[sandrinhalee]

Hi everyone,

My husband and I (Americans) are going to Frankfurt in March for a conference, and since we've not spent much time in Europe, we're taking some time off before and after the conference to tour around.

I'm terribly ignorant about Germany, so ANY advice for birding during March would be helpful. I tried looking through the other threads but they usually focus on a region and we have no idea where to start. What are the best places to bird? Any must-see places? We are beginning birders, so the easiest places are best for us right now.

I'm posting a similar post in the France, Italy, and Switzerland forums (fora?) too, so if you have suggestions for those locations, please do add them on here!

We are very excited!!!

Thank you,
Sandra

[Fast_falkon]

I've never been in Germany for birding, but I heard that the Eifel area near Aachen is very good for birding.

[weissnix]

Hi Sandra!

you may find some good places around Frankfurt here: http://www.norbert-kuehnberger.de/hessen1.html
unfortunately only in german.
I would recommend you "Waghaeusel" http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sadd...=UTF8&t=h&z=15 where you could find easy a good number of different birds.
Nice time in Germany!
Remo

[LittleBittern]

Hello Sandra,

in the current issue of "Der Falke" (a german birding magazine) birding places around Frankfurt are presented. I have not been there by myself but the following locations are recommended:

- "NSG Enkheimer Ried" in the east of Bergenkheim. At the lake "Riedteich" you can see birds like Great Crested Grebes, Herons and Kingfishers. The adjacent forest is good for Woodpeckers. Near this narture preserve lies "NSG Berger Hang", a hillside where there is also a observation station for birds.

- In the Vilbeler Forest in the north of Frankfurt there occur Woodpeckers and Golden Orioles.

- The brook at Frankfurts district Niedererlenbach might also worth a try as well as the eastern fields at migration time.


As weissnix already mentioned, Waghäusl is definitely worth to visit as it is an important resting place at bird migration. I have been there in May and could watch lots of shorebirds (i.e. Black-winged Stilts), ducks and seagulls. Some Purple Herons are living here, too.

If you plan to move to Swiss you should take a break at the "Kaiserstuhl" near Freiburg to watch out for Hoopoes or Bee-Eaters (but March might be too soon). Furthermore nature preserve "Taubergiessen" is a wonderful meadow landscape at the shore of Rhine river where lots of birds can be seen.

I hope you'll enjoy Germany and lots of exciting birding experiences!

[dalat]

Hi,
as march is migration time, visiting the coast in northern Germany might be a good idea. A good place I know is the birds reserve Wallnau on the Island of Fehmarn (close to Lübeck, not too fra from Hamburg). That's good for seeing a lot of migrating water birds.
Also good for beginning birders, they have good hides, guided tours and a nice information centre.

You may also head further east: the area of the national parks on Darss and the Island of Rügen are also great for bird watching and important resting places of migrating cranes (though you wont see as many as in automn). The area is roughly between the cities of Rostock, Stralsund and Greifswald. A good spot is the Darsser Ort (the outmost tip of the Darss Peninsula, also visiting centre and observation towers there).

Here some links (I just realised how few German websites have information in english):
Wallnau: http://wallnau.nabu.de/index.html (scroll down for a small map on how to get there)
National park at Darss-Rügen: http://www.nationalpark-vorpommersch...?article_id=49

Of course there is plenty of other good sites in Germany, but that's the ones I know myself.

Wish you a good trip, Florian

[albatross02]

Hello,

from my opinion the best spots are near Berlin ( e.g. 4,5 hours by train from Frankfurt/ Main ).
Good spots are around 40 - 60 miles west of Berlin like floodplains of river Elbe, lake Guelper See "petrol station of migration birds of central Europe", lake Rietzer See and of course Nennhausen, where is a good chance of Great Bustard ( courtship is March - May ).
In this areas are a lot of winter guests like geeses, ducks, bussards ( included Rough-Legged ) and also high chance for White-tailed Eagles.
Depended on the weather, 50 - 60 different kind of birds are possible in this time. In Mai are more than 100 different of birds on one day are not unusual.

East of Berlin also some good spots like national parc Untereres Odertal and near the boarder is national parc Wartha River Mouth in Poland.


Best regards
Dieter


Best regards
Dieter

[albatross02]

Hello,

a problem maybe is logistic.

For Germany I recommend Berlin.
If You rent a car, You need about 60 - 90 minutes to the bird spots.
Different bird spots are very close together.

If You want continue to Venice or Switzerland, plane is recommended.
Air Berlin ( should be quite good ) has connections to Zuerich and Innsbruck ( 4,5 h with car to Venice ).
http://www.airberlin.com/site/start....KT=DE&LANG=eng

Lufthansa and Easy Yet ( no expirience by myself ) has connections to Venice.
Berlin - Venice by car is about 12 h ( 6 h to Munich and another 6 h to Venice )


Best regards
Dieter

[sandrinhalee]

Thank you very much...this is all very helpful!!!! If you think of anything else, please let me know!

[sandrinhalee]

Thank you all again for your helpful info. I am doing some research on visiting the national parks and am having difficulty finding information since I don't read German.

For instance, I was looking at the Unteres Odertal and wondering if we would be able to reach the good areas by public transport only. We aren't planning on having a car...it seems I can get to Schwedt and Criewen easily by train and bus, but from there, would it be impossible to get to housing and the park?

Are there any places near Frankfurt or Berlin where the public transportation is especially good? We'd probably make our choice based on that.

Thank you!

[dalat]

Hi,
yes, a shame that so little information in english is available...

Unteres Odertal would be certaily good, but of course not so easy without car. I think you could go as far as possible with train and bus and then rent bicycles from your accomodation to go around the park.

I am not sure which birdwatching sites in general are good to reach with public transport only (near berlin and frankfurt, there is certainly nothing that compares to Unteres Odertal), but the german railway has a website where you can check that out. the system usually inclueds all kind of transport, also local busses (and is in english for a change): http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/que...ewrequest=yes&

Good luck!

[albatross02]

Hello,

how recommend DBahn homepage is also in english.
You can insert not only the railway station, this tool works also with street names where is no railway stations.
e.g.
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/que...&rt=1&OK#focus

English page for the national parc.
http://www.nationalpark-unteres-oder...FBEnglisch.pdf

The NP is quite big.
Especially for birdlife combination floodplains Elbtalauen, lake Guelper See, Nennhausen/ Buckow ( Great Bustards ) is better than the national parc.
Even outside protected areas are different birdlife, the are not so strong agreeculture industrie like in other areas which use a lot of futurlizer and so on.

But for this area a bike ( I drove there a couple of tousend kilometers ) is recommended if You do not rent a car.


Best regards
Dieter

[albatross02]

Hello,

for the area of lake Gülper See and around maybe contect Burkhardt Fedtke.
He has a homepage together with Dr. Warthold ( sorry only in german ) http://www.fedtke.de/component/optio...tact/Itemid,3/.

But he can give further informations.

For other areas contact nature club "Naturbund" NABU:
e.g.
Bialas@NABU-Frankfurt-Oder.de
Telefon:0335 - 68 03 179
Fax: 0335 - 60 675 33

info@NABU-Frankfurt-Oder.de
www.NABU-Frankfurt-Oder.de

or for Schwedt which is near to NP Unteres Odertal
RGille@swschwedt.de

complete address list for federal country Brandenburg:
http://brandenburg.nabu.de/nabu/adressen/07017.html








Best regards
Dieter