The last few days have been exceptionally grey here in Berlin. So to cheer myself up yesterday I went to visit my old colleagues at Allianz Climate Solutions for lunch.

I used to work near the very top of this tower, the tallest building in Berlin. I had an incredible view from my office and would see many birds, migrating or hanging around in the Spree, making concentration rather difficult! After lunch yesterday I decided to spend some time with the birds that I used to only watch from afar. Treptower Park is right next to the tower, so I took a little walk there.

Mainly I saw black-headed gulls, lots of them. They don’t have black heads this time of year, but are recognizable by their smallish size and their black wingtips. Some larger, gull-like bird was soaring around above for the duration of my visit, but I couldn’t see it well enough to identify any marks.

Otherwise I saw the usual waterbirds: coots, mallards and tufted ducks, and this one solitary swan, who was really interested in something on the river bottom.

After a while I went into a little enclosure and watched a number of blackbirds, sparrows, and tits, plus a greenfinch and a nuthatch eating seeds. While leaving I heard some rustling on the ground and saw something that looked like a little mouse, running to hide under some dead leaves. It turned out to be a wren, very small and cute! It moved to quickly for a photograph, unfortunately. But this is the first wren I have seen here, despite it being very “common.” So I was happy to make another mark in my book with my very cold and stiff hands.

One nice thing about the greyness is that it makes certain green colors really stand out, as you can see from these green branches.