News · 31. Dezember 2015
Yes, so you could call 2015, at least from my point of view. It all started with the probable Pine Bunting on the 6th January, definitely one most exciting representatives of these. Unfortunately my pictures weren´t good enough to exclude a pale Yellowhammer, but thanks to the people who said me their opinion about the bird.
News · 28. Dezember 2015
Finally I got the chance to visit the "Altmühlsee", where a Great Northern Diver has been seen for almost a whole month. Normally I´m not a keen twitcher, but since this highly desired species has been seen there for such a long time and also quite reliably, I couldn´t resist. Last night the temperature has finally fallen below 0 °C, which means that the morning was much colder than I had expected. Nevertheless already from the parking ground the first birds could be seen: A flock of...
News · 27. Dezember 2015
A year ago the first version of this website was launched and today it feels good to give something back by publishing the already announced guide. It features altogether ten profitable sites from whole Franconia and is the first guide of this kind being available both in German as well as in English. A big thank-you to both of my proofreaders, without their help the guide wouldn´t have been possible. Of course I also want to thank all the other people who helped me with this guide in the...
News · 27. Dezember 2015
Like yesterday the weather was wonderful and almost perfect for photographing. Today I went to Pommersfelden, where two White Storks have been reported recently. The White Storks were visible even from the car and I got very close to them. Apart from that the meadows held several Great Egrets and Meadow Pipits, which stayed however always very distant. Nevertheless I was rather pleased with my results, not least because I succeeded in photographing my main target species. Finally having almost...
News · 25. Dezember 2015
It has been a while, but today I´ve finally visited the Kreuzberg again. Originally I had hoped to see Redpolls and Bullfinches, though, as it turned out, without success. Instead I found some hundreds of Fieldfares feeding in the bushes. Among them also few Redwings must have been, at least I´ve heard some calls. There are surprisingly few real winter records of this species, the most are only passing through. Unfortunately the light was fading soon afterwards and so most of my pictures are...
News · 24. Dezember 2015
Since it was quite sunny today, I decided to go birding for a few hours. In the morning I walked a bit in the downtown of Bamberg, which holds at the moment notable gatherings of Black-headed Gulls and Rooks. Among the gulls also a Moorhen could be seen. Unfortunately the light was still low and so my pictures are blurry. Nevertheless a few hours later the light was good enough for taking some pictures. As usually I went to my normal site near Bischberg. While it seemed to be a bit...
News · 20. Dezember 2015
Finally after a week I could spend two hours with birdwatching. At first I wanted to visit a nearby quarry pond, where a Velvet Scoter had been observed some days ago. However when I checked the newest entries on ornitho.de this morning, I found out that the bird must have already left the quarry pond. So I simply changed my plans and went to the "Großer Wörth", which normally is worth a visit. In sum the waterfowl wasn´t well represented today with only 10 Greylags (compared to the 300 in...
News · 13. Dezember 2015
I always try to take some pictures worth showing, but today it simply wasn´t possible. Hopefully this remains the exception. Today I´ve visited the eastern quarry pond of Sand, which normally is a good place to see waterfowl in the winter being a very reliable site for Goldeneyes. Unlike to my last visit there were only few birds visible on the lake and stayed mainly very distant near the opposite shore. The highlights of the day were two large gulls, which turned out to be an adult Caspian...
News · 05. Dezember 2015
Two days ago a Common Scoter was observed on a nearby quarry pond. This species is only seldom recorded in Franconia and so I really wanted to see it. However I don´t have much time for birding at the moment, but fortunately I managed to go outside at least for an hour today. Apart from the target species, which was showing nicely, the normal range of waterfowl could be seen: A lot of Cormorants, Tufted Ducks and Coots. As usually I also spotted some Gadwalls, which are staying on this quarry...
News · 04. Dezember 2015
Because of the mixed weather of the last days there weren´t many chances to go birding since Saturday, but on ornitho.de a lot of interesting northern migrants were reported from the district of Bamberg like Red-breasted Merganser, Bohemian Waxwings, Common Scoter and others. So instead of giving you a short summary of my last birding trip I want to inform you that a new guide on where to go birding in Franconia is coming soon, most likely in the second half of December. I´ll describe ten...