As usual with NABU, an interesting hour walking around the area which is still up for development. We saw quite a few different birds, among them a hawk a couple of times, but I did not get any good photos.
On the way to Leinestraße U-Bahn station, one of the others showed me a tree where three owls were getting their beauty sleep. The were so well camouflaged that I would not have spotted them myself. The best photo I managed (still not good) was with my phone.
Also took some photos for my ongoing series on garbage in trees, and – close to home – started a new “project” on demotion sites, inspired by photos by Daniel Poller which I saw in Amtsalon the other day.
And finally, the white croci are in full bloom in Besselpark, starshaped, in honour of the astronomer after which the park is named: Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (1784-1846).
Again, too much of the national favourite passtime: standing still, occasionally interrupted by some very slow walking. I have never had too much patience for that when it is exaggerated, and nowadays I don’t seem to have the metabolism for it either, so by the time my bone marrow was frozen to the core and nothing much was happening, I had to leave the group and walk the length of the biotope. On my way back I saw that they had only just started walking.
Before seeing it in NABU’s event plan, I did not know this place existed. It was interesting, and slightly surreal, to see such wild, untouched nature in such a small area so close to very built-up areas.
The morning started off like this but quickly turned to a solid gray sky.
When I left my home to go to a NABU birdwatching event in Tiergarten with Derk Ehlert (probably the most knowledgeable person in the world when it comes to wildlife in Berlin), it still seemed rather dark, and it had started to rain slightly, so I wondered whether I would be the only person turning up. Wrong again. I always forget how Berliners completely ignore the weather. I counted over 60 (sixty – six-zero) people.
In his inimitable style of a combination of boundless knowledge, sunny disposition, enthusiasm and humour, Derk Ehlert kept us entertained for 1,5 hours. I saw several birds I had never seen before. One of them a “Mittelspecht” – the most rare and endangered of the three types of woodpeckers in Berlin. Due to the rain and the lack of light, I did not take any photos.
Just two with my phone of the water which was red. I could not hear the explanation properly but it was a natural phenomenon and not some sort of an environmental catastrophe.
I then went on to Tempelhofer Feld in the hope of hooking up with Lisa K. and her gang of Sunday walkers (every Sunday starting at noon or 13.00, usually about eight to ten km, e-mail her here in English or German if you want to get on her mailing list) – and that worked out well. I also managed to take these photos, despite the poor lighting conditions:
And on this one, the bird is blurred, but I would not have noticed the little flowers if I had not taken this picture:
After the walk, we (about 12 people) had a meal in Restaurant Seerose at Südstern, with a buffet of vegetarian and vegan dishes, a hearty, healthy and tasty meal at very reasonable prices, and a chance to chat with the others. Altogether an excellent day despite the weather.
