Kattinge Lake

The view over Kattinge Vig from the west.

Kattinge Lake lies beside the innermost inlet in Kattinge Vig, called Slinken.

In the 1300s the Hvide family separated the lake from the fjord by building a dam and Nebbe castle. The Kornerup River runs through the lake. This river drains an area of about 125 square kilometres and delivers about 50 million cubic metres of water to the fjord every year. The lake is very shallow and the water quality is poor, with visibility of less than half a metre. The lake’s outlet to the fjord is beside Kattinge Works.

In the summer the great crested grebe is the most commonly seen bird here. From the birdwatching tower you can see how the parent birds swim with the striped young on their backs, and how the young are able to hold on when the parents dive.

An Osprey, with a bream, on a net post in Kattinge Lake.

In the autumn large flocks of starlings overnight in the reeds, and an osprey will often roost here, on its way from its Swedish breeding grounds to its winter quarters in North Africa. You might be lucky enough to see how it dives for fish in the same way as a tern.

Tufted ducks in Kattinge Lake.

In the cold half of the year Kattinge Lake is one of northern Europe’s largest roosting sites for tufted duck. Up to 30,000 might gather here – about 3% of the tufted ducks on the northern European migration routes. During the day they sit quietly on the most sheltered part of the lake, but about an hour after sunset the whole flock takes to the air, usually simultaneously, and goes out into the fjord, where they spend the night diving for common mussels and other bottom-feeders.