Holidays with birds / July 15, 2019 by Arne Bischoff

Recently I spent some days at the “NABU Wasservogelreservat Wallnau”, a nature-reserve located on the west coast of German island Fehmarn within the Baltic Sea. This place has become very special to me in the last few years. It is a great example of a nature-reserve.

The visitor-centre of Wallnau. Image by Louis Bafrance, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The place has been a fish farming until 1976. Then in 1977 NABU (Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union) acquired it. Since the island of Fehmarn is a bottleneck for migrating birds from Scandinavia on their way south, the wetlands of the old fish farming promised to be a bird paradise. Fehmarn is not called “Vogelinsel” (bird island) for nothing in Germany and in very close distance to Wallnau, you’ll find the beautiful reserves of “Krummsteert” and “Grüner Brink”.

The rest is history. Wallnau has indeed become a paradise not only for migrating birds, but for breeding birds as well. The whole place is devoted to the conservation of nature and true to NABU’s motto “you only protect what you know”, there is a visitor centre with an excellent exhibition that teaches all about the island, the place and the migration of birds. Next to visitor-centre and exhibition sits a nature trail, which provides more insight into the functioning of Wallnau and is really fun to follow. The trail leads to a tall look-out with a commanding view over the marshes, the wetlands, shore, beach and sea.

Entering the reserve itself is strongly prohibited, but four hides make for wonderful observation- and photo-opportunities. This is where I spent most of my time. You can see the birds beautifully, but they can’t see you and if you are silent enough, can’t hear you either. Since it is wetland, waders and gulls are the dominating groups.

A Pied avocet succesfully mobbing a Gadwall.

During my visit, Pied avocet have been especially numerous. Many of them had chicks and that did not benefit their character. The avocets did not allow any other birds around. Especially in the later hours before nightfall, they were bullying each and every one from the tiniest wagtail chick to the largest greylag goose. Only some occasional shelduck offered resistance.

The star of my first day was an adventurous little wagtail, who paraded the gravel path directly in front of the main building. It drew so many eyes that its mother had a hard time feeding it. Every evening, three branchlings of a Long-eared owl gave its ear-piercing begging calls. On my third day, I saw an Eurasian bittern flying by. The first of my live.

The list goes on and on. Even outside the reserve, the area is astonishingly beautiful. Hares, deer and foxes are patrolling the meadows nearby. The Baltic Sea is crashing against the old dyke, which is protecting Wallnau. The island of Fehmarn itself, although hugely surfaced with industrial agriculture, has its moments of beauty, too. Strips of wildflowers are edging many of the fields, with cornflowers, chamomile and poppies in full bloom. Every once in a while, a pheasant strolls by.

A Common pheasant at nature-reserve “Grüner Brink”.

For a bird lover or anyone, who is interested in nature, I highly recommend visiting this place. I will most definitely come back.

Until then, I happily share my observation-list and my images with you.

Barn swallow, Barnacle goose, Black-headed gull, Black-tailed godwit, Carrion crow, Common blackbird, Common cuckoo, Common eider, Common greenshank, Common gull, Common house martin, Common pheasant, Common pochard, Common redshank, Common reed bunting, Common ringed plover, Common sandpiper, Common shelduck, Common Starling, Common tern, Common wood pigeon, Dunlin, Eurasian bittern, Eurasian blue tit, Eurasian coot, Eurasian curlew, Eurasian oystercatcher, Eurasian skylark, Eurasian teal, European golden plover, European herring gull, Gadwall, Great cormorant, Green sandpiper, Grey heron, Greylag goose, House sparrow, Lesser whitethroat, Little ringed plover, Little stint, Long-eared owl, Mallard, Mute swan, Northern lapwing, Northern shoveler, Pied avocet, Red-breasted merganser, Red-necked grebe, Rook, Ruff, Spotted redshank, Tufted duck, Western yellow wagtail, White wagtail, Willow warbler, Wood sandpiper

Spring is here / February 25, 2019 by Arne Bischoff

Spring has arrived in Northern Germany. With temperatures rising over 15° C and beautiful sunny weather, the bird-sound-level multiplied. Wherever you walk, wherever you put your ear, you hear them display their songs. Ten days ago blackbirds, tits, robins and corvids dominated the gardens, today you see and hear nuthatches and starlings, green woodpeckers hold their courtships and yes, even the first white storks are back (to be honest, some particularly daring individuals went thus far to hibernate here, so they are not back - they were never gone). Oh soul, rejoice. It’s spring.

The stoic / January 5, 2019 by Arne Bischoff

Kingfishers are a bit of superstars in the realm of birds. So it comes as a surprise how often they actually go unnoticed. A lot of these beautiful birds dwell near us humans. It's not that they are dedicated synanthrope as for example Common Sparrows, crows or kestrels. Usually they have no alternative. They suffer from a dramatic loss of habitat. They hunt from well hidden look-outs such as overhanging branches or twigs and they need steep, sandy or loamy banks to nest in. Both have become exceptionally rare in modern agricultural landscape, so they take what they can get.

In my hometown, there are at least four hunting grounds, which the kingfishers visit frequently. All four are hotspots for human recreation. But despite the popularity of its hunting grounds, its flamboyant colours, its ear-piercing call and its eye-catching flight, nearly everyone seems to overlook our little superstar-bird.

I captured the first image at an old cemetery that serves more as a local park than an actual graveyard. In its middle sits a lake. Around this lake, there are at least five benches, offering rest for walkers. One sunny fall-morning, I was on the outlook for the little fellow and after some minutes, I heard his hunting-call. He kept hidden in the overhanging trees for some more minutes, before he set watch on a high and well visible branch just over the centre of the lake. In a period of about one and a half hour, he made at least five dives, two or three of it successful. After each dive, he vanished into the protection of the dense bushes, waited, gave his piercing call and then perched again. Me and the bird were surrounded of dozens of walkers and - surprisingly - Pokemon-Go players. No one took any notice of the bird. And the bird? Well, he did not take any notice either. He continued his hunt. Then, he vanished over the railroad tracks. This was when I thought, I might call him the Stoic.

Behind the image / December 19, 2018 by Arne Bischoff

In Germany there is a popular saying. If you want to say somebody is stupid, you call him a “Spatzenhirn“, which literally translates to “sparrowbrain“ and has the same meaning as the English “birdbrain“. I long find this rather stupid. House sparrows are among the most adaptable species of wildlife. While their smaller sibling, the Eurasian tree sparrow, suffer from loss of habitat, house sparrows conquer our cities, villages or farmhouses from Anchorage tu Ushuaia and from Sydney to Svalbard. They thrive on our leftovers.
This particular individual and around twenty of its specimen came to a tree right in front of my office window for 30 to 60 minutes every day. They sat on the ground picking seeds until something stirred them up. Than they flew into the tree. That made it pretty easy for me.

Dozens and almost hundreds of sparrows besiege the bakery I oft go for lunch in the summer. The little birds wait patiently for a crumb to drop or a piece of crust to be left over. They even venture inside the bakery when its doors are open in warm weather. They precisely distinguish an open glass-door from a closed one and they find their way out with such ease that it almost looks cheeky. I don't know if they suffer from a high percentage of body fat, but they have plenty to eat at least.

My summer holiday led me to Norway. While I was waiting at a harbour to board one of its thousands of ferries to cross a fjord, I beheld to house sparrows – one female, one male – picking the dead insects from the number plates of the waiting cars. They found themselves a brilliant ecological niche. Every 30 minutes, they get fresh food delivered right to their doorstep. So don't say birdbrain anymore. They might turn out smarter than you.

The beginning / December 18, 2018 by Arne Bischoff

So this is the beginning of this page. But what was my beginning? A so-good friend kindled both: the interest in photography and the appreciation for birds. The former was easier to ignite. I was allowed to use her D90 a lot and my interest grew with every picture I shot. But it took quite some time to go further than interest. I was missing a subject. I was missing something that I wanted to photograph. I was missing a reason to photograph.

Enter birds. I always was an outdoorsy person. And since I was a young boy, I was fascinated with nature documentary. I breathlessly watched tigers and snow-leopards and whales and and and in the tele. Subsequently I was dreaming of “spectacular“ subjects to photograph. But there are not so many spectacular species in Northern Germany. You can consider yourself lucky to see a pouncing fox. But as a matter of fact, there is hardly a more spectacular subject than birds. This is what my friend told me. And my friend told me more but never dug into my heels, giving me the room to understand myself. It took a while, but I did. Today I love that I see birds wherever I may go. They come in all varieties and they are literally everywhere. Be it the metropolis or the remote wilderness. They adapt to every possible habitat. And they come with so many behavioural patterns, sizes, shapes, colours, species. Of course, you have to work a little to fully appreciate all this. But the more you know, the more you understand, the more fascinating it gets. My friend knew.

My love for birds in particular and for watching animals exceeds my interest in photography. If I can choose only to watch or only to photograph, I'll watch. But more often than not, I do both. And of both I will tell you in this weblog. Of birds, of experiences watching wildlife and a little of photography.

Stay tuned and see my first ever picture of birds …