Moulting Shelduck in the Wadden Sea 2010-2012

In the past almost all the West European Shelducks moulted in the German part of the Wadden Sea, where they have been systematically counted and reached up to 200,000 birds since the late 1980s. In the last years, about a quarter of the moulting Shelducks in the Wadden Sea shifted from the German to the Dutch part of the Wadden Sea for yet unknown reasons. In order to conduct a systematic monitoring of the Shelduck, which is a Natura 2000 species, in addition to German counts the presented study recommends trilaterally harmonized counts also in the Wadden Sea in the Netherlands and Denmark, if possible, combined with summer counts of (moulting) Eider.