The Wadden Sea

The Wadden Sea is truely an amazing place. The area holds large numbers of birds year round with peak numbers during spring and autumn. Aerial surveys of the area done by the University of Aarhus three times a year. This winter a large part of the area was covered with ice so birds were concentrated in few areas and many species were less numerous than in normal years.

2/2 Grey Seals on a sandy bank just northwest of Mandø. Grey Seals are scarce visitors to Danish waters. Numbers have been increasing in recent years, especially in the Baltic near Ertholmene north of Bornholm. Any comments regarding the identification of the two sandy-colored seals in the main group would be greatly appreciated.  

2/2 Langli is the northernmost island in the Danish part of the Waddensea. It is no longer inhabited and is today a wildlife reserve, mainly because of its large numbers of breeding gulls and terns. Spoonbills are now also breeding in small numbers on the southern part of the island. The island has several Danish firsts, including Asian Desert Warbler, Booted Warbler and Elegant Tern. Other rare birds include Bridled Tern and Laughing Gull. I visited the island twice in the late spring of 2010 with a Subalpine Warbler as the first passerine on one morning.

2/2 The island of Mandø is famous for rare birds. It is the smallest of the four islands in the Danish part of the Waddensea that can be visited all year round. The many isolated bushes are magnets for eastern passerines during the autumn and good for more scarce passerines as eg. Wryneck in spring. In October 2011 the island had Red-eyed Vireo (Danish first), Little Bunting, Gyrfalcon, Red-necked Phalarope, Richards Pipit, Great White Egrets and several Yellow-browed Warblers in a single day. Other Danish firsts from the island include Blackpoll Warbler.

RDN