The starling is a very common bird all over Europe. It lives both in the countryside and in the middle of towns.
Farmers fear the animal, because when the cherry trees present their fruit, flogs of starlings fly around.
And when such a flock chooses your trees you're left without any cherries to pick.
So at that time you could see tens of boys with the bird-scaring rattles moving through the orchards, chasing them away.
In memory of those bygone days Frans Leferink made a sculpture of a boy with a rattle, which stands in front the nursing home 'De Zonnebloem" in Gendt.
Those "oldies" in this photo commemorating the past with a yearly festivity of light-hearted fun. If you look carefully, one can see the dark statue somewhere in the middle of the smiling faces.