Birding in Heligoland? Early August (1 Viewer)

Hi, I'm planning a birding trip to Germany and I'll definitely be visiting
Hamburg -area. I'm wondering whether it's worth it to take the trip to Heligoland?

I will be traveling alone too, so is it easy to bird with public transportation or is renting a car necessary?

Thanks

If you're in Hamburg, you can take the high speed craft from the station Landungsbrücken in St. Pauli (has a subway station) directly to Heligoland. Some other destinations can be accessed via train or bus, but for the ones closest to Hamburg (e.g. Duvenstedter Brook) it looks a bit awkward without car.

Which areas - apart from Hamburg - are you planning to visit, roughly speaking? I know some very nice spots in Schleswig-Hostein for instance, but most of them are time consuming or difficult to access via train/bus.

As for what's on Heligoland in August, I don't know. Probably a few Fulmars and a random collection of local shorebirds and songbirds. Yesterday, the Masked Shrike (rarity from SE Europe) was still present. Not sure if the albatross is still around, haven't seen any reports lately.

You can look on this page for rare birds, not sure how complete it is:
http://www.club300.de/alerts/index.php

Otherwise, there's of course the main resource, www.ornitho.de (pretty limited though if you don't register). ebird might be worth checking, too.

Thanks Sanghyando!

I'm really only going for the shorebirds and other waterfowl. I haven't seen much of European ones, so anything is welcome. I would love to see an albatross though!

Great link too, I couldnt find good resources from the States-- google just comes up with german results and unfortunately I don't Deutsch sprechen. I think the alerts page is very well maintained.

As for Schleswig-Holstein, are you referring to the wattenmeer or the region in general? I was thinking about going to the wattenmeer-- i just have to commit to the car renting. Otherwise I would go to Lubeck and stick with city birding.

Pretty much the entire state of Schleswig-Holstein is worth a closer look.
This site is an excerpt from a book on birdwatching hotspots in Northern Germany (the site is in German, but it has maps and lists individual species):
http://birdinggermany.de/nordsee.htm
All of the highlighted areas on the map are good places to see shorebirds.

Closer to Lübeck around the Baltic coast, there are a few places, most notably the area around Hohwacht (particularly the Sehlendorfer Binnensee reserve immediately to the east of the town), but also the reserve at Schmoel:
http://birdinggermany.de/schmoel.htm

The Wallnau reserve on Fehmarn is about 1 hr from Lübeck, should be very good for shorebirds though. Also requires a car.
Next to Lübeck, there is a place that has a feral population of Rhea (i think around the Wakenitzniederung).

Then there is the lakelands around Plön (between Lübeck and Kiel), which are mainly good for seeing White-tailed Eagle, Common Crane, and various ducks and grebes (and songbirds). For instance, the Pohnsdorfer Stauung near Preetz has a population of Greylag and Canada Geese as well as Lapwing and Little Ringed Plover, and a variety of ducks. It's also a great place to see Thrush Nightingale and River Warbler in spring, and WTEs throughout the year. There may also be random waders there on migration.
There's also the Geltinger Birk near Flensburg, but it's practically in Denmark (2 hrs ride from Lübeck) and is not really suited for public transport.
If you're not afraid of long rides, you can also check out places in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, e.g. the Vorpommersche Boddenlandschaft National Park or even Hiddensee. Going to those places might mean you have to stay overnight somewhere, though.

Regarding public transport, theoretically all places I've mentioned are accessible in some way, but some are only really feasible if you take a bicycle with you on the train. Generally speaking, I'd recommend using a car if possible, especially for the places around the North Sea (e.g. Katinger Watt), or Schmoel or Pohnsdorf.

edit:
Regarding Heligoland, maybe someone who has been on the island during summer can elaborate on what one could reasonably expect there in August. I've only been there once, in spring. Basically, there are two main birding seasons on Heligoland - spring (from mid-to-late March till June), when the seabirds are breeding, and autumn (especially September/October) for the autumn migration, which is the best time to find vagrants from places as far away as Asia or North America.

Wow, thanks for the info!

I think I'll take a bike with me on a train to somewhere in Schelwig-Holstein area. You've given me so many options I'm not sure where to go first!

I'll reserve a car for the areas more north.

Thanks again

You're welcome.

Regarding bicycles, you might have to check out which trains you're allowed to take them on. Usually regional and InterCity trains have a compartment for them. ICEs probably don't, but you won't need them in that region, anyway.

Shorebirds

Good Shorebirds time starts in August.
Helgoland is very good any time in the year.

The island could be reached from Hamburg or Cuxhaven.
Near Cuxhaven is the next hotspots the islands Neuwerk and Scharhoern.

But it is possible to start bird watching at the coast directly west of Cuxhaven.
Outside beach season even bird watching at beach in Cuxhaven is very interesting.
The Nationalpark is located not far away from Cuxhaven.

http://www.nationalpark-wattenmeer....mages/uebersichtskarte_npv_vonmu_20130812.jpg