Bee-eaters, shorebirds, and some odd-ball waterfowl.

Date: Saturday, July 28, 2012, 7:30-12:00
Weather: warm and humid, with scattered rain showers (some with lightning and strong winds).

Highlights of the morning:

 Stöhna (South of Leipzig, Saxony):

• A Honey Buzzard flew over the road in front of us and into the trees, on the way to Stöhna from southern Leipzig.
• a juv. each of Stonechat, Whinchat, and Bluethroat
• my first sitting (and silent) Wryneck!
• a successful family of Common Crane with 2 young!
• Shorebirds have started their southward migration for a few weeks now, and here is what we found today:  30+ Common Snipe, 20+ Ruff, 12+ Little Ringed Plovers, Greenshank, Wood and Green Sandpipers, and 2 Common Sandpipers. This is supposedly the best time of year for Temminck's Stints in the area, but no luck today...
• 4 juv. Marsh Harriers mixed in with several adults.

Geiseltal (Saxony-Anhalt):

• A swarm of 50+ post-breeding Bee-eaters
• a out-of-place Greater White-fronted Goose (maybe wounded as it looked healthy otherwise).
• Interestingly, a Bar-headed Goose and a Black Swan (no, not Natalie Portman!) in the same location...fugitive travel buddies?

Despite the less-than-ideal weather, these sightings made for more than a decent morning of birding around Leipzig: the true hot spot of Saxony nature.

I would like to just briefly apologize for the lack of updates on the blog this year so far; it is not that I haven't been birding! On the contrary, Ashwin and I have seen so many birds this year (I have already added 60+ lifers since March!) I felt that I could not keep up with my blog along with the increased workload of my PhD studentship. These sort of things happen, right?
But in the future, I hope to at least be able to write such short highlights of interesting sightings or findings.
I will work on posting a review of the spring/summer highlights soon, as well as my recent, life-changing trip to northeast Iceland with pics, so stay tuned!

Good birding!

Spring has arrived in Saxony! (March 17)

It has been a while since my last post, result of becoming busier with PhD study and not having enough time to bird often (and even with time to bird, no time to post here). But when the temperatures rose suddenly 10°C Friday, March 17, I knew I had to get out in the field this weekend, so I went to one of my favorite hotspots near Dresden, with a decent range of habitat diversity: Moritzburg. The weather was sunny with a high of around 21°C (~70°F)

A walk around the western Schlossteich (Palace Pond) revealed several Tufted Ducks, 1 Common Pochard, First of year (FOY)White Wagtail, interestingly 4 Egyptian Geese among the scattered pairs of Greylags, and the most stunning to me: the Great Crested Grebes (FOY) in stunning alternate (breeding) plumage, and enacting courtship displays and chasing across the water's surface. There were 2 grebes still in mostly basic plumage.  The only Green Woodpecker of the day laughed in the distance, and Chaffinches and Greenfinches were singing their hearts out everywhere. Along the trail through mixed woods to the western lakes (Higher and Lower Altenteich), we came across a single chattering Winter Wren, followed by Nuthatches, Greater Spotted Woodpeckers, a single each of Coal Tit and Jay, a flyover Raven, and several Short-toed Treecreepers. Main misses of the woods (and the day) were Crested Tit and Firecrest. Arriving at the Unterer Altenteich Lake first, we quickly noticed and enjoyed the 3 pairs of Common Goldeneyes, along a few extra (bachelor?) drakes. The males' heads shone brilliantly iridescent green in the sun. Also present near this lake were 20-30 Coot (FOY), ´more Great Crested Grebes, a single adult White-tailed Eagle, 3-4 Goldcrests and 2 Chiffchaffs (FOY). Then came a shrill, spine-tingling call...a Black Woodpecker (FOY)! This was the first time I have even heard this species at this location. We managed to follow the repeated kliii-eh calls until we spotted it, and I had the greatest view yet of this magnificent bird. The moment ended all too soon, as it broke away from the tree and escaped into the deep woods.

Latter outside the woods and near the Schloss looking out over the East Schlossteich, no Mediterranean gull spotted among the hundreds of Black-headed Gulls, but we picked up Goosander (2 drakes, 1 hen), and a magnificent Red Kite (FOY). Ended the morning with a respectable 45 species.