Desert island birds, plants and algae

This 8 September 2018 photo shows Elytrigia juncea grass growing on low sand dunes of Het Rif, a sandbank, or desert island, just north of Engelsmanplaat sandbank, or desert island.

We were still on that 8 September 2018 at the two sandbanks, or desert islands, Engelsmanplaat and Het Rif in the Wadden Sea.

As also this photo shows, on Het Rif there are small sand dunes with Elytrigia juncea plants. Contrary to Engelsmanplaat: practically completely under water at high tide, very few plants; only birds nesting: one oystercatcher couple. On Het Rif, this year for the first time an eider duck couple nested. In 2015, there were 262 common tern nests, 174 Arctic tern nests and 30 little tern nests.

Between the Rif plants, sometimes a white feather gets stuck (small detail, far left on this photo).

This photo shows the feather more closely.

This photo shows the various colours of sand in the non-dune areas of Het Rif.

This photo shows Engelsmanplaat, with Het Rif in the background.

This photo shows birds, mostly gulls, flying around Engelsmanplaat. We saw a ringed plover on that sandbank.

The clouds above Engelsmanplaat sometimes became darker, but it did not rain.

Many seashells on Engelsmanplaat.

Not just seashells: this photo also shows a track of a rather big bird; a lesser black-backed gull or herring gull? And tracks of smaller (wader?) birds. And greenish diatom algae. And sand ejected by Phyllodoce maculata worms.

This photo shows the big and smaller bird tracks in still more detail.

And this photo concentrates on the diatoms.

Stay tuned, as there will be another blog post about wildlife around Lauwersmeer national park after 8 September at the desert islands!