Joern Lehmhus
Well-known member
On Sunday my girlfrind and me decided spontaneously to go to the Zwilbrocker Venn, a nature reserve in the Northwest of the german federal state Northrhine-Westfalia (the nature reserve is a mixture from meadows (mainly the nearby Ellewicker Feld), sandy areas with heathland, moor and swamp, and a shallow lake in the middle (people were taking peat fron there in former centuries, that´s how the lake formed)
The nature reserve supports the biggest breeding colony of Blackheaded gulls in Germany; and the gulls guano is enrichening the water with nutrients, so that it is a soup of planctonic algae, crustaceans and insect larvae.
The flamingo history of the site goes like this:
Somehow this food supply was discovered by a few escaped Chilean Flamingoes (Phoenicopterus chilensis) in the middle of the 80ies; (original number was said to be 4). They must have been from a Zoo or perhaps even a private owner; but nobody was reporting Flamingoes missing. They started to breed and raise young with success in the following years and where soon joined by some Greater Flamingoes Ph. ruber roseus and a single Cuban Flamingo Ph. ruber ruber. They also reared young; there was also mixed pairing, the cuban Flamingo had to choose one of his European cousins; but there were even mixed pairs of Ph. ruber roseus x chilensis, which reared young successfully. The majority of the birds still is Chilean Flamingoes
Over 70 young have been ringed from the mid eighties until now. However , there have been several years where the birds were not successfull. In winter the shallow lake freezes and the birds migrate west to the Netherlands. They winter in the Rhine Delta; and it is said that some of the Greater flamingos may result from there as a small group of Greater flamingoes from the camargue is also wintering there.
Our observations on Sunday included the following:
We had great views of Chilean and Greater Flamingo sitting on their strange volcano-shaped mud nests (12 so far) in the middle of the Blackheaded gull colony, and also of Chilean flamingoes feeding.
some Gull chicks were quite big already, but still downy.
Other not everyday birds we saw included Curlew, Blacktailed godwit, Woodlark, Tawny pipit; Tree pipit, Sparrowhawk, Barnacle Goose (with young), Stockdove; Common Redstart (quite a rare bird now in Germany)
There were also Aegyptian goose,Shellduck; Whitethroat, lesser Whitethroat, Greylag goose, mallard, tufted duck, coot, Chiffchaff, willow warbler, House and tree sparrow, yellowhammer, Cuckoo, common bussard, kestrel, Yellowlegged gull, Great tit, Blackcap, Blackbird, Jackdaw, Black crow, Chaffinch, Wood pigeon, turtle dove, Collared dove, Lapwing, Oystercatcher, Linnet, Magpie, Winter Wren...and so on
Probably I left something out, but that´s to give the general impression. Habitat is very variable there, as indicated above; and it is clearly a good place in spring-early summer.
Jörn
The nature reserve supports the biggest breeding colony of Blackheaded gulls in Germany; and the gulls guano is enrichening the water with nutrients, so that it is a soup of planctonic algae, crustaceans and insect larvae.
The flamingo history of the site goes like this:
Somehow this food supply was discovered by a few escaped Chilean Flamingoes (Phoenicopterus chilensis) in the middle of the 80ies; (original number was said to be 4). They must have been from a Zoo or perhaps even a private owner; but nobody was reporting Flamingoes missing. They started to breed and raise young with success in the following years and where soon joined by some Greater Flamingoes Ph. ruber roseus and a single Cuban Flamingo Ph. ruber ruber. They also reared young; there was also mixed pairing, the cuban Flamingo had to choose one of his European cousins; but there were even mixed pairs of Ph. ruber roseus x chilensis, which reared young successfully. The majority of the birds still is Chilean Flamingoes
Over 70 young have been ringed from the mid eighties until now. However , there have been several years where the birds were not successfull. In winter the shallow lake freezes and the birds migrate west to the Netherlands. They winter in the Rhine Delta; and it is said that some of the Greater flamingos may result from there as a small group of Greater flamingoes from the camargue is also wintering there.
Our observations on Sunday included the following:
We had great views of Chilean and Greater Flamingo sitting on their strange volcano-shaped mud nests (12 so far) in the middle of the Blackheaded gull colony, and also of Chilean flamingoes feeding.
some Gull chicks were quite big already, but still downy.
Other not everyday birds we saw included Curlew, Blacktailed godwit, Woodlark, Tawny pipit; Tree pipit, Sparrowhawk, Barnacle Goose (with young), Stockdove; Common Redstart (quite a rare bird now in Germany)
There were also Aegyptian goose,Shellduck; Whitethroat, lesser Whitethroat, Greylag goose, mallard, tufted duck, coot, Chiffchaff, willow warbler, House and tree sparrow, yellowhammer, Cuckoo, common bussard, kestrel, Yellowlegged gull, Great tit, Blackcap, Blackbird, Jackdaw, Black crow, Chaffinch, Wood pigeon, turtle dove, Collared dove, Lapwing, Oystercatcher, Linnet, Magpie, Winter Wren...and so on
Probably I left something out, but that´s to give the general impression. Habitat is very variable there, as indicated above; and it is clearly a good place in spring-early summer.
Jörn
