De wereld is plat - door de vogelkijker van Theunis Piersma

Biologist Theunis Piersma stands on a mud flat and listens to what sounds like rain. Those are cockles opening and closing in the swampy earth. Piersma is happily surprised, too: you do not hear this very often. The scientist was presented with the Prins Bernhard Culture Fund Award for Nature Conservation in 2004. Apart from carrying out research of the bird population in the Netherlands, Piersma is engaged in convincing authorities of the importance of a healthy environment. One moment, we see him weighing graybacks at the Royal Institute for Marine Research, the next he is offering Royal Commissioner in Friesland Ed Nijpels a booklet about the significance of mussel beds to the bird population of the Wadden Sea. 'I think the world is too crude and that we could do better. Not everything has to be destroyed for a better economy', Piersma says, who calls his work a hobby that got out of hand. His activities lend themselves for gorgeous, panoramic shots of the Wadden area, but also for a scene in his garden, where he studies swallows nesting under his roof.