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

Garden birding

Winter is coming, everybody here feels it. It is really cold and sometimes in the morning we do already have frost. So I set up a little feeder-house to watch the birds in my garden. Until now 9 bird species have visited it, eventhough I have seen 41 in or aroung my garden...
Last sunday a Greater Spotted Woodpecker visited my feeders, a bird I had been hoping for there, but that wouldn't come for a long time.

A female and I even got acceptable shots of it. Other birds I have seen there were Winter Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Blue and Great Tit and Blackbird. A Magpie and a Jay tried to reach the food, but were too big for the house but a Squirrel had no problems to enter it...

Apart from that I got a few other bird species too. For example I saw my first Little Grebe in Hamburg, the first Hooded Crow and Redpolls for this winter. When I was on the Elbe I encountered many Pheasants but also the Eurasian Teals I hadn't seen at all since then.
But nevertheless I think my first encounter ever with Little Spotted Woodpecker was the best finding during the last days... Sadly I didn't have my camera with me...