This Week in Wijnjewoude: Week 44

Week 44

Walking

Been sick again this week! Just Man Flu......

But I did go for a walk one evening, just to check out the migratory birds resting on our pingos.......

Bird Migration

The Wadden Sea (Waddenzee) is where the Frisian Islands are located. Close enough to us.... Just as an aside, there are certain times of the year that the Waddenlopers (Wadden Walkers - people) can walk across to the islands. The ferries have to take often tortuous routes in order to have deep water.

Pingos (pools) opposite our place....

I've always been a little fanciful over the bird migration; simply saying something like "yeah, no wonder they are leaving". But in the last couple of weeks, I have been fascinated by the literally thousands of geese flying overhead of an evening and in the morning. Wave after wave heading, as it turns out, to and from our pingos (pools) - in the heath just over the road from us.
The pingos date from the Ice Age and are located in the Duurswoude Heide (Heath) - an area of approximately 150 hectares.
So, I finally decided to do a little research about the migratory birds of this region at least. It seems they come from even further north where their breeding grounds are located. There, during the spring and summer, there is plenty of food and fewer dangers from birds of prey or other predators. Daylight is for the best part of 24 hours so they can forage for much longer.
So, when they are flying over our house they are not necessarily heading away just yet. They are "provisioning" for the much longer flight ahead of them. Some species will actually remain in the Netherlands. It is also thought that the travel distances are becoming less as a result of global warming - that is to say they don't have to travel so far to escape the cold.
Bird migration has been followed by people since olden days. Migratory birds use the position of the sun during the day and the stars at night to orient themselves during migration. Scientists made this discovery by using mirrors to manipulate the sun's position as was visible for the birds. The birds reacted by choosing a different migration route. Birds also use rivers and canals to orient themselves. Furthermore, the magnetic field of the earth and polarized light also play a role.
The Netherlands Air Force base is located at Leeuwarden. There, they are using radar to track the routes used by the birds, in an attempt to be able to predict flight paths and so avoid collisions with aircraft. This has also been the subject of much research at and around Schiphol Airport.

Land birds migrate at high elevations. They don’t like flying over large bodies of water. Another place to see them is by sea straits, where the necessary crossing is the narrowest and is used the most often. There is a good chance of observing lots of migratory land birds every year in the north of Texel (one of the Frisian Islands). In the autumn, one can literally pick them off of the beach and bushes. The birds are so exhausted; they need to catch their breath after the wide crossing. This is also where they gather in groups in the spring, using it as a pit stop before re-crossing the North Sea - ie heading northwards to the breeding grounds.

I tried to get some photos of them overhead - but always too late to get my phone out....

this is just the tail end one morning as they left the pingos in search of food.

Around the Farm

New roof on the old shed - slowly coming along..

Our First client still with us after 9 years!

the one in the middle.....

Our Syrians leave for new home (house) in Ureterp

From the Newspaper

Food bank Friesland

The food banks in Friesland have been having trouble filling their quota. I gleaned from the article that there are approximately 1700 families in Friesland who receive food packets each week, enough food for two hot meals (i.e. per week).
The food banks have had to buy food; not a sustainable option.
The problems in Friesland are not being mirrored "down south". In fact, some places have too much food. But then arise the logistical issues of timely distribution and storage of frozen products, for example.

Our local area is Opsterland, which has 79 families making use of the Food Bank.

Changes in Health Care (that affect us)

2016 saw the transfer of the Care system funding from Federal to Local Government. Some of this has worked reasonably well for us, but our largest Local Government has been the "stingiest" in terms of providing care for it's constituents. There have been reports that the funds made available by the Federal Govt. have been underspent to the tune of 2.3 Billion Euros!, nationwide. Of more concern than that is the thought that the unspent funds are being channeled into the consolidated revenue of some of the Local Governments.

If this gets any more traction as a news story, it will surely play a role in next year's Federal Election.

From my relatively Outsider's View, I can hardly believe that they would be allowed to get away with it - the money was given to them to provide "Care" to the people living in their respective areas - our clients. One would almost think that this is a story emanating from America, not the Netherlands. Here, Government is generally relied upon, not distrusted.