2012

2012 has started quite good. as I have already been able to observe 77 species. I have already seen a Lifer (Bar-headed Goose), a new subspecies (White-throated Dipper ssp. cinclus) and a few new birds for the Wedeler Marsch and the Duvenstedter Brook.
On January 18th i went to the Wedeler Marsch and it was incredible how few birds were around! I needed a while before I got anything out of the very common birds. First I tried a new spot for some forrest birds, I still needed on my area list and I found most of them: Hawfinch, Bullfinch, Long-tailed Tit and Short-toed Treecreeper.

Then in the bird station, from where you can normally observe dozens of species I got to see only 5 species in 2 hours! And those were quite normal ones: Goldfinch, Barnacle Geese, Kestrel, Black-headed Gull and Great Egret. So I decided to try my luck at a lake some kilometres further. On the way there i finally got two of the species I had mainly come for: 3 Little Gulls and 1 Black-legged Kittiwake, of which a few had been blown in by a storm a week or so before. At the lake i finally could add some new birds, but none of them was really out of the normal: 8 Shovelers and about 200 Wigeons were the best between those.
On my way home I came across a Rough-legged Hawk, 2 Smews and a Stoat with some mouse in its mouth, but none of those would show very good and long, so i didn't get any pics.
So in the end I had a day with only very few birds, but some of them were quite good (especially the Gulls and the Hawk)

Then yesterday I went to the Duvenstedter Brook in hope of the White-breasted Dipper that had been seen there since at least a week. But on the way to the exact spot I had to sadly realize that a sleeping tree, where a Tawny Owl had been living for some years had fallen down. Hopefully the Owl wasn't sleeping in it, when it fell down...
Then I arrived at the lake, from which a small stream comes and where the Dipper had been seen before. On the lake where 2 Whooper Swans, 1 gorgeous Goldeneye and a female Merganser, but on the stream was no Dipper to be found :(

I tried my luck on another part of the stream and another lake, but no Dipper either. But on the other lake were some nice birds: 1 immature Whooper Swan, another gorgeous Goldeneye, 18 Mergansers, 22 Tufted Ducks and 8 Gadwalls.

I hoped to see the Tawny Owl on the graveyard, but it wasn't there. instead I found a Great Grey Shrike, sitting on top of one of the Pine Trees. i would never have expected one up there. I was checking for Grosbeaks, but no luck... Seems like I'll never see one. Instead came 7 Redpolls flying over me. At least one new area bird.

In the main part of the Brook I saw almost nothing apart from a group of 21 Fallow Deer and another Great Grey Shrike. On a meadow close to the main part sat a very huge(!) Hare feeding, but as the light was fading fast I hurried to look another time at the stream, if the Dipper had reappeared. On the way I came across a group of 69 Greylag geese, between them where 1 Bar-headed Goose and 2 hybrids (Bar-headed x Greylag). My first lifer for 2012, a bird I had been hoping for for a long time already.

This Bar-headed Goose had bred with a Greyleg Goose in 2010 and raised 3 chicks in the surroundings of the Brook, but I hadn't seen it yet. So finally...

When I arrived at the stream the light was almost gone already, but I was lucky, because I realized, there was a White-throated Dipper quite well hidden. Mission accomplished...