Plants, birds and cows
Salty environment
The ground is quite damp and the vegetation is dominated by several species of grasses and herbs. They all share the characteristic that they must be able to tolerate the salty conditions. Trees and shrubs are sensitive to salt, and are therefore kept back.
Cows
The open landscape is also formed to a large extent by eagerly grazing muzzles. Cows clip the grass short and make it difficult for trees and bushes to grow. Coastal meadows have been used for grazing or hay-making for hundreds of years.
Splash!
Cows like to graze along the shoreline, and may wade into water up to a meter deep. They graze on reeds and rushes, trampling the roots to bits. Reed-beds are kept in check; otherwise, they would expand along the shore.
Waders and gulls
The grazing of cows makes the shores accessible to wading birds– the redshank, snipe, lapwing, turnstone and others– which find abundant food in the shallow waters. There are also large numbers of gulls and terns, of which the Arctic tern and the herring gull are but two examples.
