Fall migration seemed to really switch on Saturday. As soon as the northerly winds changed the seasonally warm weather to true fall weather, so also came the Rooks (Corvus frugilegus).
I was riding my Bike home from doing some Saturday shopping, when I heard an almost deafening cacophany of hoarse, nasal croaking...and as I squeeked to a halt and looked overhead; I could hardly believe my eyes! It seemed like endless streams of flocks, of 20-40 birds each, were coming from the west and north to join in a tight, swirling cyclone that rose to the limits of unaided vision (no bins on me at the time) of an estimated 350-400 rooks! Now I have seen some large wintering flocks of crows back in NJ (Fish Crows near Millville at the Christmas Bird Count!)...but I believe this could have been the genuine inspiration for Hitchcock's movie! I mean it looked and sounded awesome, but ominous at the same time. I wish I had a camera on me, but alas like the bins!
Also, beside the Elbe River (the river that runs through Dresden like the Raritan runs through the New Brunswick campus of Rutgers University :) after perusing through the second-hand flea market (Elbeflohmarkt) I heard, and then saw, my first Greylag Geese (Anser anser) of the fall (and first in Germany for that matter!). There were 26 on the opposite (north) side of the river, just East of Augustusbrücke (August's Bridge), and smaller groups of 4-6 started heading up river (towards the Czech Republic...maybe they were looking for some good, cheap beer?!) honking and displaying their diagnostic very pale leading edge and wing coverts, which was enough to ID them without bins. One of my plans in the near future is to check these rivers regularly for migrating and wintering waterfowl.
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