Faraaz Abdool visits the Wadden Sea and Halligen Islands in the north of Germany, an area protected as a birding habitat. What are the lessons for birding in northeast Tobago?

At the north of Germany, the Wadden Sea National Park was recognised as an Unesco biosphere reserve back in 1990. The five inhabited Halligen islands were added as a development zone in 2005.

This North Sea protected area consists of grey, featureless tidal mudflats – the largest such ecosystem in the world spanning 4,500 square kilometres across three countries. There are no verdant valleys or misty mountains, or even azure, idyllic stretches of ocean here. The vast majority of the organisms that utilise this habitat live in the mud, their daily struggles unnoticed, their existence only visible when violently yanked into the above-surface world by one of millions of migratory shorebirds – called waders – on those shores of the Atlantic.

The tidal mudflat ecosystem across the world has been exploited and largely compromised by human development. If life is not immediately visible, it is difficult to drive the point home that the habitat is still valuable.

In the education centre at the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea Biosphere Reserve, exhibition manager Claus von Hoerschelmann explained the intricate linkages at the surface and sub-surface levels across the mudflat. Life-size and oversized models of clams, molluscs, and worms are used to illustrate their roles at varying depths in a cross-section of mud.

Birders are big spenders

Birds, of course, are pivotal in the survival of the mudflat. In fact, the Wadden Sea is noted as a critical habitat for 12-15 million migratory birds, as it is situated along the East Atlantic migratory flyway.

The reserve is a major attraction for birders during peak migration season. Birders are known as the highest spenders within the sustainable tourism market. They descend on the park when bird activity is highest, scouring the extensive mudflats for anomalies within the endless tapestry of brown and grey feathers.

Although visiting birders are valuable to the local economy, they do not visit the park all year. Once the migrant birds take flight after their brief refuelling stop at the reserve, much of the birder activity drops off.

There are still many birds present, however, and some of these still attract tourists. A small species of goose, the brent goose (Brant in North America) spends a few weeks during April and May at the biosphere reserve, feeding intently before continuing their journey to their breeding grounds in Siberia. The reserve holds annual Brent Geese Days to celebrate the birds and educate people about them and their habitat.

[caption id="attachment_1085138" align="alignnone" width="683"] A brent goose, or brant, the cornerstone of the Brent Geese Days, now an icon of the biosphere reserve and key to the identity of the national park. - Faraaz Abdool[/caption]

Events built on nature and culture are hosted while thousands of these geese roam and feed at very close range,