The Wedeler Marsch

Two and a half month ago i went to the Wedeler Marsch in the far west of Hamburg to see some goose migration. In the afternoon I arrived there and didn't find much at the beginning. But the further I walked, the more birds did I encounter. And before finding the big troups of geese I had already seen a Raven, 3 Kestrels, Starlings and some Gadwalls...
Then I suddenly stood in midst of big troops of Greylag Geese and Barnacle Geese. I had to search but also found a few Bean and a few more Greater White-fronted Geese. On the mud from the Elbe there were hundreds of Lapwings and some European Golden-Plovers. Also some Dunlins and Shelducks were around and I flushed several Wood Sandpipers while walking on the shore. Every now and then some passerines flew out of the grass and most of them could be identified as Skylark, but also some were White Wagtails and some birds were unidentifiable. In the greenlands behind me were 9 Great Egrets, 2 Whooper Swans flew over and some large raptor disappeared behind the trees...

The sinking sun played beautifully with the lights and from one moment to the other hundreds of thousands of geese started to fly. Some just flew from the greenlands to the mudflats others flew away to other destinations...

What a spectacular thing to watch!

Aves Ecuador

There has been very much snow falling in the last days and it has become difficult to move that's why I didn't go much birding. But during or after school I ometimes see some interesting birds. Yesterday there was a small group of Waxwings and today in my garden I saw another Crested Tit. And didn't get a picture again! My father also says he saw Long-tailed Tits in our garden. That's so unfair! Why didn't I?

But the main reason for this post is another. I wanted to inform you about a great site in the Internet: http://avesecuador.com
Dusan, the webmaster of Aves Ecuador has helped me very much in Iding many birds and there are some really cool observations posted on his website, eventhough there are not that many birders who upload there sightings, which in my opinion is a shame, as Ecuador has such amazing birds and tons of birders...

Well, thats it already

My garden

There have been a few good birds around my garden in the last few days. It's just sad, i didn't get pictures. But I got some better pictures of commoner birds.

And maybe some of you may have noticed already there's a new field on the right side, where I'm adding the newest interesting sightings I made...

My area

Yesterday I went to a lake in my surrounding to find a Red-crested Pochard and two Tufted Ducks. There were also a Grey Heron, a Great Crested Grebe and lots of passerines. I got to see about 50 or more Blackbirds, Greenfinches, Siskins, Wrens, Robins, 3 Treecreepers, 4 Nuthatches and many, many Tits including Long-tailed, Great, Blue and a Willow Tit. Also did I see a Sparrowhawk and a Kestrel... At another lake there were about 40 Mergansers and 2 Cormorants along with a Grey Heron.

Today I saw finally the Crested Tits i had been waiting for, since I had come back to Germany... But eventhough they were there for quite a long time I didn't get pictures as I was sitiing at the table couldn't stand up...

The Reptiles of Ecuador

I got to see many different subspecies of Galapos Tortoises, but the only free living ones did I see on Santa Cruz. This picture though is from the Darwin Research Station
There were also Tortoises on Floreana
This picture of the South American Yellow-footed Tortoise is really a shame...
I love this picture of an Yellow-spotted Amazon River Turtle
The same Green Turtle on the beach. I found it by casuality lying there with one flipper under its corp. I called my friends and we brought it back to the water, before it had dehidrated...
A Green Turtle in its element
A got much worse views on the Spectacled Caiman than...
...on the Black Caiman.
Two young Green Iguanas
And an old one
The Santa Fé-Land Iguana looking like a dragon
And another one
Marine Iguana
Look, there is a Darwins Finch on the tail of the hind one (Medium Ground Finch I think)

Three young Marine Iguanas
A Giant Ameiva... Not that Giant I think
Those Black Tegus are really giant! This one measured around 1m
I got to see many, many young Western Basilisk, which I couldn't photograph but saw running across the water until i found this neat guy who was very patient...
Lava Lizards: The left one with the orange throat is a female...
Turniptail Geckos are coooool!
This is one of the few reptiles I didn't identify
A Collared Gecko on a leaf.
Another little lizard I couldn't ID
This one is Anolis chloris. Maybe the first reptile in Ecuador i remind seeing
Anolis aequatorialis i think, but it might be wrong aswell. But Anolis is sure, this individual shows very nicely why...

A Common Neotropical Skink. I hate it for not showing its head!!!
Boddaert's Tropical Racer. A snake species I found twice at the same location
In Tandayapa. This one had caught its meal, a lizard, which I couldn't ID either
I really have no idea on which side the head of this Amazon Tree Boa might be.
A giant (about 3m) Boa constrictor constrictor crossed our way once...
And a much smaller Boa constrictor imperator appeared suddenly in the bibliotheque of our hostel in Puerto Lopez
A young Green Anaconda curled up
this is the head of a much bigger one, probably about 2.5m