Week 35 Otters

Week 35

Otters and other animals

Monday. Janny and one of our clients saw a dead otter on the freeway near the Oude Diep. We reported it (to whom?). They are apparently making a strong comeback in the wild. The "experts" came to our place to pick the otter up - Peter had gone back to get it from the side of the road. It was a young female - and the 10th found dead by the side of the road this year (19 in total last year). 

This was the first on the new freeway, which was constructed with tunnels for otters and other animals. The young ones can still find "the wrong way to go". They estimate that there are (only) 40 otters in the wild in Friesland. It was therefore very "noteworthy" that there are young - even though it had come to grief on the freeway. The discussion also revealed that they can live in the forest - as long as there is water nearby. We have enough of both near our place.

Edit: I looked up otters and found that in the Netherlands as a whole, "they had died out by 1988 - and between 2002 and 2008, 33 otters were released in Overijssel and South-west Friesland". A national research project is in place to try to determine how far they have spread.

A similar project is in place for beavers!

Squirrels (eekhoorns)

Janny also spotted a squirrel in our trees "out the back". The same trees that we put the bird boxes in, earlier in the year. I used to see squirrels quite often, in the forest over the road, but not for the last 8 - 10 years.

Edit. I just looked it up and found that "it has not been going well for squirrels" since 2006!

Eekhoorns in Friesland

The article says that the "squirrel-counters" have reported few sightings and empty nests. We can also report our sighting so that they can try to get some idea of where they are.

3 April, 2006


Het lijkt niet goed te gaan met de eekhoorns in Fryslân. Bij het monitoren van eekhoorns, wat gebeurd aan de hand van het tellen van eekhoornnesten, worden volgens alle deelnemende tellers van eekhoornnesten steeds minder of helemaal geen bewoonde nesten meer gevonden. En eekhoorns worden ook al heel weinig meer gezien.

Bij de Vereniging voor Veldbiologie KNNV afdeling Drachten is dit ook besproken en daar is het initiatief vandaan gekomen om losse waarnemingen te registreren zodat we na verloop van tijd (voorlopig 1 jaar) in ieder geval nog weten of ze en waar ze in Fryslân nog voorkomen.

U kunt de waarnemingen doorgeven met de waarnemingskaart of stuur een e-mail met uw naam, adres en telefoonnummer en zo nauwkeurig mogelijk de plek van de waarneming aan: drachten@knnv.nl

Snakes

In 25 years I have only seen 2 snakes in all my wanderings through the forest near our place - and they were both in the same (very dry) year.

It was mentioned on Facebook (!) that a local dog had been bitten by a snake - not lethal, at least.

Around the farm...

Limited success with the pumpkins. The cucumbers and multi-coloured carrots have been the best!

A quick weekend away...

We had a weekend free of other people's ideas of how we should spend our time! Well, not really, we still had some kids coming but Janny managed that and a few other loose ends, so that we could get away on the boat.

Just across to Boornzwaag, about 2.5 hours away by boat and only 10kms "as the crow flies".

The green line is 20.9kms. The return trip red line is just 20kms - but took us much longer because we went slowly, just to enjoy "being there". I even had time to take some photos.

From the terrace of the restaurant at Boornzwaag.

Our little boat is out there amongst the palm trees... even though they needed to put the terrace heaters on for us!

From the newspaper...

Wed 30th august newspaper
In 2004, the then director of the Central Planning Bureau (CPB) observed that the "feeling" of most Netherlanders was that "it's going OK with me, but not so good for us". Now, 13 years later, the situation is reversed. That is to say that people are positive about the economy but are more negative about their own situation.
In short, since the turn of the century, the economy has grown by 12%, but disposable income has declined by 3%. Wages and salaries are lagging behind the economic growth.
The article goes on to talk about the growth of the "share of the pie" that goes to shareholders compared with that which goes to employees. In 2013, it was calculated that employees should receive about 78 cents from every Euro. In 2016, this share had decreased to 73 cents. The French economist, Thomas Piketty, is one of the strongest in declaring that shareholders and multinationals are having much more power and workers much less.
A Dutch economist (with the unlikely name of Van Mulligen!) declares that Multinationals are seeking to pay lower wages and lower taxes and that "therefore Dutch workers are competing with workers in China. This is also true for other industrialised countries."
The article concludes by saying that there doesn't appear to be much chance of salary increases. Unions have to become stronger and focus more on salary increases rather than the many smaller side issues.

Infrastucture

I am often amazed at how the infrastructure "just keeps going", even throughout the downturn in the economy. There is a project closer to home, due to be finished early in 2018.

The Joure Roundabout. When I first came here there were two that I heard people talk about - Knooppunt Heerenveen and Knooppunt Joure ( a knoop is a knot - or in other words a meeting of several roads requiring complicated roundabouts or other traffic solutions. Heerenveen was dealt with years ago, and they continued to "tweak" Joure, but it has always remained a problem as far as traffic jams and hold ups.

Pen was put to paper 10 years ago and the works are now progressing.

This live webcam gives a fairly good impression.

http://www.directbeeld.nl/knooppuntjoure/fullscreen/index.php