Autumn in Berlin

So it's been a rather long time since my last post declaring the end of Summer.

I've been mainly preoccupied with writing my "Death in Berlin" article (q.v.) following a very enjoyable return there in the middle of October.

Although not out looking for wildlife and without my binoculars, I did nevertheless happen on a couple of interesting sightings.

While wandering through leafy Zehlendorf, I was a little alarmed when an object from a tree landed on my shoulder and several more thudded down onto the roofs of parked cars nearby.  At first I thought they were conkers but a closer look showed it was a volley of acorns.

Clearly on the lookout for them were a trio of hooded crows and one of them was sufficiently interested to come onto the path near me.

Hooded Crow

I think there must be a lot of hooded crows in European cities.  The last one I saw was in Vienna.

Also pretty common on the basis of internet research was this firebug found on the wall of the entrance to the Gents' toilets at the Haus der Wannseekonferenz.

Firebug

While still in Zehlendorf  I came across what I at first thought was a flower but is in fact clearly a shrub.

Mystery Shrub

It looks a bit like a cultivar but was growing freely at the edge of a woodland area.

I'm still searching for answers on that one...

In spite of temperatures reaching 24C on the day in question, I only saw a single butterfly, a white.

The End Of Summer

It has been an ambition of mine for some while to coax the buddleia bushes into retaining enough blossoms past the end of September to attract a few last butterflies.  This year has to go down as a near miss.

A red admiral managed an appearance on the 29th September and there was a large white on the 30th but by today there are so few flowers left that it looks like there is no realistic chance of further visitors.

The last Red Admiral

Frustratingly I can't know if anything turned up in the good weather yesterday as Malcolm and I decided to go to Holy Island, where there had been a couple of sightings of a rustic bunting..

There it was still pretty much summer weather all day but we didn't see anything of great note - let alone the rustic bunting - and neither did anyone else we spoke to.  In fact we didn't see many birds at all in our wanderings.

There were a few sanderling and turnstone plodging in the mud near the pier, the latter seeming to be between their summer and winter suits.

Turnstones

Further along the bay there was a pair of eiders and a heron, but nothing in the Vicar's garden apart from one cockerel lying on a flower bed.

Male Eider Duck

We paused at a pub for liquid refreshment and shared a picnic bench with a number of crumb-stealing sparrows, the one species we did see a lot of, more in fact than I see anywhere nearer home. It was nice to see them close up.

Sparrows

Walking further around the island produced even more sparse results - mainly a stonechat posing nicely and this oversized owl.

Stonechat

Owl

We stopped at the bird hide where there were a large number of ducks on the shallow lake. However identification was difficult against the light and because they all had their heads tucked firmly down. In fact some of them looked like they were completely stuck in the mud. Definitely present were mallard, mute swan, coot, little grebe and probably teal.

It was pleasing not to see any dead birds but we did see this partly exposed human skeleton on the archaeological dig at the sight of a possible mediaeval monastery.

Skull

Presumably it belonged to a mediaeval monk rather than a twitcher who waited around too long for the rustic bunting.