I was trying to capture a photo of a mysterious little grey bird in our cherry tree, who wouldn’t sit in one place for half a second, and was going mad with frustration, when this lovely green woodpecker showed up and posed very nicely for me. I didn’t enhance the red on his head, it really did photograph like that. Now the question is: is his tail tucked under him, or is it in fact missing?
Dear reader, you need no longer be satisfied with just a blurry picture of a nightingale’s butt. This very kind nightingale sat very still on a fence for me the other day, allowing me to capture this photograph, plus a short video of him. Notice his large and powerful throat muscles.
Two of my favorite backyard noise makers: the blue tit and the greenfinch.
They have been very happy to eat the new buds on the trees this week. The long winter left them very hungry.
These hooded crows have a fine location on a newly trimmed branch of a weeping willow tree that extends over the Spree. Here they are feeding their chicks.
No, he’s not a bird. He’s our red squirrel! He flies around the trees, gives us inquisitive looks, and sometimes barks at us before running away. Occasionally I’ve seen two squirrels at a time in our yard, but usually only one, which I assume is this one. I have no idea if he is really a man, but we call him “squirrel man.”
This nuthatch lives down the street from me, and appears to have a nest in the hole at the bottom right. He was popping in and out of it when I was returning from the grocery store yesterday.
The nightingales are back! As of three nights ago we have been hearing their wild songs from our apartment, and a quick walk yesterday evening brought us by at least three of them belting it out with all they have. These little birds are notoriously difficult to photograph. They like to hide in thickets and dense foliage and prefer to sing only when the dusk is advancing. But thanks to my awesome new camera I was able to capture the back side of a singing nightingale last night. So here you have it, a nightingale’s butt:
If you’d like to hear his crazy song, it is recorded here. And here you can hear some strange croaking noises that he made.
If you’d rather not look at his butt while listening, here is a lovely picture of last night’s full moon.
I just received a fantastic new camera as a graduation present. Thanks mom! Now I can photograph the birds that previously I could only write about. To celebrate, I’ve been taking portraits of the denizens of our yard in the Tiergarten. First up is the jay, known here as an Eichelhäher, and known around our apartment as just “the Häher.” This is the same guy that buries his peanuts in my flowerpots. The first time that I saw his bright blue wings, I thought that he must be some kind of escaped exotic. But no, he is just a standard eurasian jay, and a beautiful specimen at that. He is clearly suspicious of my awesome zoom lens…
Suddenly the Tiergarten is full of new arrivals, many of them having braved the long journey from central Africa to arrive in central Berlin. Today I saw a wonderful little common redstart, just landed, hopping around eating insects in the Englisher Garten. Two days ago I saw and heard a lesser whitethroat, who supposedly also spends his summers in Africa and was jumping around on bushes near the Spree. And today I heard the lovely song of the male blackcap and saw his lady, with a dusty red cap, eating buds on a branch.
And to top all of this off, last night I heard the song of the nightingale for the first time this year. It is hard to believe that these little birds have the strength to fly over the Sahara and immediately start belting their hearts out as soon as they land in the city. I am very grateful to them, and I’m happy that they all arrived safely.
