Rutting season

The rutting season as begun for the Red Deer, therefore I now always hear them when I'm in the Brook, last time I went I did also manage to see a few.

There were also some nice other animals, for example 2 Common Shrews, which were new for me, aswell as the Common Blue Damselflies, which I finally could identify for sure. I'm quite sure, I saw them before, but I never tried to hard to get a picture and I didn't pay to much to the blue-coloured Damselflies, since I was missing only this blue species for a complete list of the blue-coloured ones...

I found a new area species for me, as a group of about 60 Wigeons was swimming and feeding on a lake, near to the Brook.

I found another Tawny Owl, then the one I saw last time. It's the Tawny Owl on the cementary and it's the easiest owl in the region, eventhough it may sometimes disappear for a few days.

I saw a White-tailed Eagle, like almost always in the Brook...

...that made those 3 Great Egrets fly out of there cover. Another new area species for me.

Another bird of prey I saw was this Honey-Buzzard, I'm seeing them quite often in the last time

This Crane family had I seen already twice before, ...

...whilst I only had heard from this Crane family until I saw it for the first time that day.

Nice day...

Trip to Heligoland!

Heligoland is Germany's only deep-sea island and it attracts a whole bunch of rarities every year. Especially in the migration period there's a very high chance to find a rare bird and furthermore Heligoland is the only breeding place of pelagics in Germany.
Therefore I absolutely wanted to go to Heligoland already 1 year ago, but in fact I didn't go...
But this year I'll go and chase for pelagics and rarities. I'm missing 22 species in Germany to get my Germany list this year on 200 species. With the help of Heligoland I think might be possible to be done.
The trip will be from 13th of October until the 16th, which is about the best time for rarities. I have big hopes and I'm already very anxious, so I look on this page almost daily, where the recent rarities are uploaded...

Tawny Owl and tame passerines

Today I went to the Duvenstedter Brook in hope of some migrants and I got some: 4 Wheatears, tons of Chiffchaffs and a quite early male Siskin. Other good birds were 6 Cranes, 6 Stonechats, 2 Middle Spotted Woodpeckers, 2 Ravens and 1 Goshawk. Other nice animals were 1 Hare, 4 Fallow Deers and I heard the bellowing of a male Red Deer, which are now coming into their rutting season.

The Chiffchaffs and a young Robin were very confiding, they seemed almost tame and so I got some nice pics:

But the bird of the day nevertheless was this Tawny Owl that was being mobbed by some songbirds and fled into a barn and soon after came back out and sat in this window through which it had flown in. It was at eye-level and quite close. I love owls and hadn't thought of finding one in midst of the day.

65 Honey-Buzzards and a Wryneck

Autumn Migration is starting at the moment, i got to see that last saturday, when I was in the Wedeler Marsch again.
When I arrived I first spotted 4 Honey-Buzzards flying over, then a group of 14 more and then another group of 25... In the end of the day i had seen 65 Honey-Buzzards, when I had seen before only one single time Honey-Buzzards in the Duvenstedter Brook.

I was also overlown by 3 White Storks and found some other nice birds: First I found some Spotted and Pied Flycatchers which I hadn't seen before in the Wedeler Marsch.

In the bird hide (Carl-Zeiss-Station) there was no observing birds, as there was work done for a new island in the water for the waders and other waterbirds. But in the grasslands around I found between many Greylag Geese an hybrid goose of Greylag x Canada Goose.
On the dike I encountered by hazard another member of the birdnet forum and we talked a lttle. She showed me a sitting White-tailed Eagle and a group of 25 Golden Plovers.

Our ways soon parted sadly and just after we said goodbye I found a family of 2 Little Grebes with 3 chicks.

I went on and found maaannny Egyptian Geese, at least 50 probably even many more. I never seen that many Egyptian Geese before!
11 Great Egrets had already migrated here from there breeding grounds in more eastern countries like Poland. A few maybe migrating songbirds were 4 Stonechats, 2 Whinchats, 2 Sand Martins, a Winter Wren and a Common Redstart.

There were also quite a few birds of prey around with 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Marsh Harrier, more Honey-Buzzards, Common Buzzards, (the White-tailed Eagle before) and in the end of the day a migrating Osprey.

I found an early Greater White-fronted Goose and 2 Rooks, that nest in the surroundings of the Wedeler Marsch.

But the best bird of the day was for sure the WRYNECK! It topped even the 65 Honey-Buzzards, which was quite difficult. I would NEVER EVER have sought to find a Wryneck there. I even got some nice pics.

When I was photographing it I was distracted by a move in the Sedges and for a very short part of a second i could see some dark bird walk out of it and in the same moment vanish again, as it spotted me just afew meters away from it. I'm not sure what it was, but my guess is for Water Rail...