News · 25. Oktober 2015

Today I wanted to go to the Hochreinsee, but I soon realised, that I wouldn´t become happy there, since almost no waterfowl could be seen. So I went to a nearby quarry pond, though even there not much was visible on the water surface. Finally I turned my attention to the smaller passerines, which were feeding in the bushes around. As it turned out, the most birds were Reed Buntings, altogether about 20 individuals. However I detected another lighter and more reddish looking bunting among them....

News · 19. Oktober 2015

As already mentioned in my last blog post, I´ve seen a weird pipit with features of a Richard's Pipit. Especially its stature and behaviour indicated this species. Richard's Pipits are seen regularly at the coast during October and November with a few individuals flying far into the inland sometimes even to Bavaria. It is however often only detected as a fly-over and then identified due to its characteristic sparrow-like call. Back to the pipit I´ve seen: Generally it looked slimmer and...

News · 18. Oktober 2015

Today the weather didn´t looked well, since it seemed to rain softly all over the time. However the birds made me forget that very soon. Spontaneously I changed my further plans and made a detour to the nearby water protection area. I was hoping for resting cranes or geese, but I only detected a few Common Buzzards and few distant Great White Herons. It got interesting again, when I came to the airfield. At the wayside a pipit could be seen feeding. It immediately attracted my attention,...

News · 13. Oktober 2015

Since the big rain will come tomorrow according to the weather forecast, I wanted to use my two free hours this afternoon for birding. Unlike on Sunday no bird masses were flying around, instead the bushes were full of passerines. Especially well represented were Black Redstarts, Chiffchaff and Chaffinches, which were moving constantly along the hedges. Apart from that the first sighting of a Redwing succeeded on my usual site. Despite of the cold winds it were some nice spent hours.

News · 11. Oktober 2015

When I was going to my usual site this morning, I was quite astonished that almost no birds could be heard calling and I was even fearing that my walk would end up in a flop. Fortunately I was absolutely wrong: Having just reached the top my attention was attracted by a very fast "cloud" moving westwards. After a closer examination it turned out to be a massive flock of birds, most likely Wood Pigeons. It didn´t take long until an even larger flock appeared consisting at least 700 birds. The...

News · 09. Oktober 2015

Already when I was going to Bamberg this morning, I detected a flock of Long-tailed Tits feeding in the bushes. Since I had some time in the evening, I wanted to get some of them in front of my lens. Unfortunately I started my walk to my usual site too late and so the light was much too poor for good pictures. Even under normal circumstances their restless behaviour makes it quite difficult to photograph Long-tailed Tits properly. Below you can see my results. Perhaps I´ll have another chance...

News · 08. Oktober 2015

Observing ringed birds is always exciting and about a month ago I was able to take a picture of a ringed Great White Heron. A few days ago I received the answer from the ringing group. As I had assumed the bird had come from Hungary, more precisely from Szabadszállás, which is located south of Budapest. Altogether the Heron has been wearing his legring (red: 546) for five years by now and has already been observed twice in exactly the same site as I have. This is quite interesting, since...

News · 06. Oktober 2015

As I had checked the weather forecast yesterday it hadn´t looked good for my migration count today, but fortunately the weather was much better than expected. It turned out, that the thick and low clouds being slowly moved northwards by the wind were pushing the visible migration down almost to eye level. And so the result was marvellous despite of me getting on the hill not until 9 am. Staying for just 55 minutes I counted 396 Chaffinches, 125 Siskins and 185 Starlings. Almost permanently a...

News · 05. Oktober 2015

A few hours ago the weather hadn´t looked comfortable, but suddenly the sun came out and dipped the world into a golden light, perfect conditions for photographing birds. Arriving at my usual site near Bischberg I detected several Siskins and Chaffinches flying over low. Another highlight was this showy Black Redstart, which you can see on the left. Apart from that I focused on the small passerines passing through the bushes hoping for a highlight like a Yellow browed Warbler. As it turned...

News · 03. Oktober 2015

Even though I only had 2 1/2 hours, the migration count today was more successful than ever before. I could record at least 1236 individuals, which is a good number for such a small period. Especially well represented were Chaffinches, Siskins and Woodpigeons. It was absolutely amazing to see birds passing through at any time, sometimes even more than I could count. New for this season were Brambling and Redwing, not unusual though for the season. The highlights of the day were on the one side...