Tag Archives: sparrow

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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Visitors

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HawfinchThe last few weeks were abnormally cold and snowy here in Berlin. These conditions not only meant that the birds were hungry, but also that I didn’t get out much to observe them. To remedy this situation I covered the window boxes on my balcony with sunflower seeds every morning, and soon found that I had many visitors. Above is one of a troop of hawfinches that would appear every morning.

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Greyness, and a wren

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Crows in greyness
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.

Allianz tower 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. Continue reading →

Stranger in a Strange Land

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Condor
About once a month I walk past the zoo on my way to the Asian grocery store, where I fill up my backpack with food. On my way today I had the pleasure of seeing this Andean condor sunning himself on a snowy stump. He stood like this for some time, turning himself around in the sun. When he stopped his sunning and folded his wings onto his back he did so with all the grace of a frustrated traveler attempting to fold up a large road map. Perhaps aired-out wings are like aired-out bedding, more difficult to fold. Notice how the feathers have been clipped on the interior of his wings.

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Yet More Winter

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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 →

An Hour’s Walk

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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 →