News · 27. Juli 2016
July seems to end like it has started: quiet. My recent birding walks were all average with some nice photo opportunities in between. Only my trip to the Garstadter Seen last week was a real exception in this regard, as the circuit walk produced a total of 64 species including sightings of the sought-after Little Bittern and Purple Heron. However, despite it was a wonderful morning with beautiful light, I don't have many decent photos from there. Obviously, one can't get everything.
News · 18. Juli 2016
Back in June I had visited the "Kleiner Bischofsweiher" northwest of Erlangen, a very interesting site for waterfowl and reed birds. Originally, I had planned to walk the full 8 km slope around the whole area on that day, but unfortunately this would have costed me too much time and so I had had to spare the adjacent "Großer Bischofsweiher" out. Now the time has finally come to fill this gap. I had the time problem of my last visit in very good memory and started therefore off half an hour...
News · 16. Juli 2016
Two days ago I was asked to have a look on the pictures of a striking woodpecker found in the "Luisenhain" in Bamberg. It appeared to be a normal male Great Spotted Woodpecker, though the link between the neck and the post-auricular stripe was missing. This raised of course the question, if the bird might not be a hybrid Syrian x Great Spotted. However, any other feature like the amount of white in the tail or the extension of red on the neck was definitely pro Great Spotted Woodpecker. I...
News · 13. Juli 2016
July is a hard month for birders in Franconia (and elsewhere), as autumn migration is not yet visible and breeding time is already at its end. Additionally, most passerines have stopped singing, which makes them particularly difficult to find. Correlating with the small bird activity in general my birding activity has also come to a low point in the year. Yet I was very surprised that the 4th July actually was an exception in this regard: On this day I had visited the Goldbergsee near Coburg...