Holiday am Bodensee (concluded)

The ride from Konstanz to Friedrichshafen was quite productive.  There was some nice maple trees near the Insel Mainau (which I didn't visit this time) and an assortment of squirrels, some very red and one in particular with an acorn between its paws. The bird selection was about the same but there was another mystifying pipit type bird I couldn't identify on the way to Wallhausen.  The mystery pipit phenomenon happened at least three times during the week and on each occasion the culprit escaped promptly, suspending any attempts at identification.

After a serene crossing to Uberlingen, I was immediately impressed by the place and in particular by the town gardens, where the bright flowers and the cacti really caught my eye - and I'm not generally the sort of person to go overboard about formal gardens.

The cacti at Uberlingen

At the Pfahlbauten Museum at Unteruhldingen there was a large shoal of small perch, clearly visible in the clear water, plus a couple of cruising carp and a grebe you could watch diving to the bottom to pick up weed.

The last day of the holiday was in one way the best in that it was the only day I actually made a couple of totally new sightings.  

The first was going through the Eriskircher Ried, which seemed to have much more going on than the other wetlands I visited and seems to be a hot spot for orioles.  I noticed a lot of squawking coming from some deciduous trees and after some difficulty got a brief but definite view of a woodpecker that looked 'different'.  I'm pretty sure it was a grey woodpecker and my suspicion was substantiated by an old chap I bumped into who confirmed they are in the area.  

I also got a view of one of the many hyperactive nuthatches and concluded they are slightly more slimly built that the UK variety and have a thinner headstripe, or so I thought.  There was also a good view through the binoculars of a jay carrying an acorn it its beak.  At first sight I thought it might have been a bird of prey but these remained few and far between barring the odd red kite... except for one buzzard I briefly observed overhead.

Mediterranean Gulls

Then right at the end of day I stopped at Lochau on the way back to Bregenz, finding a seat at a pleasant looking estuary.  There were a few birds about but notably some small gulls that flew up the estuary to pick bits of weed from the surface of the stream.  I don't normally have much regard for gulls but these seemed more dove-like apart from some minor bits of squabbling.  I was able to identify them as mediterranean gulls.  In German they are known as Lachmowe which, interestingly, gets translated on internet dictionaries as black-headed gull.  It's only by crosschecking the latin names that you can clearly see that this is an error.

But in a way the star bird performance happened slightly earlier when I was resting at Lindau and a cheeky sparrow took a fancy to my plum tart.  I enticed it onto the table but couldn't persuade it to eat from my hand.

Cheeky sparrow

It was a nice note for the last day of a holiday.

After my arrival home I was pleased to note that a red admiral landed on the last remaining sprig of buddleia on 21st September, the latest I have yet achieved.

Holiday am Bodensee (continued)

On the second day it was a bit of a relief to make a short trip to Stein am Rhein and its beautiful mediaeval buildings.

There wasn't that much to see on the nature front.  A couple of jays turned up as did a couple of black redstarts and both birds turned into regular sightings throughout the rest of the tour.  I've seen black redstarts in Germany several times before and notice they often turn up where there is some sort of intensive agricultural activity, in this area notably maize production.  There was also another very

Small-flowered cranesbill

dark squirrel and a lot of house martins over the Rhein near Diessenhofen, plus a few unremarkable dragonflies.

However I did come across a nice example of this small-flowered cranesbill, which the bike conveniently fell over, framing it nicely.

On the next day I moved on quite quickly, deciding to spend some time looking at the nature reserve at Mettnau.  Unfortunately, part of the path was still flooded from yesterday and all I saw was things I'd already spotted (several coots) but it did have the highest bird hide I have ever been on and produced one flower I couldn't identify.  There are supposed to be one or two rarities in the area so I'd like to know what it was.

High hide

Unidentified flower

This area is supposed to be a home for the camberwell beauty and goldon oriole, but as they are both summer visitors I was more disappointed not to see any birds of prey from the hide.  A massive area of the lake and the wetland was visible.  You'd have thought that something would be on the move.

Holiday am Bodensee

I cycled round Lake Constanz last week, starting and finishing in Bregenz. This wasn't exclusively a nature trip but I was keeping my eyes open as usual for interesting sightings.

On the first day, I took a detour around a part of the Rhine Delta, which quickly demonstrated that the main duck to be seen was the great crested grebe. There was also some sort of long-tailed pipit that didn't hang around, a theme that was to be repeated several times during the week.  Checking in the books it looked like a paddyfield warbler (Feldrohrensanger) but the location was wrong. Out on the lagoon there were a few reed warblers (probable) on the move

In a way the most interesting discovery was a good look at some long-tailed tits that got quite close when I stopped.  At first I thought they were juveniles, but research made it clear that they are a good deal paler than the UK variety and have almost totally white heads.  Of course, a couple of wagtails I

White Stork

saw were of the white rather than pied variety.

Moving on from the delta to the farmland on the edge of the nature reserve, there were a couple of white storks.  I saw storks in Bavaria seven years ago but this time I got a much better photograph.  I also noticed a nuthatch near Arbon that was tapping on a tree trunk as it fed, almost like a wee woodpecker.

Stopping to watch a guy fish (using maggots under an enormous float) there was a single common blue butterfly.  This was to be a rare occurrence.  The weather most days was overcast and the total butterfly sightings throughout the holiday amounted to three common blues (one female), a couple of red admiral, a few assorted whites and one brown, probably an argos (Mohrenfalter) of some kind.

The second day of the trip from Arbon to Gaienhofen was an almost total washout from a nature point of view as the weather was appalling and I spent most of the day cycling into a storming gale with a German couple.

Maine Coon

Before the weather worsened I was slightly amused to be sitting behind a maine coon that appeared to be looking out to sea near the harbour at Romanshorn.  I decided to photograph it when all of a sudden it atrted making for the harbour itself - the reason being that a fishing boat was coming in.

Fragmentary sightings were a kestrel, a red kite and a panicky treecreeper.  There was also a very dark squirrel that I thouight might be a black squirrel, but they don't occur in Germany so it must have been a 'maroon' red squirrel.

Saturday 9th September

As suspected I never got out for a last trip to the Solway Coast in search of late butterflies. On the one day I considered it, the forecast suddenly reversed in favour of widespread gloom.

Bike rides have not been very productive either as they have mainly been training rides for next week's cyling holiday round Lake Constance.  However it was quite interesting to spot a red kite just South of Moniaive on Wednesday and to notice there was a good number of pipits sitting on the telephone wires at one point.  A red admiral nearly flew into my face.

There have been just a couple of red admirals visiting the last tufts of buddleia as the weather has been cooler and brought a fair amount of rain. On Monday, one was flying around in the drizzle and looked to be struggling.  After it settled on some bamboo I decided to bring it into the sun room where it soon attached itself to a curtain rail and became motionless for 24 hours.

I started to wonder if it had gone into hibernation, but eventually it strted flapping against the window.  So I took it out when there was a sunny patch and it duly took off up high above the houses.

One other thing that turned up on my neighbour's garden wall was this wee moth, which I haven't noticed before.

Marbled Carpet

A flick through the Butterfly Conservation website hasn't produced an obvious match but asking around suggests it could be a marbled carpet. Whether it's a dark or common marbled carpet, I couldn't say.

Thursday 31st August

So here we are at the end of August and it looks like my attempt to coax the buddleia into September flowering will only just succeed for a couple of days.  Three out of five plants have more or less given up the ghost and the other two have just a few blooms left and are promising only a few new ones.

First and last painted lady

There's still the odd red admiral or peacock visiting the garden but basically the show is over for another year.  It makes it all the more heartening that one week ago, a single painted lady appeared, the only one I've noticed in the garden this year. Unfortunately, I just  managed to snap it from the underside but you can see clearly enough what it is.

So the summer is pretty much over and, as every year these days, I'm left to reflect how much more I would ideally have made of it. The old wisdom about not making enough time to stop and stare holds good and one poignant moment this morning underlined it.

I had just gone out to fill the bird table and feed the fishes and turned back for a moment to get something I'd forgotten.  Suddenly the sun came out and I noticed that the fish were already feeding and that the tree bumblebee was on the lavender next to the pond again.  I put my foot up on the small partition wall to just watch for a minute and a red admiral flew down and landed on the knee of my cords, maybe ten inches from my face.  It all lasted but a few seconds but I was momentarily transported into a simple joy that is the real reason for being a nature watcher and possibly for living at all.

Meanwhile, the last two bike rides haven't produced much but there was an amusing little incident on the way up to Loch Ettrick yesterday.  I was suddenly aware of some birds screeching and saw a buzzard fly up into a tree in the field to my right. I stopped to get the binoculars out and spotted a couple of fat looking birds I took to be turkeys. But a couple of cyclists following me identified them as guinea fowl, so a sort of first sighting for me.  They didn't seem very doemesticated but, according to wikipedia scaring off birds of prey is one of the things they are used for.  They also help prevent the spread of lyme disease by eating ticks, so I can think of a couple of other places where I should like to see them introduced!

Saturday 19th August

It cintinues to be a very mixed summer.

The peacocks and red admirals are visiting the garden in increasing numbers but I think I have only seen about four small tortoiseshells in total.  So far there hasn't been a painted lady.

Realising that the butterfly season is coming to a close I went bike riding down to the Solway Coast

Wall Brown

at Port of Warren on Thursday, hoping that I might see something out of the usual without doing a major hike.

This wasn't to be but the wall butterfly was out in force, so it was pleasing to see one again after nearly a year.

Otherwise there was a couple of sedge warblers in the trees next to the beach and one bird with a yellow stripe on its side that must have been a goldfinch - except that somehow I didn't think it was.

I was sort of thinking a holly blue or grayling might turn up by chance but in a way it was good they didn't as I only had my mobile ohone with me.

Today I joined the local Butterfly Conservation group walk at Mossdale in very dark and threatening weather.  Fortunately it brightened up and we got an hour or so of hazy sunshine, during which a surprising number of butterflies appeared.

There must have been over 50 peacocks, a good number of red admirals and a single painted lady on the way to the bridge over the Black Water of Dee, after which we spotted maybe 30 scotch argos until the weather closed in.

Painted Lady

Scotch Argos

I also got this photograph of a blue damselfly that I was rather pleased with, though apparently there are a few different kinds of blue damselfly and they are very hard to tell apart.  This sort of knowledge is the result of going out with people with some expertise!

Damselfly

Having researched the matter, I believe this was a common blue damselfly.

After we got past the farm the track was unpassable except in wellingtons, so we turned back as the rain became heavy for a time.  Afterwards there were still one or two butterflies around, including a painted lady, possibly the same one we saw on the way out.

Saturday 12th August

In a couple of ways I should have waited a bit before making the last post.  Later on the same day, I was able to report no less than five peacocks, three red admirals and one small tortoiseshell on the buddleia, plus a green-veined white and a small white elsewhere in the garden.

Then the next day I heard the swifts screeching again although I haven't heard them again since.

Following the garden theme, I've been taking a bit more interest in the bumblebees that visit the lavender by the pond.  I think I may have misidientified one regular species as red-tailed bumblebees when closer inspection shows that they were in fact they were early bumblebees.

Three days ago I noticed that the lavender was being bent rather more than usual by a larger bumblebee that clearly didn't have the stripes of the buff-tailed variety.  It turns out it was a tree bumblebee.

Tree Bumblebee

I got briefly excited about this when the Bumblebee Conservation site showed it as not present in Scotland but enquiries via Dumfries and Galloway Wildlife and Birding suggest that it has in fact been present in the South of Scotland for a few years now.

In the meanwhile, I have attempted a couple of butterfly trips that have yielded nothing of note - a quick forage aroung the Caerlaverock Nature Reserve in promisingly bright weather and a walk today around Rockcliffe looking for grayling and holly blue.  Unfortunately, the teatime weather forecast was way off the mark and the sun was scarcely to be seen.

There was an awful lot of this plant growing by the path and next to the beaches, so far unidentified.

???

The flowers look a bit like cowslips.