GrassBirdHabitats: BFVW

Bond Friese VogelWachten (BFVW)

The Bond Friese VogelWachten is a Dutch nature conservation organisation. It is committed to making the bird-rich province of Fryslân a permanent home or stopping place for all types of birds, with an emphasis on meadow birds.

The Federal Bureau of the BFVW is kept running by three paid employees and a completely voluntary Central Board, currently consisting of seven members. The field work is done by 3,500 active volunteers that put a lot of effort into protecting the birds, monitoring them and providing them with nesting and foraging facilities.

Very flat grassland landscape. The grass is very short. Two men walk on the grass while... — Volunteers in the field looking for nests. Photo: BFVW

Very flat grassland landscape. In the front is a bird nest on the ground. There are two... — Volunteers just found a clutch and are now on their way to the next. Photo: BFVW

A man jumps over a water-filled ditch using a long wooden pole. — Some volunteers use a polsstok (pole) to leap over ditches. Photo: BFVW

Two men stand on a flat grassland landscape in front of a few cows. One of the men holds a... — Nowadays drones are used to assist the volunteers. Photo: BFVW

Top-down view of four brown-dotted bird eggs. They lie next to each other in a nest made... — Clutch of a Common Redshank. This is a complete clutch, because it has four eggs. Photo: BFVW

A Lapwing rests on short grass vegetation. Directly next to its wing stands a fluffy bird... — Northern Lapwing with a one-week-old chick. Photo: BFVW

Close-up view of very young Black-tailed Godwit chicks. Next to the chicks are two eggs,... — A clutch of the Black-tailed Godwit during hatching. Photo: BFVW

A Eurasian Oystercatcher is standing on short grass. Next to it stand three young chicks.... — Eurasian Oystercatcher with three chicks. Photo: BFVW

A woman is standing on a ladder that leans against a tree. She is using an electric... — Nest boxes are put up for all kinds of birds, e.g. Great Tit and Eurasian Blue Tit. Photo: BFVW

Based on the findings of the volunteers, the agricultural collectives can issue last-minute management on areas where chicks are still present and redistribute management among the farmers for the following season.

Within the LIFE project GrassBirdHabitats, BFVW is working on the following actions:

Training and recruiting of new volunteers
Monitoring of the meadow bird populations in Fryslân
Nest and chick protection in Fryslân
Raising awareness for meadow bird-friendly grassland farming in the Netherlands

BFVW team

Inge van der Zee

Project coordination, volunteer supervision

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René van Dam

Volunteer supervision, volunteer course management

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