The godwit was here

Directors: Barbara Makkinga

Bote de Boer, a farmer in Tjerkwerd in Southwest Friesland, is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the black-tailed godwit. This meadow bird is a rare sight in Friesland, yet it keeps returning to his farm, in large numbers at that. This year, as always, everything is ready for the godwit’s arrival. The groundwater is high and the ponds have been dug. The old-fashioned meadow grass is brimming with herbs and insects, just the way the godwits like it. Astrid, Bote’s wife, allows her husband his birds. If it were just the two of them, she would let him to do his own thing. But it isn’t just the two of them – they have five children. The older sons would like to take over the farm in the future. But for that there would still have to be a farm to take over. Seeing their father’s love for the birds saddens the sons. If only he paid the same amount of attention to the cows, he would see that they are not performing well on the old-fashioned meadow grass. The farm is not doing well: the cow shed and tractor need replacing. They need cash, but the bank is not impressed by the godwits: they want to see healthy annual figures. “Everyone loves the birds on our land,” Astrid says. “But nobody wants to pay for them.”

While the farming family tries to survive, the same goes for the godwits. Starving hungry when they arrive, they pull fat worms out of the ground. After a bath in the pond, the great courtship dance can begin. Because the black-tailed godwit came from Africa for a purpose: it has to reproduce, or face extinction. While the nesting black-tailed godwits hide in the tall grass, Bote proudly shows bird lovers around. Members of the local birdwatching club come to count the eggs, and scientists from the University of Groningen ring the chicks. Even the provincial members and local leader of the BBB ‘farmers’ party’ drop by. Every visit invariably ends at the kitchen table, and the question: “What next?” It refers not only to the ever-shrinking black-tailed godwit population, but sometimes the De Boer family farm as well. Marc, the oldest son, decides not to wait for the outcome. He buys a dairy farm in Portugal, far away from the Netherlands and all its stifling regulations. “Everyone asks if I’m upset about it,” says Astrid. “But I’m happy for Marc. I do feel sorry for the sons who are left behind.” One, Jan Jochem, knows what they should do: “Get rid of all those birds,” he tells his father. “Tractor over it and level the lot.” And then the new nitrogen reduction measures have yet to reach Friesland from The Hague…