Hof der dingen - Wooden stork from Zwin Nature Park

With the Zwin Natuur Park, our province is home to one of the country’s most beautiful and best-known nature reserves. 

From history lessons, we know that the Zwin was originally the sea inlet that connected Bruges to the North Sea. Through the Zwin, Bruges was accessible to ships and, in the 12th century, became an important trading hub. The mouth was once over six kilometres wide. As the channel silted up, Bruges became inaccessible, and outer harbours such as Damme and Sluis had to be developed. 

The Zwin became a protected landscape in 1939, and in 1952 Count Léon Lippens declared it the first official nature reserve in Belgium. The area is home to many seabirds and dune rabbits, as well as a wide variety of waterfowl. On the inland side of the dike there is a stork breeding station. 

Since 2019, Zwin Nature Park has been running a scientific study on the migration patterns of storks. These movements are tracked by means of a transmitter attached to the bird. The transmitters are purchased by sponsors, who automatically become the godfather or godmother of that stork. As a keepsake, the sponsor receives a small wooden stork. 

Here you see the wooden stork belonging to the so-called Zwingidsen (Zwin guides), who in 2021 sponsored two transmitters. The first was fitted to Murshid, the Arabic word for guide. The second stork was named Gerana, a figure from Greek mythology. 

Fun fact: Gerana, the beautiful queen of the Pygmies, had angered the goddess Hera. At the time, the Pygmies were at war with the storks, so Hera thought it fitting revenge to turn Gerana into a stork. And so it was: from that day on, Gerana was destined to live as a stork… 

Come by and see Zwin Natuur Park in all its glory…