Large Marsh

The Great Schoor is once again a water area. On the southern side, Pieterjan Gijs and Arnout Van Vaerenbergh, who designed the viewing chapel in Borgloon, built a work of art called Outcrop, commissioned by the Bornem cultural center Ter Dilft. It is a man-made rock in a man-made landscape.

On the map of Ferraris, the Great Schoor is already diked; as part of the Sigma plan, the fields have been returned to the water for some months now. The lapwings, turelures, and bank swallows have reclaimed it. I walk northward towards Antwerp. In the reeds along the Scheldt hides the little bittern, you can hear it but not see it. On the dike, educational furniture is to be set up, in a last attempt to teach children some wonders of nature. An osprey is promised to be present, according to an interactive panel. Easier to spot is Cetti’s warbler, which makes its loud call everywhere. More subtly but no less present are the cuckoo and the reed warbler.

Mediahuis België