Animals on the island Borkum in the North Sea

With respect to the fauna of the island, honestly, I expected something quite different. Even though I did not see everything what I wanted to see, I was still thrilled about Borkum.

I indeed had a very good time on the island.

By the way, Borkum is not only the largest East Frisian Island, it is also the most western located one. There are six more inhabited East Frisian Islands. Borkum is one and the others are Juist, Norderney, Baltrum, Langeoog, Spiekeroog, and Wangerooge.

For me it was the first time being on one of the East Frisian Islands.

Maybe because of that I was so thrilled about the island?

I do not know. I just was.

There are five more East Frisian Islands (Lütje Hörn, Brauerplate, Memmert, Kachelotplate, and Minsener Oog; Mellum does not belong to the East Frisian Islands). However, these islands are uninhabited.

I have to admit here, that I did not visit the most typical sights on Borkum. For example, I have not done a thalasso therapy. I have not read much about the history of the island, neither. I even was not in the North Sea Aquarium!

Yes. Unfortunately.

As I used all my time and energy for exploring the fauna of the island, other activities came up short. I am sure that the aquarium must be an interesting place to visit! But unfortunately, I was on the island only for three nights, which was too short for everything I wanted to do.

But I passed the famous light houses on the island. For example, I passed several times the 27-metres-high Electric Light House.

A popular activity among visitors on Borkum is a walk along the beach in the nort of the island. Although there were some beach strollers, I did not meet many of them.

The beaches on Borkum are so long and broad.

They are so long and broad that you can even forget the time. For me it was difficult to estimate how much time I would need to walk along the beach (because I had to go back everything again). I know, usually vacationers do not care much about time. However, on the day of my walk along the beach, I wanted to participate in the walk across the mudflats in the afternoon. By all means, I did not want to miss it. Thus, I had to watch the time.

But still, I could enjoy the sea.

The farther north I walked, the fewer people strolled along the beach.

As I said, the beaches on Borkum are very long, and thus, fewer people walk until the end of the beach. I think it is because at the end of the beach in the northeast of the island there is no town or restaurant close-by. If you walk to the end of the beach, consider that you have to walk everything back again, or leave at the end where there is no public transportation. But you can leave the beach area as well on the side at different places (where there is no public transportation neither).

I did not walk everything. The beach walk might have taken me to walk about 10 kilometres (one way). As there would not have been a bus or I would not have had my bicycle there, it would have been a too long walk back (and I would have missed the walk across the mudflats).

On the island Borkum, I especially enjoyed, both in the morning and in the evening, cycling from the town to the north of the island. That means, to the end of the cycle path (the path does not lead to the east, it has an end). The cycle path led from the promenade to the end of the cycle path where you can find a restaurant.

Although this area was well-attended in the evening, I still could cycle without having to stop or pass other people too often.

I loved the light there. And the view onto the sand dunes and the sea.

Unfortunately, the cycle path is not very long (at least not long enough for me). It is not possible to cycle to the eastern part of the island on that cycle path, because it stops anywhere near to a restaurant.

By the way, in that region I observed some common pheasants. If there is a male common pheasant close-by, it is difficult to overlook or not hear this bird. You might see a common pheasant walking around on an exposed area. That means, common pheasants that do not hide. However, they might disappear if they sense you and become scared.

You can also sit on one of the many benches along the cycle path and wait until a common pheasant shows up. You will find many good places to observe animals on the island Borkum.

Before I go outside to observe animals, I always try to remind myself of one thing. Keep your expectations low. You never know what happens. However, I have to admit, I do not always succeed. I was already disappointed when I was searching for the largest monkey of South America – the northern muriqui – in the Feliciano Miguel Abdala Nature Reserve, but did not find the group of monkey. I was also disappointed when I could not observe fin whales in Iceland. This year I tried it again. In Spain. Have I seen a fin whale now? Well, not really. Only from very, very far away I saw a blow. As it was a fin whale project I thought that the chances might be good to finally see a fin whale. I remember another situation. In Brazil I missed the breeding season of the sea turtles.

Here, I could list even more experiences where I could not observe the animal I wished to observe (photograph: landscape on Borkum).

But...

Despite of all these "disappointments", on the contrary, I make experiences I would not have expected before. Instead of seeing the largest monkey of South America in the Feliciano Miguel Abdala Nature Reserve, I observed the largest fly of the world! Instead of spotting a fin whale, I met minke whales and white-beaked dolphins for the first time in Iceland. Instead of observing sea turtles, I got to know a very beautiful, dreamlike place. Probably, I would not have visited this place, if I would not have planned to visit this place because of the sea turtles (photograph: landscape of Borkum).

I could name here numerous more examples.

With that, I just want to say that you never know what to expect on a wildlife watching trip and that you always should be open for unexpected things. That is not always easy, especially if you want to see a specific animal species. I have to admit this. But again. You never know what happens when you observe wild animals. They decide and this is the most exciting part of wildlife watching!

In Borkum I had a similar experience!

In the first place, I travelled to Borkum in order to observe harbour seals (photograph: harbour seal on Heligoland).

Of course, I did not see grey seals, neither.

However, I did not expect to see grey seals, as they apparently do not occur on Borkum regularly. But I really expected to see harbour seals in May on the island.

Why?

Harbour seals are known to gather together in May/June on the sandbanks of Borkum to give birth to their pups. Grey seals, in contrast, are known to not breed on Borkum. That is why I expected to see harbour seals, and not necessarily grey seals. The harbour seal sandbank of the western parts of the beach on Borkum where I expected to see harbour seals is also known as "Hohes Riff" (photograph: seals on Heligoland).

It is even more difficult spotting harbour porpoises in the waters around Borkum.

I wish to see harbour porpoises again, but I already knew very well that seeing a harbour porpoise requires a lot of luck. I got to know their elusive behaviour on a boat tour in the waters around Flensburg.

Even though I wished to see harbour porpoises, I want to emphasize here that for me it is not about crossing things off a bucket list. It is more. In Flensburg, I saw harbour porpoises only for a few seconds. Then they vanished again. It was a beautiful moment which I want to keep in my memories. However, the most important part for me was after that encounter. Writing about the harbour porpoises and telling other people about the difficult conditions these animals have to cope with. I wrote about that.

The animals on the island Borkum, as well, will be long in my memories. However, while I had so many sad things to write about the harbour porpoises, here, I focus more on the beautiful things of the island. They island and its fauna surprised me a lot. I was very happy that I had decided to visit this East Frisian Island. Although I focus on the beautiful things of Borkum (which is also important sometimes instead of always seeing the sad things), remember, that not everything is perfect. Even on Borkum, although I write here about Borkum like being a perfect place.

Nevertheless, on Borkum, I was very impressed by the variety of bird species that occur on the island.

As I had seen so many different birds on Borkum, I decided to write a separate blog entry about them.

With respect to the birds on Borkum, I saw birds like herring gulls, oystercatchers, grey geese, brants, but also common pheasants. I also could observe small songbirds like common linnets, willow warblers, or wrens. Not all birds can be seen the whole year on the island, but at least in the spring, summer or autumn months. Thus, the fauna of Borkum had so much to offer for me in May.

By the way, in general, if you want to know more about animal species which you can find at a place, a good place to find out more about that is the website iNaturalist. iNaturalist is a platform where everyone can upload nature observations. Be it an animal, a plant or a fungus. This platform, or better, the people on that platform, has already helped me several times identifying species. But I also use this platform to find out which animals I can probably observe at a specific place.

So far, especially many nature observations on the island Borkum were from wild rabbits on the platform iNaturalist.

As mentioned, according to iNaturalist there are brown hares on the island Borkum. However, unfortunately, I did not see any brown hare.

On my first day, I stopped behind a forested area close to the town where I actually wanted to observe birds. But one the first animals on the island Borkum that I saw, where a group of wild rabbits searching for food. Both adult and younger wild rabbits were part of the group.

I tried to be as invisible as possible.

It was beautiful observing wild rabbits searching for food. As this place was so beautiful and as it was a place close to the town, I visited that place several times during my stay on Borkum in order to observe these wild rabbits, but also the birds there flying from tree to tree, from shrub to shrub.

That roe deer was looking at me. It did not seem to be scared at all and just continued feeding.

Of course, I was very thrilled about this observation.

I was excited, but what did the roe deer?

Just continued feeding calmly.

I do not know roe deer like that and I asked myself if more animals on the island Borkum are less shy?

Usually, roe deer are very, very shy animals.

I had another observation of a roe deer on the island Borkum. But that roe deer did not seem to be that calm as the roe deer I met on my first day. I only saw that roe deer from afar. Something must have disturbed it, because I only saw that roe deer running away.

Of course, there are many more animals on the island Borkum. I have focussed here on mammals, and thus, I was only very superficial. Please, do not forget amphibians like common newts or running toads which also might occur among the animals on the island Borkum. There might be also common lizards among reptilians on the island. Or molluscs like the common cockles (see below) or the Pacific oyster. Not to forget all the insects and spiders. Among insects the cinnabar moth and the mottled grasshopper seem to be very common on the island and among spiders the pirate wolf spider and the wasp spider.

Even though it was not the first time for me to be at the North Sea, it was for me the first time participating in a walk across the mudflats. If I would encounter more animals on the island Borkum on a walk across the mudflats?

Yes, I did!

I was very in the mood of a walk across the mudflats. Barfoot through the mudflat. Having dirty feet. And breathing in the air of the sea during a walk.

I had already my imaginations of a walk across the mudflats.

And of course, I was hoping to see here and there a living beautiful creature.

You can find mudflats like the Wadden Sea on all continents – except in the Antarctic. In total, there are about 350.

The largest mudflat is the Wadden Sea in the North Sea which extends from the Netherlands to Germany and Denmark. Almost everywhere, the Wadden Sea has a width of about 10 kilometres. The Wadden Sea is a National Park and a World Heritages Natural Site, and thus, protected.

But which animals live in the Wadden Sea?

Sometimes, the mudflats are covered with water. And sometimes, they are dry. Therefore, the animals that live in the Wadden Sea have to be animals adapted very well to ever-changing environmental conditions.

On my walk across the mudflats, I saw animals which are typical inhabitants of the Wadden Sea. For example, I saw common cockles, but also shore crabs, and of course, a blow lugworm, also known as sandworm. If you consider to participate in a walk across the mudflats, it is very probable to see these three typical inhabitants of the Wadden Sea.

Luckily, I could observe all three of them on Borkum.

A special characteristic of the common cockle is, that she is able to dig in the sand again with her small legs when the water washes away the sand above her.

On my walk across the mudflats, we could observe a common cockle how she digs in the sand again. It was quite fast.

Our guide had to search for common cockles. When he sensed a common cockle (I do not know how he did), he removed the mud and put the common cockle on the sand again. He found some common cockles. Then, we stood around the common cockles in a circle and observed them how they showed us their tiny legs to dig in the sand again.

That was a really interesting observation!

After that, we let the common cockles in the sand and left again.

It was also interesting to learn that common cockles have gills which they use to filtrate small food particles from the water.

An animal, which I really wanted to see on a walk across the mudflats, was the blow lugworm.

Luckily, I saw one.

As blow lugworms are quite common in the Wadden Sea, it is very probable to see one on a walk across the mudflats.

However, our guide had to search for one. And he did not find a blow lugworm immediately.

Before we saw a blow lugworm, our guide showed us a ragworm. Ragworms, as well, are apparently common in the Wadden Sea.

But then, finally, we got to see a blow lugworm.

I found it quite interesting to learn that blow lugworms feed on sand almost continuously. The blow lugworm feeds on sand, because small particles like algae or bacteria are attached to the small grain of sand. Blow lugworms take up everything, digest the food particles, and get rid of the now clean sand again. You can see this clean sand scattered around the mudflats as "spaghetti heaps".

Another common animal species of the mudflats is the shore crab.

The shore crap, as well, had to develop strategies to survive the extreme environmental conditions caused by the tides. Shore crabs, for example, are most active during the night and during flow. During the ebb they search for hiding places.

Luckily, our guide found a shore crab. We could observe it for a moment before our guide released the shore crab again.

Interestingly, it is common for shore crabs and other crustaceans to move sideways.

Unfortunately, I cannot show here any photographs of typical inhabitants of the Wadden Sea. Although I was with my camera, I was quite busy listening to our guide and trying not to slip and fall.

Nevertheless, I was mesmerized by all the animals on the island Borkum we found in the mudflats.

The muddy sand soil of the Wadden Sea is also known as slush.

While there is still relatively much oxygen in the upper parts which leads to a brighter sand, further down, there is less oxygen and bacteria decompose the sand. Therefore, the sand further down is dark.

As mentioned above, salt meadows belong to the habitat Wadden Sea. Salt meadows, as well, are flooded by sea water and – as the name already suggests – have a high salt concentrations in the soil. Therefore, plants on salt meadows have to develop strategies, in order to survive these high salt concentrations.

Our guide had a broad knowledge about edible and toxic plants.

We could also try some plants. But only the plants he told us. We were not allowed to try everything we wanted to try.

I think, everyone tried something. Me too. I remember very well the salty taste of the plants.

The tour took about two hours. That was perfect. However, as the tides determine when there is ebb and flow, the starting time of tours differ. Because during the flow it is highly recommended to not be on the mudflats...

But I can say where the meeting point was for the start of the walk across the mudflats. It was at the bus stop "Wattenmeer" in the street Reedestraße (close to the harbour).

As Borkum is an island, most people arrive by ferry (Borkum has a small airport).

At first, I travelled to Emden by train. In Emden I changed the train which drove to the outer harbour ("Außenhafen"). At the outer harbour, the ferry to Borkum already waited. As I arrived in Emden only a few minutes before because of a short delay, I was afraid to miss the ferry. It could have been a longer delay. Luckily, it was not. But by the way, I took a train that brought me to the outer harbour before the second last ferry to Borkum left. If my train would have had a longer delay, I still would have been able to travel to Borkum by the last ferry of the day. Luckily, the train did not have a long delay and I could enter the ferry without worries.

I took the ferry of the company AG Ems. In total, I paid 50,00 Euros for a round trip.

When the ferry arrived on the island Borkum, a light railway waited for the visitors at the Borkum Reede. This light railway operates between the Borkum Reede and the centre of the town when a ferry arrives or departs. There are also busses. However, as the timetable of the light railway is adjusted to the arrivals and departures of the ferries, I found it quite convenient to take the light railway like most visitors. The distance from the Borkum Reede to the centre of the town is about 7 kilometres. The ticket for the light railway is already included in the ferry ticket price.

Animals on the island Borkum in the North Sea

The island Borkum

Animals on the island Borkum

Walk across the mudflats

Practical information

How to get to Borkum

Getting around the island

Accommodation

More information

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