Walking Route Makkumer Zuidwaard

Directions

The Makkumersúdwaard is a kind of peninsula in the IJsselmeer. Here you walk through the herb-rich bushes and reed beds. Many different birds live in the area. The bearded man is an example of this. This special reed bird tumbles through the reeds like a real acrobat and eats insects in the summer. As soon as winter approaches, he switches to a vegetarian diet of (reed) seeds. This small reed bird adjusts its stomach to digest these seeds. The bearded male can be recognized by its characteristic 'sideburns'

In the shallow water off the coast you can regularly find small swans and mute swans from the beginning of October. More than two thousand Bewick's Swans are sometimes counted along the Frisian IJsselmeer coast, which is 20 percent of the world population. They come to the underwater plants that grow here and eat, for example, the root nodules of the pondweed. The elegant water birds disappear as soon as the tubers are gone. Until then they will be joined by ducks such as goldeneye and pochard.