This April 2017 video is about avocet mating season in the Netherlands.
This year, a record number of almost 500 avocet couples nested on the island in Breebaart nature reserve in Groningen province in the Netherlands.
Good Dutch avocet news
1
Tag Archives: Groningen
Rough-legged buzzard and larks
This photo shows an adult female rough-legged buzzard flying among a flock of horned larks flying in the same direction.
The photo is by Michael Kopijn, on 28 February 2020 in the Marnewaard area in Groningen province in the Netherlands.
Protest against George Floyd murder, Groningen tomorrow
This 1 June 2020 video from the USA is called Trump COWERS In Bunker As America Rises.
From the organisers in Groningen, the Netherlands:
02 June 2020 6:00 Grote markt square, Groningen
“A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change.”
By now we are all aware of the continuous police brutality and anti-Black violence being perpetrated in the US. In solidarity with our black siblings all over the world, we have organised a Sit-In peacefully protesting against ongoing racism in both the US and EU.
Since we are still in the midst of a pandemic, we will be taking health measures very seriously during this protest so as to avoid issues with the authorities:
1. There will be marked areas (each 2 metres apart) to sit, in order to minimise physical contact and ensure that proper social distancing rules set by the Dutch government are met.
2. Bringing a face mask and hand sanitizer is absolutely MANDATORY. If you do not have one or have any symptoms of COVID-19, we strongly encourage you to find more isolated and individual ways to support the movement against anti-Black violence.
3. Bring a blanket/ towel to sit on (optional)
4. This is a non-violent and peaceful protest so any form of disruption or aggression is strongly discouraged.
Good pallid harrier news again
This 2019 photo shows six young pallid harriers in their nest in Groningen province in the Netherlands.
Translated from Dutch Vroege Vogels radio, 21 July 2019:
This summer, a pallid harrier couple has again succeeded in raising youngsters. In 2017, a breeding pair of pallid harriers was officially registered for the first time in the Netherlands. They raised four youngsters in a Groningen grain field in a protected nest. In 2018 there was a failed breeding attempt by the same female, but then paired, unusually, with a Montagu’s harrier. And now in 2019 the story about the Dutch pallid harriers gets a very successful sequel.
Nest with six young birds
We had to wait and see if all six youngsters would make it. Large clutches like this are only possible in very good prey years. The male hunted in the fields and meadows in the area, but also flew through the backyards of local residents. And with success, because on the day the young harriers were ringed, measured and weighed, all six young birds were still present. At the beginning of July, just before the harvest of the nesting plot, all six youngsters fledged successfully.
This new success story about the pallid harriers in the Netherlands was only made possible thanks to the great cooperation by the farmer and the volunteers active at Collectief Midden Groningen with the help of our own experienced volunteers from Montagu’s Harriers – Farmland Birds Knowledge Center (GKA).
News from Spain
In addition to this breeding success in the Netherlands, good news came from Spain. There, researchers found a pair of pallid harriers with a nest. For Spain this is the first officially established breeding pair of this species. And it turns out: the female of this breeding pair has a ring with the code C|3. A ring that she received in 2017 as one of the four youngsters of the first officially established pair [for the Netherlands and western Europe] of pallid harriers! And now she is half of the first breeding pair in Spain. She raised one young bird.
See also here.
This photo shows Spanish harrier researcher and protector Ms Beatriz Arroyo with female pallid harrier C|3. C|3 was one of the four sisters which fledged in 2017 in Groningen province in the Netherlands; and now is the first mother pallid harrier which raised a young bird in Spain.
Ms Arroyo found the pallid harrier nest while looking for short-eared owl nests in northern Spain.
Dutch first-ever pallid harrier fledgling, Spain’s first-ever mother
This video is about pallid harriers / Circus macrourus @ Westerwijtwerd, Groningen province, the Netherlands, July 2017.
The first breeding pair ever in the Netherlands of this species and their youngsters.
And now, news about one of these four youngsters.
Big Shell-Exxon earthquake in Dutch Groningen
This 14 July 2017 video says about itself:
Dutch earthquakes: Oil giants facing more legal action
Oil giants Shell and Exxon Mobil are facing a new legal battle with residents of a province in the Netherlands.
Earthquakes, said to be caused by drilling for gas, have wrecked hundreds of homes.
And also many farm buildings, medieval churches and other construction.
The people of Groningen are demanding the government take more action to limit gas production. Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen reports from Groningen.
Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:
Groningen province startled by a major earthquake
This morning there has been a major earthquake in Groningen province. The KNMI reports that it had a power of 3.4. The epicentre was at Westerwijtwerd, a village in Loppersum municipality.
Last January, Groningen was also startled by an earthquake with a power of 3.4. The epicentre was then in Zeerijp, also in Loppersum municipality. 3000 damage reports came after that quake.
Update 30 May 2019: After the 22 May quake, almost 3000 damage reports so far, including scores from Drenthe province.
“This morning’s quake is now in the top 3 of the worst ones in Groningen,” says seismologist Läslo Evers of the KNMI. “This quake will have caused damage.” The heaviest quake ever in the province was in Huizinge in 2012 and had a force of 3.6.
…
Around 5.50 am the editors of regional broadcasters RTV Noord received hundreds of messages from a large part of the province from people who felt the quake.
They responded from Winsum, Ten Boer, Groningen city, Haren, Bedum, Zeerijp and Appingedam.
Prime Minister Rutte called the earthquake this morning “terrible”. In the Good Morning Netherlands TV program, he said he hoped the damage would be less than expected. According to Rutte, everyone in the nineteen fifties was still very optimistic about gas extraction, but it has now “turned into a nightmare”.
Dear Prime Minister Rutte: a nightmare largely made by your pro-Big Business right-wing VVD political party. Which has a revolving door with fossil fuel corporations like Shell. Now, at last, local VVD politicians in the northern Netherlands have lost enthusiasm about Shell, Exxon, fracking, etc. The racist far-right global warming denialist FvD is now the most slavish pro-Big Oil party.
In Westerwijtwerd after the quake, residents hang the Dutch and Groningen provincial flags today half mast: ‘Our government consciously endangers us’.
A comprehensive catalog of earthquake sequences in Texas’s Fort Worth Basin, from 2008 to 2018, provides a closer look at how wastewater disposal from oil and gas exploration has changed the seismic landscape in the basin: here.
Dutch far-right supports Shell, Exxon earthquakes
This 14 July 2017 video says about itself:
Dutch earthquakes: Oil giants facing more legal action
Oil giants Shell and Exxon Mobil are facing a new legal battle with residents of a province in the Netherlands.
Earthquakes, said to be caused by drilling for gas, have wrecked hundreds of homes.
And also many farm buildings, medieval churches and other construction.
The people of Groningen are demanding the government take more action to limit gas production. Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen reports from Groningen.
The Shell-Exxon earthquakes cause deaths, and illness for many Groningen people, including children.
Last week, there were provincial authority elections in the Netherlands. Just two days before the elections, a cocaine and alcohol addict shot four people dead in Utrecht city. All political parties stopped campaigning. as a sign of mourning. Except for the far-right FvD party, led by Thierry Baudet. The FvD, being fans of Islamophobe Donald Trump in the USA, loudly claimed that the Utrecht bloodshed was an international Muslim terrorist conspiracy (though now we still don’t know the motive of the perpetrator).
That propaganda helped FvD to win for the first time ever representation in provincial assemblies. Including in Groningen.
Now, it turns out that the FvD is the only party in Groningen which thinks that Exxon and Shell should continue to make big profits by drilling gas in Groningen. Earthquakes or no earthquakes.
Even the Groningen politicians of the right-wing national government VVD party, usually good friends of Shell and other Big Business, say that the drilling should stop. The VVD ministers in the national government say it should stop, but only in 2030.
The Groningen FvD wants Big Oil to continue drilling after 2030.
For an explanation, look again at Donald Trump. Like Trump, and like similar far-right parties in Europe, FvD denies climate change. Trumps owns shares in Big Oil; eg, in the controversial Standing Rock pipeline. I wonder where Trump disciple Thierry Baudet invests his money in.
Will it look somewhat like this John Heartfield 1932 photomontage?
It is Heartfield’s play on Hitler’s boastful claim, “Millions stand behind me.” In Heartfield’s composition, Hitler, making his famous salute, reaches behind his head to take cash from a gigantic, looming capitalist. The work’s text reads: “The real meaning of the Hitler salute: Millions Stand Behind Me––Little Man Asking for Big Donations.” The image appeared in October 1932, only months before the nazis came to power.
Even French righ-wingers Debout la France think Baudet should not use Jean-Marie le Pen’s ‘boreal’ word: here.
Thierry Baudet’s untruths on climate change: here.
Women’s March in Dutch Groningen
This photo shows the Women’s March in Groningen, the Netherlands, today. In front on the right a bag of the FNV trade union federation, and a sign saying Oprutte!; meaning right-wing Dutch Prime Minister Rutte, resign!
Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:
Just like in many cities abroad, this afternoon Groningen women also took to the streets to demonstrate against physical and psychological violence. About 150 people marched along. Among them were dozens of boys and men who are concerned about violence against LGBTQ people. …
Nashville Statement
The organization decided to see the theme more broadly than just violence against women. There was also attention for violence against LGBTQ people, partly due to the news about the [homophobic misogynist fundamentalist religious] Nashville Statement and the Dutch signatories of it.
“If we keep quiet, then we can not achieve anything, and if we march along, then we can achieve more”, says a boy who joins the Women’s March.
The Women’s March began in January 2017 in the United States, after the inauguration of Donald Trump as president. Hundreds of thousands of women took to the streets. Since that time demonstrations around the world have been organized on 19 and 20 January. In the Netherlands this happened today only in Groningen. However, a Women’s March in Amsterdam is scheduled for March 9th.
Five pine martens eating bird peanut butter
This 13 September 2018 video shows five pine martens eating bird peanut butter. Probably a female and her four youngsters.
Ms Ingeborg Meijers-Fietje made this video in her garden, close to the edge of Sellingen forest in Groningen province in the Netherlands.
Police injures activists against Shell-Exxon earthquakes
This May 2018 video, in English, from the Netherlands says about itself:
Natural gas extraction has left deep marks in Groningen [province]. And the NAM [Shell/Exxon joint venture], Shell and Exxon still thumb their noses at the climate problem and a just compensation for Groningen people [victims of gas drilling earthquakes]. …
And take part in the big civil disobedience campaign for Groningen and the climate in the Netherlands from 24 to 31 August!
This 6 August 2018 Dutch video is called THIS IS WHAT YOU MUST KNOW about the natural gas conflict in Groningen province.
The video says that the NAM corporation, a joint venture of Exxon and Shell Big Oil corporations, have extracted natural gas from Groningen worth 400 billion euros.
The earthquakes caused by the gas drilling have caused 20 billion euros in damage in Groningen: ruining homes, farms, medieval churches, etc. etc. Even as far south as Groningen city and Drenthe province the Shell/Exxon drilling earthquakes have caused and are still causing damage. They have killed people.
Meanwhile, as there is a revolving door between corporations like Shell and Dutch government, the government for a long time did nothing to stop these earthquakes or to make Shell and Exxon compensate the victims. Recently, because of massive protests by the people of Groningen, there have been some measures. However, the present Dutch right-wing government persecutes activists against the Big Oil earthquakes as ‘terrorists’.
This 26 August 2018 video is about the pro-climate anti-earthquake activists’ camp in Leermens village in Groningen. One of the banners support the Standing Rock Native Americans‘ and others’ activism against Donald Trump-supported Big Oil in the USA.
This 28 August 2018 video is about the pro-climate anti-earthquake activists at the NAM facility in Farmsum village.
This 28 August 2018 Dutch RTL TV video shows how Dutch police attacks activists with pepper spray and batons at the fence around the NAM (Shell/Exxon) facility. Police injured five people, peaceful demonstrators, then.
This is another 28 August video.
Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:
In a demonstration by the Code Rood campaign in Farmsum, a collision between Groningen police and the campaigners has once again occurred. Again batons were used, something about which the police said later they regretted it. According to the police, the truncheons should not have been used, but it did happen because of a communication error.
Since Tuesday, at a storage location of the NAM in Farmsum, action is being taken against gas production in Groningen. Truncheons were used on Tuesday evening. Five activists were wounded according to RTV Noord regional broadcaster…
Yesterday evening the protesters returned to the site and hung up banners. The police, who were prepared for their arrival, intervened according to the action group when a banner was hung on a fence. In addition, according to a spokesperson for Code Rood, people were beaten overhand with batons. “This is illegal because you can injure someone in a life-threatening way”, she added.
The action group says that two people had to go to the hospital as a result of the violence. “One with a brain concussion and another one with injuries on the arm.” The spokeswoman said to RTV Noord that the campaigners are considering making a legal declaration against the policemen. “We regret that this happened and the police should take better care of their residents, the Groningen people.”
England: Manchester Science Festival called on to end its Shell sponsorship: here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 