This past weekend presented the first decent weekend-weather since I returned to Germany from my US vacation, and so my bins were definitely calling me to grab them and head out to the field asap...
Unfortunately due to the worst flooding in central Europe since 2002, pretty much all the birding areas near Leipzig (with lakes) became temporarily impenetrable. So Ashwin Mohan and I agreed that this would be a perfect time to attempt an adventure: we had read in the German book of birding locations in East Germany that there were 2 locations in eastern Saxony (near Görlitz and the Polish border) where Ortolan Buntings (reliably) breed, and this bird (rare in the rest of Saxony) would be a lifer for both of us. One location was so vast, that without a car it would have been futile to search for Ortolans. Fortunately the other location, known in the book as "
Talsperre Quitzdorf", is a huge lake with surrounding mixed woods and wild, overgrown fields.
After a 2 hour journey on 2 trains and a bus, we arrived around 8am in the nearby town called Niesky (yes, we were still in Germany, just about 23 km northwest of Görlitz), and continued to hike downhill out of town about 1 km (less than a mile anyway) and we found a dirt path starting from a busy road and going through woods on the left side of the path (a mixture of evergreens and deciduous trees, including birches) and a narrow clearing (full of tall grass and shrubs) with woods continuing beyond it to the right. We heard the usual morning chorus including several Chiffchaffs, 2 Blackcaps, and a laughing Green Woodpecker. After about 10 minutes walking we came to the edge of the woods, which bordered some nice wild fields to the right of the trail and plowed fields on the left. Soon we started hearing the rising trill-like call of a Yellowhammer; not the bunting species we were after, but a vibrant yellow-headed male perched on a nearby dilapidated wooden blind in the middle of the field was a nice start.
The book mentioned that Ospreys nest here, and sure enough, they were right; on top of a power line tower, in the middle of the plowed field to our left, was a huge, organized pile of sticks and 2 dark figures. One of the pair of adults was standing inside the nest, and appeared (as we hoped) to be feed recently-hatched chicks (we couldn't be 100% sure however as the nest was too high off the ground to see small chick heads), and the other was preening its feathers from a perch on the edge of the tower, a few meters left of the nest. The first interesting observation was that the nest was built inside some sort of "bowl", constructed from metal railing; I suppose Ospreys (probably the same pair even) have been nesting here so long that locals erected such a container in hopes to entice the birds to return in subsequent years to nest? It was also a revelation to me to see one of them, a little while later, gliding low over the field and pouncing on mice in the field, having grown up at the seashore, where all the Ospreys I've seen over the years nested in marshes and only caught fish from bodies of water, such as lakes or just off-shore, near the surf. I've read that this has been observed before by birds with no other choice, i.e., when no fish is available. Okay, but the strange thing was that, in fact, there were several small ponds and one big lake very close by...?
Even the German name for this bird,
Fischadler, means "fish eagle", so it was interesting to watch such atypical behavior.
I should also mention that we had the chance to get nice looks at the Ospreys with Ashwin's new scope! There is a (relatively) new company we heard about from Michael Schulz (our Saxon birding mentor) called
DD Optics (after the acronym for Dresden seen on license plates!) where they were selling some decent optics at very affordable prices, and Ashwin purchased the
Pirschler HDX 15-45x60 S (angled eyepiece) along with a tripod: I must say that, for the price, it has very clear resolution and zoom. I imagine he must be very happy with his new toy!
Anyway, so back to the trail through tree-lined fields, which looked like prime habitat for Ortolan buntings, from what I read in
SMZ:
"Breeds at lower levels in agricultural country with patches of trees and deciduous copses, in open wooded pasture and in clearings..." According to the Saxon birding book, they bred along the same path, just west of the Osprey nest (in the direction we were heading). Sure enough, it wasn't long before we heard a deeper, slower and less-accelerating ringing trill, with a distinctly lower final note than that of Yellowhammers...Ashwin and I turned towards each other, wide-eyed in the realization that this could be the bird we had hoped to find, but surely not guaranteed. You see, we had spent a good part of the long train ride from Dresden listening the songs and calls of this bird from my mp3 player. It turned out to be one of those rare, perfect opportunities to do a comparative study of birdsong (one of my biggest fascinations, as you would have no doubt guessed already if you read my last two posts!), as both the Ortolan and a Yellowhammer were duetting from opposite directions! It was like the auditory equivalent of finding a Short-billed and Long-billed Dowitchers probing together in the same mud flat. Or for the European birder reading: finding habitat where both Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs coexist, so you could directly compare those primary projections?
Then, suddenly 2 bunting-shaped birds flew out of a tree along the trail ahead of us, and dropped into the field, disappearing from sight in the meter-high grass. We waited, not hearing any song or call notes, for several minutes (seemed much longer at the time), and finally one flew out and disappeared back into the tree. By the song he heard coming from this direction, and by elimating other possible species which we could recognize more readily, I was quite confident that the bird was an Ortolan. An additional reason was the behavior of the bird: flying from trees to field, heading straight for the ground (they forage mainly on the ground according to
SMZ), and acted quite wary of us (
SMZ says "rather shy and wary, quick to take cover"). Just when it was starting to become frustrating, the other bird sprang up and perched on a blade of tall grass. It indeed was an
Ortolan bunting with that cream-colored Fu Manchu moustache (stripe) and throat on an otherwise greenish-grey head, light eye-rings, contrasting orange-brown belly, buffish-pink bill and legs. It was a shame neither of us had our cameras (I could have attempted some amateurish digiscoping at least). But all too soon (about 15-20 seconds in fact) this bird flew the coup as well, disappearing into one of the leafed-out oaks skirting the path, leaving us thirsty for more. Latter on we only saw a replay of the same scene, only without either bird perching anywhere (clearly) visible. Oh well, I think we should come earlier next time on not such a hot day.
Here is a map showing where we were with respect to Görlitz:
Other birds of interest we came across on this leg of the journey included at least 2 Common Whitethroats (one was singing its heart out from halfway up one of those power-line towers; quite atypically high!), 3 Black Kites, 2 Red Kites, a Common Buzzard, and a distant flow of 5-10 Northern Lapwings.
We turned around and headed back to the woods, where he took a different trail that headed towards the lake. Here we heard a Raven call, and most interestingly the first (of eventually three) juvenile Greater Spotted Woodpeckers calling from its nest in a nearby birch tree. We ventured off the path a short way, and we eventually converged onto the location of the crying young woodpecker; it wasn't that easy due to the oscillation in volume of the bird's calling from both inside the cavity, and when protruding its head outside. The bright red forehead was visual evidence that this bird was indeed a juvenile, waiting for lunch to be delivered. Now it really felt like June.
When we reached the edge of the lake we did not have much time; if we had brought bikes (and surely we will next time), it would have been much more practical to attempt the whole 16km circumference of the lake. However, the little stretch of lakeside path we did take was significantly fruitful and I will just finish with a list of highlighted finds:
Black Woodpecker - one heard calling, and later another (probably different individual) was drumming.
Golden Orioles - everywhere in there typical deciduous, riparian habitat
Icterine Warblers - 2, first-of-the-year (FOY) for both of us, we had nice views of both, though their loud mimicry accented with their unique raspy, shrill notes were the first indications of their presence.
Spotted Flycatcher - 1, also a FOY, and nice surprise.
Garden Warbler - 1, yet another FOY.
Hobby - 1, cruising for dragonflies overhead, and our 4th FOY (including the Ortolan lifer!)
Hawfinch - 1
All in all, we had a great dry and mostly sunny day (a thunderstorm started to roll in as we commenced the return trip to Dresden), with many excellent birds, including many FOYs and 1 lifer even (and a beautiful one at that)! There still is much potential and much to learn about the birds in Saxony, Germany. It deserves better credit; the reason not more rarities are reported is mostly due to the lack of active birders here looking around!
The upcoming weekend weather report looks promising; hope the water level will have dropped enough to head back to Leipzig one day and look for some
Locustella warblers and terns.
I bid you all good weather and good birding!
