Monthly Archives: April 2013

Nesting Swans

Yesterday I walked with a friend through the Schlosspark Charlottenburg, where the snow was melting and all of Berlin was out to enjoy the first springlike day of the year. We found a pair of mute swans working busily on building a nest, paying no heed to the swarms of Berliners parading close by.

I took a short video of their work. You can view it here. The female was sitting in the nest, arranging small bits of brush, while the male was breaking reeds and placing them around the rim. We were mesmerized by the graceful, rhythmic movements of their necks.

Great Crested Grebe

I photographed this great crested grebe while vacationing last week at Lake Iseo, Italy. I spotted four of these beautiful divers in the lake. There was also a very cute little grebe in the water, but he was far too sneaky to be caught by my camera, always diving right before I clicked the shutter.

Visitors

The last few weeks were abnormally cold and snowy here in Berlin. These conditions not only meant that the birds were hungry, but also that I didn’t get out much to observe them. To remedy this situation I covered the window boxes on my balcony with sunflower seeds every morning, and soon found that I had many visitors. Above is one of a troop of hawfinches that would appear every morning.

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