Michael‘s Seventh Year

[michael-ibk]

63/E63) Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) / Höckerschwan

 

Steindorf/Carinthia, 17/04/2022. Always quite an easy one. Some nice light early in the morning at 06:00 - but it was freezing cold! Where is that spring people keep talking about?

 

 

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

64/E64) Common Wood Pigeon (Columba palumbus) / Ringeltaube

 

Steindorf/Carinthia, 17/04/2022. A common bird but quite wary outside of villages and parks since they are hunted.

 

 

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

65/E65) Eurasian Wryneck (Jynx torquilla) / Wendehals

 

Steindorf/Carinthia, 17/04/2022. A very difficult one to locate and even more so to photograph. But in early Spring they are very vocal, and their "song" is unmistakable. So I was quite delighted to spot it - and it allowed me a few seconds until it realized it had been made!

 

 

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

66/E66) Savi´s Warbler (Locustella luscinioides) / Rohrschwirl

 

Steindorf/Carinthia, 17/04/2022. Another toughie to get - played hide and seek with me for a while. I won!

 

[michael-ibk]

67/E67) Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) / Feldsperling

 

Steindorf/Carinthia, 17/04/2022. Declining a bit but still one of our most common birds.

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

68/E68) Western Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) / Fischadler

 

Steindorf/Carinthia, 17/04/2022. Always an exciting sighting! Extinct in Austria as a breeding bird. Last year we had one oversummer - and I saw two of them together shortly after this sighting. So who knows, this might be the summer when it makes a comeback in our breeding birds list.

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

69/E69) Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) / Gartenrotschwanz

 

Drauhofen/Carinthia, 17/04/2022. The more handsome - but also much rarer - Redstart in Austria.

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

70/E70) Black-Crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) / Nachtreiher

 

Brenndorf/Carinthia, 18/4/2022. A rarity in Austria so quite cool to find 10 of them! Might be the beginning of a colony hopefully - the area here has been renaturalised only a few years ago, and it´s wonderful to see how quickly birds of all kinds are accepting this new habitat.

 

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

71/E71) Lesser Whitethroat (Sylvia curruca) / Klappergrasmücke

 

Brenndorf/Carinthia, 18/4/2022. A bird of the montane areas in summer in Tirol but can pop up anywhere now.

 

 

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

72/E72) Common Whitethroat (Sylvia communis) /Dorngrasmücke

 

Brenndorf/Carinthia, 18/4/22. Big Brother was not far behind. The more difficult Whitethroat to get for me.

 

 

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

73/E73) European Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) / Trauerschnäpper

 

Brenndorf/Carinthia, 18/4/2022. A very rare breeding bird in Austria but regularly seen during migration.

 

Male:

 

 

Female:

 

 

Two weekend bonus birds - one because it posed nicely:

 

 

One did not - but it is a Hoopoe. (Saw three of them on Saturday, including one pair!)

 

Edited April 19, 2022 by michael-ibk

[PeterHG]

A lot of very good species in your set, Michael and photos to match!

[xelas]

A very productive visit to Carinthia! Is it just me or there is something new going on with your photos?!

[TonyQ]

Some excellent photos here Michael.

It looks like being outa at 6am helps - it must be where we are going wrong!

 

[Galana]

Love the Willow Tit with caterpillar. The rest are pretty good too.

[michael-ibk]

74/E74) Northern Pintail (Anas acuta) / Spießente

 

Lake Constance/Vorarlberg, 22/4/22. A species I never manage to get close to.

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

75/E75) Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) / Flussseeschwalbe

 

Lake Constance/Vorarlberg, 22/4/22. The lake is home to Austria´s biggest breeding colony.

 

Edited April 24, 2022 by michael-ibk

[michael-ibk]

76/E76) Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) / Purpurreiher

 

Lake Constance/Vorarlberg,23/4/22. To my delight I found a breeding colony of 10 birds. I was told they breed here every year. Normally one cannot see them - the reed is too dense. But Greylag Goose have exploded in the last year, and they devour the fresh shoots, keeping the former "secret place" comparatively open.

 

 

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

77/E77) Bearded Reedling aka Tit (Panurus biarmicus) / Bartmeise

 

Lake Constance/Vorarlberg, 23/4/22. Lake Constance is my go-to-place for this fantastic little bird. Always takes quite a while but so far I´ve always managed to find one.

 

 

[michael-ibk]

78/E78) Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus) / Rohrammer

 

Lake Constance/Vorarlberg, 23/4/2022. Always present in reed habitats.

 

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

79/E79) Egyptian Goose (Alopochen aegyptiaca) / Nilgans

 

Lake Constance/Vorarlberg, 23/4/2022. An established breeding bird here.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2022 by michael-ibk

[michael-ibk]

80/E80) Black Kite (Milvus migrans) / Schwarzmilan

 

Lake Constance/Vorarlberg, 23/4/2022. Very common in the area.

 

Edited April 24, 2022 by michael-ibk

[Galana]

looks like another productive trip for you.

[michael-ibk]

81/E81) Red Kite (Milvus milvus) / Rotmilan

 

Lake Constance/Vorarlberg, 23/4/22. Its cousin as well.

 

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

82/E82) Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) / Wanderfalke

 

Lake Constance/Vorarlberg, 23/4/2022. A flying bullet. Not one I see often so delighted about this sighting.