Spring Staging Knots (Calidris canutus islandica), Hallig Langenes, National Park Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea, Germany
In April and into the first decade of May almost the entire population of knots breeding on Greenland and North-East Canada stage in the Wadden Sea between the islands Langeness, Hooge, Japsand in the South and Rømø /Danish Wadden Sea in the North. They fill up fat reserves by eating small mussels before they leave to their next staging areas on Iceland and Northern Norway (Porsanger fjord in particular). Spectacular clouds of knots belong to exiting wildlife experiences for tourists in the national park.
Year: 2012
From album: Wadden Sea
Photographer: Peter Prokosch