Finally rest for birds: kilometre-long closure with three wires must be foxes out of the nature reserve to keep

Beveren There is a conspicuous wire barrier built around the reserve Pits-West in Kieldrecht. It is going to be a closure of 1.2 metres high, with three wires. Who should not to keep animals in, but to be cunning predators to keep out. The main player in this story is Reinaert de Vos. “Who will find here a real buffet if the birds are breeding,” says forester, Bram Vereecken.

Birds such as the lapwing, oystercatcher, black-tailed godwit and redshank nest not in trees, but, as the name suggests, they make their nest on the ground in open meadows. “Ground-breeding birds prefer wide open plains, because they are predators than from far away to see,” explains forester, Bram Vereecken. “Unfortunately, we find this kind of areas are becoming less in Flanders. By early mowing in the agriculture, the breeding success in this species of birds is very low in intensively managed meadows. We help them a helping hand by nature in to focus where they feel at home.”

Wells-West has been one of the places where birds flock perch but Nature and Forest of the Flemish government saw the numbers of the last years are strongly reduced. The cause was quickly found, a strong increase of grondpredatie by, among other things, the return of the fox in our regions. “Just their presence is enough to the birds to scare them off”, says Bram Vereecken. “Where the birds are, there are also predators. That is what it is in the nature. Here is, however, no question of a balance. Due to the lack of suitable nesting sites, loft, large numbers of birds together in relatively small areas. For the foxes is that a buffet, of course. We must in such a case, however, occur to rare and vulnerable species to protect.”