Birds of Rottumerplaat desert island

This video says about itself:

Wadden Sea on UNESCO World Heritage list

28 June 2009

Wadden Sea National Park is an excellent example of a coastal wetland between Den Helder in the Netherlands and Esbjerg in Denmark. It is the largest unbroken stretch of intertidal mudflats in the world, and the perfect example of a coastal wetland with high biological, hydrological and ecological importance, shared between three countries: Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark.

The area is of international importance being a nursery of marine life, a resting, moulting and feeding area for several millions of migratory birds, and a habitat for thousands of birds, seals and many other species.

The Wadden Sea, an estuary of the North Sea, has a total area of about 8000 square km. It is the world’s biggest coherent habitat of its kind and one of the last unspoiled estuaries in Europe. There are many varied and extensive habitats in the Wadden Sea. This important estuary includes the salt marshes along the coast line as well as the islands and dunes.

The mud flats consist of the areas which get flooded twice a day and then fall dry again, and of the channel system of tideways, channels and shipping channels between the islands, which are responsible for the flooding and for the draining.
The mud flats are known for their very low inclination which is usually less than 1 meter of difference in altitude on a 1000 meter long stretch.

About fifty islands and islets protect the shallow Wadden Sea.

Warden Bart Ebbinge reports today on the birdlife of Rottumerplaat desert island in the Dutch Wadden Sea this spring.

On 15 April, the first barn swallows, a couple, inspected the roof of the wardens’ house, where barn swallows had also nested last year.

Dunlin are the most numerous waders, thousands of them. There are also many curlews, oystercatchers and black-bellied plovers. On the rocks on the east side of the island there are hundreds of turnstones.

On 6 April, the first daffodil flower of the year.

Already in March, grey lag geese had started nesting.

On 13 April, the wardens found a common eider nest with four eggs. However, most eider females will start nesting later.