Even when the weather wasn´t looking very inviting, I tried to visit the Lakes of Garstadt, a very profitable site, which will take you at least two hours of your time. Nevertheless it was worth trying, like you will see.
Already from the observation tower numerous birds could be seen either dabbling on the water or feeding on the sandbanks. There were dozens of Gadwalls, good numbers of Cormorants, Grey and Great White Herons (though without even a single Purple Heron, which ought to breed here in the last years), surprisingly many Little Grebes, but almost no Porchards. Although the heatwave is over now, you can still see how long no rain has fallen here: Almost everywhere extensive sandbanks can now be seen. For the harvest of this year the lack of rain might be bad, but waders like it so much more. Six species were identifiable: Green, Common and Wood Sandpiper, as well as Snipe, Dunlin and Little Ringed Plover.
Finally we come to the raptors, which were amazingly well represented with two Ospreys, three Kestrels, a Goshawk and four Common Buzzards. In the bushes around the lake also two Spotted and two Pied Flycatcher were feeding. Apart from that no other bird species was resting in the bushes. Instead hundreds of Swallows, House Martins and Sand Martins were flying almost everywhere above the water, the forest and the fields around the lakes.
To list up any bird I´ve seen there would take much too long, so just the impressive result of my visit there: 53 species! However I´ve not mentioned the greatest highlight of the day yet. When going around the lake I flushed a group of six herons, so that I only had the chance to make one picture. Now at home I detected on this picture, that a Great White Heron was wearing a red ring with the number 346. Checking the bird-ringing website cr-birding.org I found out, that the bird was most likely ringed in Hungary!
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