I’ve wanted so badly to get a photo of the tiniest bird in Europe, the goldcrest. Here is one flying away from me! And below a blurry image of him showing his bright yellow crown. I stood in front of this tree for some time while he hopped around, chirping provocatively, and these were the only reasonable pictures I have to show for it. He then flew up to the top of the tree, laughing.
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.
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.
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.
A 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
According 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.
A 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
Last week, in a fit of spring fever, I decided to plant primroses and spring bulbs in my balcony garden. On pulling out the roots of last summer’s herbs I found a number of peanuts buried in my pots and window-boxes, and I left them there so they could be found again.
As I was walking through the Tiergarten on my way to the store this morning, I noticed some bloody feathers in the snow. On looking up, I saw a Northern Goshawk (Habicht) high in an oak tree, eating.
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.
