Tag Archives: blackcap

From the Balcony: Redstart, Robin and Flycatcher

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Just over a month ago the afternoons and evenings here in Berlin were still filled with the beautiful songs of blackbirds, blackcaps and nightingales. Now our yard is much quieter, with the exception of a few noisemakers.

RobinThis robin wakes early every morning and begin its many tasks, one of them being clucking at the neighbor’s cat. The robin must have a little brood somewhere in the yard that needs plenty of feeding and defending. While I took this picture, it had been clucking at the cat for some time, despite having a collection of insects in its mouth.

Common Redstart

 

This beautiful Common Redstart is still busy defending his territory around our apartment. His song is loud, repetitive and insistent, and therefore tiring after about 15 minutes, but he is still endearing thanks to his beautiful coloration and cheery tail-bobbing.

Spotted Flycatcher in Repose

The Spotted Flycatchers are very quiet, yet are actively swooping around the yard whenever I look out. Here is one in a rare moment of repose.

In addition to these birds, there are some tantalizing songs coming from the treetops lately. I don’t know if they are new or if I just never noticed them before, what with the pretty constant noise of blackbird excitement over the last few months. Unfortunately the leaves are so thick that I can’t yet identify the singers, but maybe in the coming days…

Goshawk in the Tiergarten

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ChaffinchAfter so many days of rain I was so happy to finally have the chance to wander through the Tiergarten this afternoon. In my search for shy creatures I found a shady clearing where I could photograph this little chaffinch undisturbed by dogs and bicycles.

At the edge of the clearing a blackbird was belting it out as usual, his song mixing with that of a very loud blackcap and a few other blackbirds in the area. I was snapping away when all of a sudden the chaffinch was missing from my viewfinder, the blackcap was quiet, and the blackbirds’ songs changed to a series of short, high pitched notes.

The sound reminded me of something, and I remembered this post that I read the other day describing the call that American Robins make when a hawk is nearby. This gave me the brilliant idea that I should stop staring at the barren ground through the viewfinder, remove my face from the back of the camera, and look up. And lo and behold…

Northern Goshawk

right above me was a Northern Goshawk. It only stayed for a few seconds before flying off as silently as it arrived. The blackbirds immediately returned to their loud songs, but I couldn’t find my chaffinch again.

Whitethroat and Blackcap

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White throatTrying to get a photograph of these lively little birds is an exercise in frustration. They hate to stop in one place for more than three seconds and they flit from tree to tree with very little commotion. One hears only their calls, coming first from here, then from over there, and then from here again, like sounds in a funhouse. But I caught this one! Ha! He is a lesser whitethroat who arrived from Africa a few weeks ago and took up residence near the Spree. Living nearby is his relative, the blackcap, who flits around in the same way but sings a very beautiful song all the while. Here these birds are known as Grasmücke. The blackcap is the Monchsgrasmücke, because of his garb, and the white throat is the Klappergrasmücke, because of the chattery nature of his call.

blackcap

Arrivals from Africa

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Suddenly the Tiergarten is full of new arrivals, many of them having braved the long journey from central Africa to arrive in central Berlin. Today I saw a wonderful little common redstart, just landed, hopping around eating insects in the Englisher Garten. Two days ago I saw and heard a lesser whitethroat, who supposedly also spends his summers in Africa and was jumping around on bushes near the Spree. And today I heard the lovely song of the male blackcap and saw his lady, with a dusty red cap, eating buds on a branch.

And to top all of this off, last night I heard the song of the nightingale for the first time this year. It is hard to believe that these little birds have the strength to fly over the Sahara and immediately start belting their hearts out as soon as they land in the city. I am very grateful to them, and I’m happy that they all arrived safely.

More listening

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Today I noticed that my camera battery had died, just after I left the house to go observing. This turned out to be a good thing, as I decided to focus on listening again, and to see if I could identify not only every bird that I saw, but also every bird that I heard. I walked by the Spree, where in the past months the waterfowl would be hanging around in their usual spots. But now, thanks to the constant parade of pleasure boats that churn up and down the river as soon as the weather improves, there was hardly a duck or coot to be seen, and no more swans or grebes or moorhens at all. (Many of these seem to have relocated to the pond in the Englischer Garten.)

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