Lithse Ham and Meuse river 1152 AM 250312_1059

Riverside of the river Meuse with the water basin De Lithsche Ham in the background.
A goosander male lands, right in front of me, near a female. She lets out that short humming sound.

It's a lovely day in March. A gentle breeze is blowing. Birds are making their presence known as the nesting season begins. Across the river, to the left, I see the first houses of Heerewaarden in the province of Gelderland. Opposite me lies a closed-off branch of the river.

Birds detected by Birdnet-analyser software

Birds detected by Birdnet-analyser
#7:21 #7:57 #8:03 #8:06 Carrion Crow
#6:51 #6:54 #7:00 Common Chiffchaff
#0:06 #0:21 #0:27 Common Merganser
#1:45 #1:51 Eurasian Blue Tit
#0:18 #1:09 #1:12 #1:15 Eurasian Coot
#2:42 #2:57 #3:12 #3:30 Eurasian Oystercatcher
#2:10 #2:18 #4:30 #4:51 #5:24 #5:33 Greaylag Goose
#3:56 #4:06 Hooded Crow (confidence ca. 55%)

More tracks today / More around here trough the years

Date/time: March 12 2025, start 11:52 AM

Weather: 6-8 c, clouds 76%, wind WSW 13-16 km/h, 1001 hPa, humidity 78%, dewpoint 4 c, visibility 34 km.

Location; De Lithsche Ham and Maas river, North-Brabant , Netherlands (Holland), Europe. GPS 51.82002 5.41537

Gear chain: Sennheiser mkh30/50 MS, pointed NE 51°, in Rycote cyclone small, windjammer > Sound Devices 302 >Tascam dr-100 Mk2. Decoded Mid-side to STEREO. Noise floor: 34 dBA ( whisper )

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History
Julius Caesar
Archaeologists have found traces of a battle between Germanic tribes and the troops of Julius Caesar here at the Lithse Ham, where I am now making these sound recordings. The battle took place in 55 BC.

Caesar already bragged about his victory in his writing “De Bello Gallico. Iron swords, spearheads, belt hooks, coat pins and bones have been found in the area. The bones and tooth enamel have been analyzed, this shows that the human remains are indeed of Germanic origin.

Julius Caesar wrote official reports about his campaigns and conquest of Gaul. He described battles in such a way that it seemed grander and better than it really was. In this way he justified his choices and tried to influence public opinion. Caesar portrayed the two tribes as a major threat.
In reality, the tribes turned out not to be such a great threat at all. They even requested asylum from Caesar. The tribes were only 160,000 Germanic people, including women and children.

The village of Lith
The village of Lith in the Netherlands may be the most beautiful village on the river. The dikes built along the Meuse River in the 13th century served to contain the waters of the Meuse River so that the land inside the dike remained usable. But hostile water did not always allow itself to be defeated by them. The inhabitants of Lith could then make do via the many village paths on high sand ridges. Hard-pressed farmers could thus find a way out with their cattle to higher ground and inhabitants could get to the dike, church and school with dry feet. Lith's paths also proved their worth during the war with the French between about 1800.

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