News
Small reddish balls of mucus on the waddensea floor indicate the approach of spring. Each gelatinous ball contains about 100,000 eggs of the gill-wearing thread worm (Scoloplos armiger). Each ball has been produced by one female and several males in a sleepless night. Egg balls of different colour origin from the red thread worm (brown), the spotted paddle worm (green) or the gallery worm (yellow). Birds do not eat the egg balls as warming them up in the guts costs more energy than the balls deliver.
Walking the winter beach one often meets small greyish white birds running hastily along the water line. Always in a hurry as if trying to avoid wet feet they run in small flocks along the edge of the waves. They pick up small food items which are washed ashore every now and then. Sometimes the also swallow small plastic items... As surf beaches hardly ever freeze over the sanderlings can hibernate at the Northsea coast. Only in early june when the northernmost tundra melts free the sanderlings are the last migratory birds to leave the Waddensea, heading for their high arctic breeding grounds.
Zur Erforschung von Meeresmüll und seiner Verteilung in der südlichen Nordsee hat die Uni Oldenburg am 5.10. südwestlich von Helgoland die ersten 800 Holzdrifter in die Nordsee werfen lassen. Alle Strandläufer sind aufgerufen, ab sofort nach den etwa 15 cm großen Holzklötzen Ausschau zu halten und die Fundorte und Nummern der Drifter zu melden. Fundmedlungen sind möglich über die BeachExplorer-Website (siehe unten) oder über www.macroplastics.de. Wir sind gespannt, von wo die ersten Meldungen kommen!
The weather is still warm, but according to the season the first arctic migratory birds arrive in the Wadden Sea. Ten thousands of widgeons are aready here and moult their tail and contour feathers. Brent geese whithout offspring have moulted early in Siberia and are back here as well. Successful breeders of brent will arrive in larger numbers around the 10th of octobre. Snow buntings may be expected back in our saltmarshes at any moment. They feed on the copious seeds of sea purslane, later also on saltwort seeds. Regular bird observers may report their observations on www.ornitho.de
A small hermit crab from southern parts of the North Sea ist spreading northward. Already in 2008 the south-claw hermit that lives on exposed beaches in small snail shells had reached the island of Sylt. During cold winters after 2008 the species disappeared from the german Wadden Sea. Now it is spreading again. All beach combers are requested to search for small, left-handed, very vivid hermit crabs. The south-claw hermit is less timid than the common hermit crab, which led to its scientific name "pugilator" = boxer. It lives in the surf zone of beaches and can bury itself with its snail house!
August is the month of feathers in the Wadden Sea. All beaches are littered with small or large moulted feathers of ducks, gulls and waders. Almost all bird species change their complete plumage now. Many feathers are very torn, which proves the necessity of the annual moult. In the inner Wadden Sea prevail feathers of gulls and waders. At the seaward side feathers of black scoters are very abundant. Eider duck, shelduck and whimbrel contribute also a great share to feather flotsams along the coast. Feather identification is facilitated by the laminated feather determination card from www.idee-konzept.de
Ab Anfang Juli bevölkert sich das Watt zunehmend mit langschnäbligen Watvögeln. Sie sind entweder schon mit dem Brutgeschäft fertig, oder haben ihren Nachwuchs an Polarfuchs, Raubmöwen oder Schneeeulen verloren. Nun erholen sie sich im Wattenmeer bei Wärme und guter Futterversorgung von der hektischen Brutzeit in der nordischen Tundra. Außerdem beginnt nun die Vollmauser: der Wechsel des gesamten Gefieders. Verteilt über zwei bis drei Monate fallen alle Federn aus und wachsen neu nach. Eiweißreiches Futter und viel Ruhe sind nun besonders wichtig für die Zugvögel.
The Wadden Sea is a nursery ground for many North Sea species. Among them is the whiting, a fish related to cod but without barbet. In some years whiting can be very abundant in the Wadden Sea. "Whiting years" were dreaded by shrimp fishermen, since baby whitings can successfully eradicate baby shrimps. For the first time since about 20 years a whiting year might be coming. Everywhere in net catches and sometimes even washed ashore can young whitings be found. At present they are aout 7 cms long.
Attentive visitors of the coast can discover these days small chicks or even complete families of coastal birds. Redshanks warn conspiciously while their young stay hidden in the grass. Chicks of the Ringed plover on the other hand live in dangereous places like trails, parking lots and visitor beaches. Their parents try to distract a potential enemy by pretending to be wounded. Hopping and cheeping the adult bird lures the aggressor away from the hidden chicks - until it eventually flies away.