Some more geese from Schrevenpark

Surely those bar-headed geese in Schrevenpark are not wild birds originally. Bar-headed geese commonly breed in Central Asia and spend the winters in India and Pakistan. They would certainly not choose to be here (Kiel is a pretty cold place I am about to find out), so they must have been introduced. Nevertheless,they are very pretty and it's fun to see them so close by. They are not very shy either. We were surprised to see that not all of them are ringed, though. Maybe they breed here? I'll have to check more closely.





That makes an old question arise: When can one consider a species wild? How many generations of wild-life does it take? I mean, strictly speaken, we wouldn't be allowed to count pheasants and canada geese either, right, since they have been introduced?

Bird of the day:
Bar-headed goose - Streifengans - Stripgås - Oie à tête barrée - Anser indicus

Hybrid goose in Schrevenpark, Kiel

Well, I haven't been around much yet in Northern Germany, as I spent most of my weekends either furnishing my so far still pretty empty apartment (that is except for the cartons and boxes) or dancing at somebody else's wedding. Still, I live very close to a park called Schrevenpark which is pretty interesting, at least in terms of geese. I hope to be able to cover all different species. Today I give you two at a time in form of a hybrid:



This is definitely a canada goose hybrid and I would suspect greylag goose as the other parent. But I have no experience whatsoever with goose hybrids. (By the way, we blogged about a very similar one from Råstasjön South of Stockholm, before.) Anyway, Schrevenpark has several more goose species to offer... but I'll get to that in a future post.

Ubiquitous winter wren... also outside my living room window

The winter wren is certainly one of the most thriving bird species here in Kiel, it’s as if every little garden here has its own winter wren territory. You hear them singing everywhere, no matter where you are downtown and if there is only a little lonely bush somewhere, be sure to hear a winter wren sing in it. Amazing.

Well, so I wasn’t surprised when I heard one just outside my living room window yesterday. That’s the one:


And that’s a sonogram of a winter wren’s song, it's so powerful that your ears almost hurt sometimes. And from this little bird!


Listen to the corresponding sound here.

And that’s the tree outside my living room window, I am afraid I don’t really know what kind of tree that is…



Bird of the day:
Gärdsmyg -- Zaunkönig -- Winter Wren -- Troglodyte mignon -- Winterkoning (NL) -- Troglodytes troglodytes

Quiet Sunday morning walk

So spring must officially be over. The weekend has been really hot and sunny. I went for a stroll in Tantolunden this morning. It was surprisingly quiet, but with some warblers at least semi active. The Garden Warblers (Trädgårdssångare, Sylvia borin) I had hoped for were however either quiet or simply not there.

On the way back I saw a Lesser black-backed gull circling over a trash can. That sort of sums the whole trip up - not overly exciting. :-)


Lesser black-backed gull -- Silltrut -- Heringsmöwe -- Goéland brun -- Larus fuscus

Meanwhile in Stockholm

Meanwhile in Stockholm I havn't been able to do as much birding as I had hoped to do. A fair attempt to rise early last Saturday was cut short when I realized that the rain was pouring down at 5:30 in the morning and that the bed was just two steps away from the window.

I have however managed to take a morning stroll through our old patch in Tantolunden. The weather was better then and I enjoyed the plenty of spring birding. Late May is a really good time to get out and enjoy nature, even if it is just the old park area in your home town.

The highlight if the walk was probably the warblers and the European Goldfinches that I heard and saw. All the trees seem to be in bloom as well, making a beautiful backdrop to any walk in the park.



Bird of the day: European Goldfinch - Steglits - Stieglitz/Distelfink - Carduelis carduelis

Moorhens in Kleiner Kiel again

Took a stroll through Kiel again today. The weather is beautiful, it's warm and sunny, although the wind brings in a cool fresh breeze now and then. I stopped to order a "Radler" (mixture of lemonade and beer, very refreshing) at "Alter Markt" downtown - the response was a blank look. I remembered just in time that that kind of drink is called "Alsterwasser" or just "Alster" in Northern Germany. Well, flexible as I am, I ordered that one instead. :-)
Anyway, this is a birding blog, so here you are. Some pics of the moorhens again that are breeding in Kleiner Kiel.





Bird of the day:
Common Moorhen - Rörhöna - Teichhuhn - Gallinule poule-d'eau - Gallinula chloropus

Kleiner Kiel in Kiel

Kiel does not cease to surprise me birdwise. Anders already mentioned the breeding moorhens with now five fledglings in a previous post. The same lake harbours a couple of greylag gees that today paraded in the lake with their six fledglings.





On a side note: Three days in a row I noticed two to four long-tailed tits close to or on the campus - of course I never carried a camera then. I really hope to be able to capture them on film some day!

Bird of the day:
Greylag Goose - Grågås - Graugans - Oie cendrée - Anser anser