Category Archives: Uncategorized

Yet More Winter

Leave a reply

snow

This is the view from my window today. It really is quite beautiful, but has put something of a damper on my thoughts of spring. The birds have been keeping at it however, and it seems that every day I hear more songs from the males. Today a male great tit was singing quite loudly while his comrades were finishing off the peanuts on my window box. He only has two notes, but he makes good use of them. The great tits, or Kohlmeise (which I’m calling them from now on, thanks to the tit problem), are very similar to the blue tits, or Blaumeise, except that they are larger and have black caps. They are very frequent visitors to our fat balls. Continue reading →

Signs of Spring

Leave a reply

Image

This is the post I meant to put up yesterday, but life got in the way a little bit…

snowdropsToday, for the first time this year, I heard the voice of the male blackbird. During the spring and early summer one hears them constantly, and they certainly sing away in the dead of night. But by late summer they quiet down and the only noise that I at least can hear them make is a rustling around in the leaves. As I was returning from the post office yesterday I stopped to watch a female blackbird in the hopes of getting a good shot of her (I didn’t) when I heard the familiar voice of the male for a brief few seconds in the bush. Like a jolt it transported me to spring! Afterwards I came across these snowdrops and the daffodil shoots pictured above and was firmly convinced that spring might actually be a possibility. A week ago I wouldn’t have been so sure. Continue reading →

An Hour’s Walk

5 Replies

Flying Coot

Today was the first full sunny day in as long as I can remember. We have had a few hours of sun here and there over the past few weeks, but it has always passed quickly and never seems to totally dispel the gloom. But today was different, and I took advantage of it by taking a meandering route on my errands. First I stopped by the gathering in the Spree, to check on the usual crowd. I didn’t see the little grebe this time, but everyone else was there. A man on the opposite bank was throwing bread in the water, so the whole mass of birds slowly moved into his vicinity, making quite a ruckus on the way. The coots are very funny when they decide to fly. They begin by running along the water, kicking it up behind them, and flapping their wings like mad. When they finally alight it seems a marvel that they can fly at all. Above is a photo of one of the coots about to take off. Continue reading →

Hunger

2 Replies

Blaumeise

HamletThe bird that I see the most of here in Berlin is the blue tit (Blaumeise). These are bright and lovely little birds with yellow bellies and blue little caps and distinctive facial patterns. They are remarkably acrobatic and seem to enjoy twirling around branches, falling and catching themselves, and hopping upside-down along branches, as if gravity would be of no concern if one is just chipper and bright enough. I am always happy to see them on these dark winter days; they fly about in utter defiance of any gloom. Continue reading →

Little Grebe

Leave a reply

image

Today I returned to the congregation on the river and was surprised to find not only that the location and number of birds seemed to be the same, but also that all of the individuals I recognized from the day before were bobbing around in roughly the same places in the water. The splotchy hybrids were still keeping together on the far end of the group, and a recognizable coot with an injured wing was keeping close to the very same bit of shore as yesterday. The neat little group of tufted ducks must have been swimming all day to stay in the very same spot. So it appears that waterfowl are creatures of habit this time of year. I think that it is a lucky thing to find recognizable individuals among the masses, as it gives one a feeling of connection to an otherwise strange group of foreign creatures, all indistinguishable from one another. Continue reading →

Waterfowl

1 Reply

image

When I woke up this morning I had an itch to look at ducks. This time of year is good for finding rare or unusual ducks hiding out in larger groups of more common waterfowl. So today after coffee Ilarion and I walked along the Spree until we found a large gathering of birds bobbing around together in an elbow of the river not far from our apartment. Continue reading →