Monthly Archives: March 2013

Birds in London: Claws on wings!

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Claws on wings cropA month or so ago my husband came to me in a state of excitement wanting to know more about the claws that woodpeckers have on their wings. I had to confess that I knew nothing about claws on woodpecker wings. He claimed that he had just read in our great bathroom book that woodpeckers have claws on their wings, and he had a great vision of these woodpeckers using the claws to climb around on trees, something like ice-climbers use their picks I suppose.

So, we looked this up, and found no references on the internet to woodpeckers with claws on their wings. A closer inspection of the great bathroom book found a somewhat poorly written sentence that could lead one to interpret that woodpeckers have this fantastic property, but the author was just talking about some aspect of the bird’s claws. We were both a bit disappointed. Continue reading →

Birds in London: About town

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Hyde Park RobinAccording to my favorite German birding guide, Great Britain is the “motherland of birding.” In fact, the authors advise that if you really want to know about the birds in any particular region of the world (including Germany), you had better hope that a Brit has already been there, because if so, he certainly has written a book about it.

So I wasn’t at all surprised to overhear no less than three conversations about birding in my jaunts around town (including one overheard from a bathroom stall in the National Gallery), nor to find that I had competition when attempting to browse the incredible birding section at Foyles. I also noticed that no one raised an eyebrow when I was standing in the street looking at trees through my binoculars. Here in Berlin I always get suspicious stares when I’m out observing.

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Birds in London: St. James Park

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Pelicans in St. James ParkA few weeks ago I was lucky enough to spend some time in London. I had meant to be a good tourist and see the famous changing of the guards in front of the palace, but I got distracted by the incredible numbers of royal waterfowl in St. James Park. Anyway, I was happier to watch these avian guards parade around than those funny human ones. The great white pelicans shown above were strutting down the path, keeping an eye on everything and everyone just like old police officers. Continue reading →

The first blackbird

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Yesterday was remarkable, as the sun shone for the entire day. I honestly can’t remember when that last happened. It could have been December. Yesterday I also heard the full, exuberant song of the blackbird for the first time this year. In the twilight, perched on a tree not far from our balcony, he sang for a while, occasionally echoed by another blackbird farther off. I can only think that he must have been as happy as me to finally have a sunny day, and he gave it a fitting end. Here is a recording of part of his song.

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