Dr. Jekyll and Birder Hyde

Two Snakes from Kazakhstan

2011-08-01T01:57:00.000-07:00

I have recently returned from a trip to the Aqtau area of Western Kazakhstan, near the Caspian Sea shore. During this trip I encountered two snakes (well, a snake and a snake slough) that I fail to identify, and I would appreciate any suggestions.

First snake:
a possible Natrix tessellata lacking dark spots or a form of Natrix natrix?

A classic Natrix tessellata found at the same location

The mystery snake:

Second snake, snake slough:

The length was around 90 cm, and the snake appeared very slender, with a small head. It was found in semi-desert surroundings with very sparse vegetation, in a small ravine on clay soil.

According to general distribution, the following species might occur (not mentioning Natrix and Gloydius halys):

Hemorrhois (Coluber) ravergieri

Elaphe dione

Elaphe (quatrolineata) sauromates

I have observed several Elaphe sauromates in the area but none of the other two.

Strange Buzzard over my office

2011-05-30T06:47:00.000-07:00

Today, I observed a strange buzzard over my office. What struck me - struck the living crap out of me to be honest - was looking at it with my bare eyes and, upon the bird's banking, noticing the pale whitish contrasting upside of the tail.
Now, the entire bird, in proportions and colouration / pattern doesn't exactly scream "Long-legged Buzzard" in your face, and in fact it looks just fine for an average plain ol' boring 2 cy Common Buzzard. But frankly, I really can't recall ever seeing such a pale upper tail, with whitish base slowly changin into cinnamon-reddish at the tips, combined with an entirely dark back (uppertail coverts, rump etc.). This is a contrast I usually associate with Long-legged Buzzard. I have seen plenty of very pale and cinnamon upper tails on Common Buzzards, but in these birds the rump and/or back were always very pale as well.

Any suggestions or opinions on the bird?
For the time being, this is nothing but an interesting Common Buzzard to me, but how much weight am I to put on the field mark of a contrast between pale upper tail and dark rump?

Common or Rough-legged Buzzard?

2011-02-28T04:49:00.001-08:00

This shouldn't happen. But it does, over and over again.

Today I went up into the hills to check how the local breeding pair of Eurasian Eagle Owl was doing, when I saw three Buteos gliding over. I took many photos of the first one, then noticed the second one had passed so much overhead already that I only took one pic (bad angle), and then focussed on the third one to take better pictures.
And of course, it turns out that the second Buteo was indeed the most interesting one - and I have only one picture.

Dang!

Okay, the other two were clearly Common Buzzards, Buteo buteo, but the picture of the second bird does seem to show a few hints that might point towards it being a Rough-legged Buzzard (or Rough-legged Hawk if you will).

I am not sure though, but should be as this species would be a local rarity. not extremely unlikely, but very nice nevertheless.

What do you think?
The first picture is not altered at all beyond cropping. The second picture is brightened up and with increased contrast.

Remarks on the identification of American and Eurasian Moorhens

2011-02-22T01:06:00.000-08:00

In a recent blog post, David Sibley suggested the following four identification criteria for separating Eurasian from American Moorhen:

1) Bill tip pattern: American shows more red on lower mandible, with the yellow on the upper and lower mandible forming a wedge shape whereas Eurasian birds show a more or less straight line angled back across both mandibles. He cautions that Eurasian birds sometimes show the pattern of American birds.
I have investigated the bill tip pattern on the pictures I have of German birds (not many, maybe 5 or 6 birds in total) and on the galleries of the websites club300.de, tarsiger.com, birdpix.nl, and netfugl.dk. The sample size is thus around 60 birds. I have applied the qualitative character of the line on the lower mandible angling forward, as any quantitative character regarding extend of yellow on the lower mandible would be extremely difficult to assess in the field.
In doing so, I reached the following statistics:

Of all birds photographed in Europe, 70 % showed a pattern described by David Sibley as "Eurasian" while 30 % showed a pattern reminiscent of "American". As David Sibley points out himself, this character's significance as an identification criterion indeed appears to be rather small.

2) Shield size: American birds show a distinctly larger shield that is flat or even notched at the top.
I have not analysed this field character quantitatively as above. However, the shape of the frontal shield - as pointed out by Sibley - is very variable within Eurasian birds, reflecting age, sex and hormone levels of the respective birds.
While most Eurasian birds show a frontal shield that broadens only very little towards the top and forms an evenly rounded tip, some broaden significantly. Those broadening shields even tend to show a somewhat flattened top in that they develop slight rounded "corners". However, even in these broadest shields the highest point is always in the centre in the form of a little tip. A notched top of the frontal shield might indeed be a valid qualitative field character of the American form.

3) Eye colour: more or less bright red on Eurasian and much duller maroon or reddish-brown on American Moorhens. David Sibley states that the differences are small and eye colour is notoriously unreliable as a field character.
Most pictures of Eurasian Moorhen show birds with very dark eye colouration. The very few pictures I found of birds with rather bright irides were taken of breeding birds in June and July, suggesting seasonal variation (relating to hormone levels maybe?). As Eurasian vagrants are most likely to show up in North America outside the breeding season, this field character is of very little value - if of any value at all.

4) Leg colouration: both forms show differences in the amount of red on the upper part of the leg (sources differ on what form shows more).
Leg colouration is quite difficult to assess in the first place as the upper part of the leg, above the joint, is hidden in the bird's plumage most of the time. However, I concur with David Sibley that Eurasian birds seem to show less red than American birds, but that this is very variable and the stronger-patterned Eurasian birds might very well overlap widely with the weaker-patterned American birds.

I have included a few of my photographs of Common (Eurasian) Moorhen to illustrate my points below. All images were taken in Stralsund, NE Germany, in April 2009.

A "classic" Eurasian bird, with a small frontal shield (older immature or female?) that does not broaden towards the top, and an extensive yellow tip to the lower mandible. Notice however that this bird's eye is clearly very dark.

This image shows a bird with a broadening frontal shield and a hint of "rounded corners". Note however that the highest point is in the middle of the shield, in the form of a clearly defined tip. The pattern on the lower mandible is clearly "American" in that it angles forward, although a classic American would likely show more red/less yellow. This bird's eye colouration is on the bright side of the variation shown by Eurasian Moorhens, although the eyes can get a bit brighter on some birds.

The bill tip pattern on this bird approaches the "American" pattern, and the eye is dark, appearing almost black (an effect of it being in the shade, compared to the previous bird). The shield clearly broadens towards the top and has rather well-defined "corners", yet still is clearly pointed at the top.

This bird also shows the "American" pattern on the lower mandible and a dark eye. However, the frontal shield is relatively narrow and clearly rounded / pointed at the top.

Überfrorene Amsel - frozen-over Blackbird

2011-02-21T05:28:00.000-08:00

Hier sind drei Bilder einer mit Raureif bedeckten Amsel aus Stralsund, vom Dezember 2009. Das erste Bild wurde recht früh am Morgen gegen 10:00 Uhr angefertigt, die anderen beiden Bilder eine dreiviertel Stunde später.
Bei flüchtiger Betrachtung, u. a. bei abfliegenden Vögeln, kann durch die helle Verfärbung der Eindruck einer Ringdrossel entstehen.

Here are three images of a Eurasian Blackbird (Turdus merula) covered in hoar frost. A very fleeting glimpse at such a bird flying off might remind the observer of a Ring Ouzel (Turdus torquatus) and seems like a possible explanation for out-of-season winter observations. [There was a discussion about a December Ring Ouzel from NE Germany on one of the listservs I am a member of, and this is the reason behind posting these images here and now.]

ID of "Brown Frogs" genus Rana

2010-08-02T04:45:00.000-07:00

[English text further below, in red]

Die folgenden zwei Braunfrösche (Gattung Rana) konnte ich in Baden-Württemberg fangen und fotografieren.
Generell sind alle drei in Deutschland vorkommenden Braunfroscharten möglich:
Moorfrosch - Rana arvalis
Springfrosch - Rana dalmatina
Grasfrosch - Rana temporaria
Ich habe mich in den letzten Jahren kaum mit der Bestimmung von Braunfröschen auseinandergesetzt, da in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (zumindest in den Bereichen, in denen ich Vögel beobachtete) fast nur Moorfrösche vorkommen.
Daher bin ich mit den beiden unten dokumentierten Exemplaren - ganz ehrlich - etwas überfordert, und es scheint mir, sie vereinen Merkmale von Moorfrosch und Grasfrosch. Es ist möglich, dass es sich bei den beiden Fröschen nicht um dieselbe Art handelt.
Ich würde mich sehr über Hinweise und Anmerkungen freuen, entweder in den Kommentaren oder per Email an joroeder AT yahoo DOT com

The following two "brown frogs" of the genus Rana were observed in the South-west of Germany, where the following three species might occur:
Rana arvalis - Rana dalmatina - Rana temporaria
I have to confess I am slightly confused regarding their specific identification as they seem to show characters of both Moor Frog and Common Frog.
Hints and opinions regarding the species involved are highly appreciated, either in the comments below or by email to joroeder AT yahoo DOT com
Please note that the two frogs aren't necessarily of the same species.

Frosch Nr. 1 - Frog #1

Frosch Nr. 2 Frog #2

Englische Schafstelze bei Leimen

2010-04-26T01:26:00.000-07:00

Summary (from my comment on 10,000Birds)
On April 25th 2010, the fields formerly known as the Boredom Flats have been re-named Motacilla Catwalk.
I had a great weekend filled with amazing birds, about which I will surely blog, but most memorable was a large-ish flock of Yellow Wagtails that actually contained three species (yes, ALL forms of the Yellow Wagtail are recognized as separate species in Germany - lucky me):
The usual flavas, one fine male thunbergi and a sparkling flavissima (”English Yellow Wagtail”, with apologies to the Scots, Welsh, and Irish).
This post is just to show (off) the amaaaazing photos I took of the flavissima to some German friends and enviers, therefore the rest is in German.

Am 25.04.2010 konnte ich auf den frisch bestellten Ackerflächen am Südrand von Leimen (südlich Heidelberg) zwischen einigen Wiesenschafstelzen (8,4 - am Vortag 27) und einer Thunbergschafstelze (1,0 - wobei zwischen den Weiblichen flava ja auch die eine oder andere weibliche thunbergi hätte sein können) auch eine Englische Schafstelze flavissima beobachten.

Das fand ich sehr nett.

Im Folgenden ein paar rottige Belegfotos sowie Angaben zum Beobachtungsort.

Beobachtungshinweis zur Schafstelze:
Am Besten man fährt zu den Tennisplätzen und parkt auf dem großen Parkplatz vor der Turnhalle. Dann geht man den Fußweg am südlichsten Tennisplatz entlang bis auf die Ackerflächen (vielleicht 100m). Die Schafstelzen wechseln mal hin, mal her, aber von diesem zentralen Weg aus kann man nach links und rechts die Flächen wohl am besten absuchen.
Auffallend an dem Vogel - "auffallend" ist aber relativ verglichen zu flava-Weibchen - ist die praktisch rein grüne Oberseite, mit nur leichter Aufhellung am Oberkopf und die recht kräftig gelbe Unterseite einschließlich der Kehle. Der Überaugenstreif ist eindeutig gelblich, wenn auch etwas heller als das Gelb der Unterseite. Es ist eine flava (Weibchen) dabei, die auf der Oberseite ähnlich grünlich ist, hat aber einen deutlich weißen Überaugenstreif und auch mehr weiß an der Kehle. Man muss aber aufpassen, und ich habe z.B. einmal glatt beim Anfertigen der (sehr schlechten, siehe unten) Belegfotos das falsche Weibchen "verfolgt".

Der Beobachtungsort - und auch ein Original der Belegfotos um zu verdeutlichen, wie sehr die folgenden Bilder vergrößert bzw. "gecropped" sind. Die Stelze ist links etwas unterhalb des grünen Flecks im Zentrum

gelbe Kehle

Abweichend rufender Zilpzalp bei Heidelberg

2010-04-25T14:20:00.001-07:00

Summary: Chiffchaff with an aberrant call
A Chiffchaff with a known form of aberrant call was encountered near Heidelberg on April 24th, 2010. While birds with this type of call can be found a few times each year, this is the first time I managed to take some photos. These are presented here, along with a few notes on the observation to hopefully help clarify the origin of this strange call in Chiffchaff.

Am Morgen des 24.04.010 konnte ich an den sog. Aussiedlerhöfen zwischen Nussloch und Leimen (südlich Heidelberg) einen Zilpzalp mit dem bekannten abweichenden Ruf (auf- und wieder absteigendes, "wellenförmiges" suuIIIuu) beobachten und fotografieren. Neben den Fotos werden im Folgenden ergänzende Angaben zur Beobachtung gemacht, die hoffentlich dazu beitragen mag, Herkunft und Ursache des abweichenden Rufs zu klären.

Ich beobachte regelmäßig in diesem Bereich, d.h. bin dort insbesondere am Wochenende mehrmals täglich unterwegs . Vor dem 24.04. war mit Sicherheit niemals der abweichende Ruf in der weiteren Umgebung des Beobachtungsorts zu vernehmen.

Ob am Beobachtungsort selbst auch zuvor ein Zilpzalprevier war, kann ich nicht sagen. Ich kartiere nicht systematisch, und der Zilpzalp ist in der Heckenlandschaft der Umgebung sehr häufig, ich nehme ihn also nicht besonders war und merke mir die Reviere nicht.

Am Nachmittag des 24.04. sowie am 25.04. war der Vogel nicht zu hören, am 25.04. jedoch nicht unweit (50 - 100 m entfernt vom Beobachtungsort) der normale Gesang eines Zilpzalps.

Bemerkenswert erscheint mir, dass dies meine erste Begegnung mit solch einem "Abweichler" dieses Jahr ist, einen guten Monat nach der (massenhaften) Ankunft des Zilpzalps. Ich achte speziell auf diesen abweichenden Ruf und konnte ihn im Sommer 2009 mehrfach bei Heidelberg hören, bin also entsprechend sensibilisiert. Es handelte sich bei der Beobachtung am 24.04. somit definitiv um die bisher einzige Beobachtung und das erste Auftreten des Sommers 2010.

Der rufende Vogel wurde über etwa 10 Minuten beobachtet. In dieser Zeit wurde kein weiterer Laubsänger in der Umgebung gesehen. Er rief während der gesamten Beobachtungszeit kontinuierlich, und sicher auch noch danach, da ich das Gebiet vorzeitig verlassen musste.

Während der gesamten Beobachtungszeit wurde ausschließlich dieser Ruf vernommen, kein typisches "huid" und kein normaler Zilpzalpgesang. Der Ruf wurde die gesamte Zeit über in festem, gleichmäßigen Takt geäußert, ganz grob ein Ruf pro Sekunde.

Welche Funktion der Ruf hatte, ist schwer zu sagen. Ich gehe nicht von einem Warnruf aus, da der Vogel dazu zu lange rief und vor allem unvermindert rief, auch nachdem ich über 20 m entfernt war (sowohl der Vogel als auch ich bewegten sich vom ursprünglichen Beobachtungsort fort). Auch würde ich bei einem Warnruf ein unregelmäßiges Rufen vermuten, mit kleinen Pausen dazwischen und Phasen erhöhter Rufaktivität. Das war nicht der Fall, es war ein monotones, permanentes und taktfestes Rufen. Rein intuitiv wirkte das auf mich eher wie Gesang!
Hier nun die Bilder, ich habe lieber mal ein paar mehr hochgeladen, auch wenn viele im Prinzip identisch sind.

Bei Bedarf kann ich die Bilder in höherer Auflösung per Email weiterleiten. Gerne beantworte ich auch weitere Fragen, falls jemand dem Phänomen noch immer auf der Spur ist!

Schildkröten - Turtles

2010-04-21T01:27:00.001-07:00

English
The following two species of turtle were observed in Germany, just south of Karlsruhe, on the edge of a reedy pond surrounded by trees. They are certainly both released pets and thus could be from anywhere, but I'd guess they are most likely North American species.
Any thoughts on their ID would be highly appreciated.

Deutsch
Die folgenden Aufnahmen zeigen zwei Schildkröten (unterschiedliche Arten), die an einem Baggersee südlich von Karlsruhe beobachtet wurden. Natürlich sind es ausgesetzte Haustiere, und es würde mich sehr interessieren, zu welchen Arten sie gehören. Hinweise zur Bestimmung sind daher mehr als willkommen.

Danged Phyllo

2010-04-06T02:08:00.000-07:00

At first I thought I had simply seen one too many North American wood-warblers and that this had rendered me - and only and specifically me - unable to satisfactorily tackle one of the most basic identification exercises in Europe: the differentiation of Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff.

However, upon communicating with other far more experienced birders over the pictures, opinions had ranged from Chiffchaff to as far as Willow Warbler, so either we have all - here in Europe - seen one too many North American wood-warblers or the bird on the pictures (or the pictures themselves) aren't that straight-forward.

Whatever the case may be, I'd be very interested in YOUR opinion as to the bird's identity and if you'd also include a "why" in the "what" (or rather "who"), I'd be thrilled.

Without further ado, here are the pictures:

A bit on Sandhill Cranes

2010-02-24T06:56:00.000-08:00

Nate recently brought up the question (see the comments section) whether the Sandhill Cranes breeding in Michigan's Upper Peninsular belong to the Lesser or Greater group.

This is actually not insignificant as DNA analyses support a distinctness of the two forms that might lead to them being recognized as separate species one (fine) day.

Having only seen them there and in southern Michigan, I began investigating a bit, although none of the material presented here needed a huge amount of investigation, frankly.

First up, here's a picture (digitalized slide) I took of a Sandhill Crane around the middle of May 2005 on the Upper Peninsular of Michigan:

Wikipedia offers a nice overview of the different forms here.

The most interesting site however was the International Crane Foundation's Sandhill Crane entry which offers a very fine map of the basic migration routes (I can't link there directly, just click it).

Apparently Michigan is only visited by the Greater form, Grus canadensis tabida, both during the breeding and migration season. I am however not entirely sure where the Canadian Sandhill Crane, Grus canadensis rowani, fits in - a form that is apparently intermediate between Greater tabida and Lesser canadensis.

As a matter of fact, the only information I found about rowani is that its subspecific status is in question as it might form some sort of cline between Greater and Lesser.

One of the best places in SE Michigan for watching cranes (alas, I was not to visit it while I was in Ann Arbor) is Phyllis Haehnle Memorial Audubon Sanctuary. According to their "Crane facts", the subspecies occurring there is the Greater Sandhill Crane tabida, so I guess we just ignore rowani for the time being and are happy and satisfied that the Michigan Sandhill Cranes, no matter what the season, are Greater Sandhills.

Which means I really ought to visit the Platte one fine day...

Cheers, Michigan!

A mystery diver

2009-11-25T03:45:00.001-08:00

UPDATE
I was always a bit skeptical about this bird being a Common Loon / Great Northern Diver, but equally skeptical about it being an Arctic Loon / Black-throated Diver. Many features of Great Northern are clearly missing, while some features do not match Black-throated. I find the colouration on the back of the neck particularly significant as it apparently does not occur in Black-throated but can be explained by moult and feather aging when we call the bird a Great Northern.
However, my current hypothesis is a different one: this bird might be a Black-throated Diver of the Siberian subspecies viridigularis (I am NOT talking about the Pacific Diver!).
This subspecies is considerably larger than the nominate Black-throated and has a more Great Northern "feel" to it. Furthermore, I have checked the Internet for pictures of viridigularis and it might be possible that this form does occasionally show the neck pattern that has me so confused.

Here are some links I found.

Birds presumably belonging to viridigularis:
here, here (scroll down for two more pics), here, here.

Interesting identification articles here, here.

Preface
Bird names again. Although I returned to the old stompin' grounds of the Olde Europe quite some time ago now, I am aware that this (or rather its big brother Belltower Birding) is still largely a North American blog. Therefore, whenever there is a discrepancy between the North American and the British name for a bird, I am perplexed.
I have now decided to follow the following rule:
When there are two differing names for the same species on both sides of the Atlantic, I will use the one of the side the blog's story is centred on. Therefore, if I blog about Gavia immer in North America, I'll write about the Common Loon, but if my blog post is about an observation of Gavia immer from the coasts of Europe, I'll refer to it as Great Northern Diver.

This post is thus about a potential Great Northern Diver (= Common Loon) and the potential identification pitfall, the Black-throated Diver (= Arctic Loon).
Geez, this was a long and complicated thing. I really wish you guys could pull yourselves together and agree on internationally valid English names for the birds of the world.

Okay, here's the thing this is all about:

Main Story
As I haven't told you already, I spent three enjoyable weeks vacationing on the German Baltic coast, mostly the lovely small town of Binz on the island of Rügen at the end of October / beginning of November 2009.

Right at my first day at the Binz jetty at the end of October, I noticed a diver (Gavia, you know, a blinkin' LOON if you so wish) that was pretty close. Expecting it to be a Black-throated, not an uncommon sight there but always nice to see, I completely focused on taking pictures with my shabby Sigma 70-300 mm (look, it's not shabby for the low price I had to pay for it, but it sure ain't no Canon and it doesn't exactly outperform itself at distances of more than 10 metres. Close-ups are okay though, see my Crane Creek pictures from May and June 2007).

After bringing his majesty Young Belltower Birder to bed that same evening, I sat down, enjoying the calm and checking out my Black-throated diver pics on the display of my camera. Immediately upon zooming in, I noticed the huge fat bill, fit to seriously kick some fish butt, and the peculiar pattern on the pale grey-brown nape: a black half-necklace (not reaching onto the white throat) with a very thin yet precisely defined black line up the neck towards the crown.

This really smelled like a Great Northern Diver, a species however that is extremely rare along the Baltic coast of Germany (although it is seen on off-shore surveys rather frequently, I am not aware of observations from the coastline each year and would guess one shows up in coastal waters every three years or so).

I was able to watch it frequently - whenever I was able to pull myself away from the shops (or rather get away from my wife at the shops?) - until I left Binz in the first days of November.
In case you want to see it yourself, I am sure it is still there and the flight from, say, New York to Berlin will take around 10 hours plus a three and a half hours drive to Binz, let me see, dang, you could be there tomorrow - easily.

Jocking.

Now, upon checking my pictures more thoroughly on a laptop monitor, I am still rather convinced it is a Great Northern Diver, yet a few things don't add up, so here are my thoughts on its identification:

It clearly is a juvenile bird.

Features of a Great Northern Diver I do not see, or features that would support an ID as a Black-throated Diver:

a) The bill is strong and appears a bit too strong to be within the variation of Black-throated, yet it appears slightly down-curved which is a feature I associate more with Black-throated than with Great Northern.

b) The head profile is very flat and does neither show the steep forehead, nor the "bump" of the Great Northern.

c) The feature Sibley refers to as "jagged neck marking", an indentation of the white forehead into the dark nape, is completely missing. However, the whitish cheeks do extend into the dark nape somewhat, which is a feature associated with Black-throated.

d) There is no white around the eye.

e) There is a white patch on the rear flanks which suggests Black-throated rather than Great Northern.

Well, after reading this one might wonder just what has me still convinced it is a Great Northern Diver? And rightly so as well. So here are my points in favour of the rarity:

a) That bill is a huge thing, really impressive, downcurved or not.

b) I hardly ever saw the bird in direct comparison to other water birds, and judging size at sea is a near impossibility. However, its movements when diving were impressive, much like a submarine and not a bird at all. I once had it rather close to a swimming cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis) and the mystery Gavia did appear significantly larger than it, I would say the body appeared almost double the volume of the cormorant, but there was no direct comparison, not a side-by-side thing in the same field of vivion, so I could be wrong - but I strongly doubt that I am.

c) The colouration of the hind neck / nape, with a black semi-necklace and that black line going up the nape's centre towards the crown is - in my opinion - a very strong argument for Great Northern.

Okay, now it is your turn:
I would strongly appreciate any kind of opinion on the bird's identity (preferably containing not only the what but also the why).
I would like to particularly encourage those to speak out who are in favour of it being a definite Pacific Diver, a first for Germany and a lifer for me - although I know it is not. But you know, in some cases I can be quite a push-over...

Jocking. Again.

Thank you, cheers and settle on some pan-Atlantic bird names, will you?

Oh yeah, here - finally - are the pictures

Picture of the peculiar neck colouration:

Throat view, no dark necklace but that could be photo-shopped if the rest fits Pacific Diver.
You know - yet again: Jocking. Of course.

Tons of profile shots:

Gavia-loonish mystery diver doing its best Shakin' Stevens personation (he's never where he's needed the most).

Fish / Fisch

2009-06-25T03:46:00.000-07:00

This is a very strange fish I encountered in the Saint Petersburg area of Western Russia, and I'd really like to know what species it is.
It - along with a small number of its kind - lived in a shallow, nutrient-poor and thus crystal clear small lake (diametre less than 30 metres) .

Diesen seltsamen Fisch habe ich in geringer Anzahl in einem sehr kleinen (Durchmesser 30 m) nährstoffarmen und daher kristallklaren felsigen Flächgewässer bei St. Petersburg beobachtet. Vielleicht kann mir jemand per Email oder in der Comments - Sektion mitteilen, um was für eine Art es sich handelt?
Besonderheit: er bewegte sich wie ein Kugelfisch schwebend, ausschließlich über die Bewegungen der Brustflossen und zeigte nicht das für viele Fische typische Schlängeln.

Besten Dank im Voraus!

Strange Songs of Common Birds

2009-05-28T07:02:00.000-07:00

Currently, two common species in Germany are causing a bit of confusion as some individuals show a song or call deemed atypical. One is the Garden Warbler Sylvia borin (yes, borin not boring although certain American birders may prefer the latter spelling) and the other is the Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita.

To those readers who speak German, the following links may be of interest. To those who don't, the sound files will still provide pleasure, I presume.

Garden Warbler link here.

Chiffchaff links:

BavarianBirds

A link from Spain

Surfbirds Discussion Threat

On a German birding site (club300.de), a request is posted for information regarding abnormally calling Chiffchaffs: "Neu Aufruf: Abweichend rufende Zilpzalpe " .

Please note that the Chiffchaffs are definitely not Iberian or Siberian Chiffchaffs!

Interesting stuff. I've encountered several of the strange Chiffchaffs during one year now in Germany's South-West but have never encountered any during my 12 years in the North-East of the country. I might do a follow-up post on my latest encounter - time permitting.

Mystery Egg

2009-05-20T02:44:00.000-07:00

I recently found this egg in Baden-Württemberg/Germany and do not own an egg identification guide - can you believe it?!?

Is there anything anyone has to say about the identity of its producer?

My best guess is Eurasian Jay, but I have no way of knowing - and only knowledge is power.

Regarding its size, I didn't have a measuring device with me and it was starting to rain, so I didn't have the time or rather didn't feel I had the time to place anything of know size beside it. You know, these things you always chance upon when turning your pockets inside out (credit cards, 100 Euro bills, diamond rings etc.).

Suffice to say - I hope - that my hand is normal sized for a human hand, fingers could be longer but as I don't attempt playing the bass guitar anymore, I am rather fine with the shape they are. So I just measured my hand and would guess the length of the egg was around 35 to 40 mm.

In case that might help.

Cheers in advance and bird on.