10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2013

Therefore I have decided to right my wrong by providing first and foremost some avian eye candy, and not talk. Birds Germany godwits shorebirds' As a matter of fact, one might surmise that I have merely instrumantalized a few images of a wet magpie to let loose a relentless rant about our weather.

Germany 207

Germany Russia Iceland India 207

Critter News

OCTOBER 28, 2010

Some employees from firms in Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland had "puppy killer" and "scum" daubed on their houses. Tags: europe activism huntingdon animal rights. The cost of the damage and increased security measures amounted to 12.6 million pounds, the court heard.

Animal Rights 100

Animal Rights Europe Rights Animal Cruelty 100

10,000 Birds

JUNE 1, 2023

Not at all, they are very right to protest, and I have no issue with the farmers – we all share the same enemy, our own President. Now, try to imagine Germany having Joseph Goebbels as a Chancellor around the year 1970, more than quarter of a century after WWII – unimaginable, isn’t it? Am I annoyed with the farmers, angry at them?

Protest 240

Protest Protesting Protesters Germany 240

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2024

Jacob suggested the Wagbachniederung, a well-known wetland that is particularly popular amongst photographers for being one of the few locations in Germany where Purple Herons breed. A Grey Heron looked quite comical as it seemed lost right in the middle of one of the ponds.

Squirrels 246

Squirrels South Africa Germany Ducks 246

10,000 Birds

JUNE 20, 2022

There is a Chinese proverb stating “Laws control a lesser person, right conduct controls a greater one.” T he European Green Woodpecker (Visselhoevede, Germany) is closely related to the Grey-headed Woodpecker, but less demanding in terms of its habitat ( source ). Kind of like a diesel version.

Woodpeckers 264

Woodpeckers South Africa China Singapore 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2014

Germany is blessed with a single species of crossbill, the Red Crossbill Loxia recurvirostra. It is pointless, and thus frustrating as each encounter might mean you’ve just missed out on an opportunity to record an amazing vagrant for Germany. Then I hear another crossbill call from a small pine tree right behind me.

Germany 194

Germany Parrots Bats Europe 194

10,000 Birds

MAY 20, 2014

Bird migration is cool and important and a major adaptation right? Hore & Henrik Mouritsen of Universität Oldenburg, Germany, have just published a paper in Nature called “ Anthropogenic electromagnetic noise disrupts magnetic compass orientation in a migratory bird ”. See this and this for more on that sort of thing.).

Humane 270

Humane Compassion Research Cooking 270

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 8, 2019

Barn Swallows are pretty much anywhere in the world (I just saw them back in Germany). I have seen this bird right at the Bund waterfront, possibly the most famous tourist spot in all of Shanghai. During my last trip to Germany, several people pointed out locations of Common Kingfisher.

Germany 167

Germany Cattle Blackbirds Birds 167

10,000 Birds

MARCH 15, 2015

Germany, like most of Europe and very much unlike North America, is home to only one species of squirrel. The view from my office window towards the squirrel trees on the right. Mammals Germany red squirrels squirrels' And aren’t you glad it is. So to speak. Introducing to you, my valued audience: the squirrel next door.

Squirrels 162

Squirrels North America Germany Europe 162

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 6, 2021

Most of them based in a single attractive, historic, and easily walkable city or town, my tours, under VENT’s Birds, Nature, and Culture rubric, always see plenty of birds: hoopoes and rollers in France, Great Bustards and bean geese in Germany, Fulvous Owls and Black-capped Swallows in Guatemala are just a few examples.

New Jersey 246

New Jersey Guatemala France Birds 246

10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2024

On the one hand, they are very easy to see in Germany, swimming in public parks or teaching pensioners how to eat bread. To be honest, I never cared too much for swans. On the other hand, their white color and their considerable size made me see them as somewhat arrogant birds – the white Golf convertible of the bird world.

China 246

China Iceland Whales Whaling 246

10,000 Birds

MARCH 22, 2024

She did just that, and the fact that they were well used gave exactly the right impression she needed of someone who knew, when it came to birds, what she was talking about. In the late 80s I was invited by Zeiss to go to Wetzlar in Germany to see the company’s binoculars being manufactured, an invitation that was too good to refuse.

Austria 246

Austria Factory Germany Portugal 246

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2019

The Chestnut Bunting is quite a beauty, particularly when seen from the right angle. Always interesting to see the same species both in Germany (in my parents’ garden) and in Shanghai. Despite not being rare in China, this was the first time for me to see Carrion Crow at Nanhui. Goldcrest is not easy to capture with a camera.

2019 240

2019 Japan Owls China 240

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 15, 2020

Mandarin Ducks, Munich, Germany. Sure, it is an introduced species in Germany. But the Kentish Plover was sheltering its young under its body, and the Little Ringed Plover was incubating an egg — right in the middle of downtown Madrid! Plus a few truly difficult species. But they were still Mandarin Ducks!

Austria 196

Austria Spain 2019 Germany 196

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 12, 2011

The last few days have been particularly good for sun-gazing here in Germany, and I have captured a few images for your valued entertainment. The following image was taken in central Germany on November 9th at 13:00 under ideal fog conditions, and I was surprised at how many sunspots there currently are on the sun’s surface.

Germany 182

Germany Science Protection Humane 182

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2012

Citril Finches used to be rather common on the sub-alpine meadows of the Black Forest, but their population is undergoing a serious decline and it is currently feared they will soon be extinct in Germany outside the German Alps.

Germany 162

Germany Europe 2011 Rights 162

10,000 Birds

MARCH 6, 2016

The key to solving the puzzle of Germany’s large white-headed gulls was banding juveniles of all forms in their breeding colonies and the fact that some humans find immense joy in driving around garbage dumps, looking at birds with pricey scopes and trying to decipher tiny codes on plastic or metal rings of various shapes and sizes.

Kazakhstan 153

Kazakhstan Germany Ukraine Asia 153

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 4, 2012

No, I am not referring to a Floridian spin-off of the world’s largest fair in Munich, Germany meant to celebrate everything beer. A correctly angled cold front combined with a sloppy, wet tropical system created the right conditions for a logjam. Will October 2012 have the right conditions for a repeat of 2011?

Miami 233

Miami Florida 2011 2012 233

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 21, 2016

I am not entirely sure whether most birders outside Germany know or realize that Germany still has a decent population of one of Europe’s most attractive and desired bird species: the Great Bustard Otis tarda. Now that I might have wetted your appetite, here’s where and how to find them in Germany: 1.

Germany 107

Germany Mongolia Abandon Abandoning 107

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

Left – 2nd edition, right – 3rd edition So, not much has changed since the 2nd edition? Forget occasional escapees, there is an established feral population successfully breeding in the north of Germany, which was 131 birds strong last year. Yet, still a gauntlet thrown to other publishers, too.

Europe 264

Europe Birds Woodpeckers Ireland 264

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Either that or having family friends in Germany. First hand birder knowledge of Germany, and in English! I decided then and there that I needed to bird Germany in a way that would make a birding Kraut cry with jealousy. Our plane touched down in Dusseldorf on June 14 where our friend picked us up. They are just too cool.

Salamander 159

Salamander Germany Birds Blackbirds 159

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2013

It’s either that or the Hindus are right, that our existence is a continuing chain of lives through re-birth, a system of action and reward, and Corey Finger’s former life was that of a panda bear whose biggest mischief was eating bamboo, while I was Pol Pot. What could possibly go wrong?

Germany 145

Germany Pandas Birds Kittens 145

10,000 Birds

MAY 10, 2015

It therefore comes as no surprise that it has been regarded as a subspecies of the Spanish Sparrow or the House Sparrow, or as a species in its own right. We currently are experiencing a rare time where all major taxonomic bodies tend to regard it as a species in its own right, the Italian Sparrow Passer italiae.

Sparrows 257

Sparrows Italy Kyrgyzstan Asia 257

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 7, 2011

The Common Swifts have left Germany behind as their journey South has begun. The dots in the sky, forming whirling, twirling and spiralling clouds, breaking into a dashing descent, tossing themselves from one side to the other, turning, diving, screaming, and spiralling upwards again, have vanished. That is early.

Elephants 185

Elephants Neglecting Europe Breeders 185

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 29, 2021

As in this quote by Mr. Andrew Breitbart: “Liberals in blue states just think that they are on the right side of history, and anybody that disagrees with them has to be a troglodyte or a neanderthal.” Upon learning about my background, he asked me whether we have Yaks in Germany.

Birds 263

Birds Germany India 2018 263

10,000 Birds

JUNE 28, 2015

Maintaining a firm focus on the bright side of taxonomy, a split always means vagrant potential, and the different forms must surely be diagnosable in the field then, right? Until a friend sends you pictures of a very small Great Egret in Germany in winter – with bright pink legs, a black bill and a turquoise cere.

Asia 221

Asia Europe Germany Breeding 221

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2017

In Germany for example, they are breeding in practically every hilly or mountainous region south of the North German Plain and are not really rare if they occur in a certain region. However, dippers here in Germany aren’t too fussy about their habitats and will readily utilize human-made secondary rapids and rocks. Crazy, I know.

Germany 100

Germany Hamburgers Austria 2016 100

Critter News

MARCH 28, 2009

Touchy subject there in Germany. The German constitutional court has ruled that animal rights organisation PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) must end its campaign in which it draws a comparison between the Holocaust and industrial farming.

PETA 100

PETA Campaign Factory Farm Factory Farming 100

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 5, 2012

It also used to be a rather common bird in the South of Germany, but the German population has crashed and collapsed (almost?) If it still breeds in Germany at all, which it might do, it is so rare by now that pairs do not get reported to anywhere except to the relevant nature conservation authorities. For more than an hour.

Cattle 136

Cattle Germany Iran Breeders 136

Critter News

DECEMBER 9, 2008

The Islamic practice of slaughtering animals by means of a sharp cut to the front of the neck has frequently come under attack by some animal rights activists as being a form of animal cruelty, the claim being that it is a painful inhumane method of killing animals. Tags: islam Slaughterhouse Germany cows.

Slaughter 100

Slaughter Slaughtered Humane Germany 100

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

Driving from France or Germany to Greece, you are likely to pass through my hometown of Belgrade and continue south following the E75 through the FYRO Macedonia. To reach Prespa Lakes, from Niki continue through Florina, from there right for Albania and veer right for the lakes. Have you read my blogs on birding Greece ?

Greece 192

Greece Albania Macedonia Europe 192

Critter News

DECEMBER 28, 2009

The inspectors found nothing wrong, but at least they responded to the issues raised by Animal Angels, based in Germany. My 2010 resolution is to try and track animal rights issues in the homelands of Spain and Portugal. This happened earlier in the month, but I'm posting it anyway.

Animal Welfare 100

Animal Welfare Portugal Farm Animal Farmed Animals 100

10,000 Birds

JULY 14, 2011

southern Australia’s cool winter weather and wonderful birds sound mighty appealing right now and 2. And so it’s July, which for this North American birder means a couple of things: 1. A Speckled Mousebird ( Colius striatus ) poses in Nairobi. Mousebirds remain one of the mysteries in avian systematics. Photo © David J.

Madagascar 170

Madagascar Louisiana Penguins Germany 170

10,000 Birds

MAY 11, 2014

Now, having the female-thing fly in between two Garganeys made it easy to be sure it was of the exact same size, and there are only two species of dabbling duck the size of a Garganey in Germany: the Teal and – well – the Garganey. I mean, the Gadwall is one of the most common ducks in Germany. The bird is a male Gadwall.

Ducks 160

Ducks Germany North America Europe 160

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 9, 2021

Apparently, there are no Lesser Scaup around here, so even I can be fairly confident to get this species identification right. It seems that this year, at least one Greater Scaup is using Nanhui as a wintering ground. I was hoping to see a Siberian Rubythroat , as it is a beautiful bird and I had not seen one this season yet.

Birds 264

Birds Japan Germany Ducks 264

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2021

I grew up in a small town in Northern Germany. Another bird one could easily see to be turned into a (slightly evil) cartoon character. A pity I cannot draw. It is located about 15 km away from a bird park that (rightly or wrongly) claims to be the biggest in the world. So, school activities included the occasional visit to this park.

South Africa 264

South Africa Africa Lesotho Nigeria 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 13, 2022

Please keep that in mind if you ever think that Germany’s only contributions to the world are highways and world wars. If you take a feral pigeon, bleach it and then batik it using the right colors, the result might be a Pink-necked Green Pigeon (1). Next to me, a local birder tried to get a photo of a Common Iora.

Singapore 264

Singapore Birds Zebras Feral 264