In the lee of the beacon, I tucked my binoculars deep into my jacket and braced myself. Still, I couldn’t prevent the huge wave that crashed over the breakwater from soaking me and causing the water to run over my boots. Wasn’t it too dangerous? Did we still get out of here without any problems?
I stood with some birdwatchers at the head of Scheveningen’s southern harbor head, looking out for birds that were blown into the surf from far out to sea by the gathering north-westerly storm. We had already seen gannets, some shearwaters and a skua passing by when suddenly a black and white bird, similar to a starling, flew past us with rapid wing beats in a wave trough; a rare little auk (All all). The animal sought shelter from the forces of nature between the breakwaters and was blown into the harbor like a cork, floating on the waves.
This little thumb among seabirds breeds on the Arctic mountain slopes of Greenland, Spitsbergen, Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land, feeds on zooplankton (tiny crustaceans) and winters in the Atlantic Ocean.
With an estimated world population of 37 million pairs – an abundance created after the availability of large quantities of zooplankton due to the near-extermination of the Greenland whale in the Little Ice Age (1650-1850) – this little bird, as small as it is , a major role in polar ecosystems.
After all, the millions of little auks jointly transport an enormous biomass from sea to land, by leaving the zooplankton that have surfaced as bird droppings (directly or via their young) on the mountain slopes and tundra during the breeding period.
Thus they stimulate plant growth; the food source for geese, reindeer and musk oxen.
The little auk is therefore a booster of ecosystems on the circumpolar archipelago and an indicator of the health of these systems in a warming world, the impact of which is most noticeable at the poles.
The local population mainly sees the little auks as a supplement to their basic needs; they catch the birds and process them into clothing and dishes. For the traditional Inuit dish Kiviak, for example, a seal skin is stuffed with hundreds of razorbills, sewn shut and left to ferment outside for several months.
After opening, the little auks are stripped of their feathers and eaten raw. A delicacy for parties and celebrations!
Fortunately, this little auk hid safely in the Scheveningen harbour.
After the storm blew over, he took to the open water again, back in his element in the waves far out to sea.