. To find out where the nests are and save them from being killed by mowing. Because that grass needs to be mowed.
They are not allowed to get too close, because birds are extremely afraid of people. More afraid than of hikers, apparently. So the men sit at an appropriate distance.
One of them is Jan. Jan is 85 and a plumber, with a big, beating heart for everything that has to do with nature. “That here, what you hear, is the sound of the farm landscape,” he says as he peers over the grassland. He’s been doing this for 25 years. His eyes are no longer the sharpest, because ‘cataracts are on their way’ and estimating depth is no longer possible. But together with the rest he will be fine.
The volunteers have been observing the field for a month to find out where the birds are breeding. “There are three godwit nests and one curlew nest there,” says Jan. All ‘critical birds’.
They are threatened with extinction. So when the volunteer bird watchers spot a nest, they are happy to put a stop to it. “Don’t mow here,” they say to the farmer. And that applies to a hundred square meters around it. “Meadow birds and the current form of agriculture do not actually go together. Unless you take protective measures,” explains Fien Oost of Brabants Landschap.
She is connected to Mariahout to keep an eye on things, even with her binoculars on. Brabants Landschap is the binding factor between farmers and volunteers. They even compensate farmers with compensation for the money they miss because of their unmown grass. This also applies to farmer Bart van Berkel. The farmer with the best alliterative name in all of Mariahout.
“It’s life after all,” says farmer Bart. “If you have to mow around it, then you do it,” he says firmly. It may not be the easiest option for the farmer, but for Bart it feels obvious. “So it does take some effort and some money, but you don’t mow over a nest. You don’t do that.”
