Its 07:30 and it’s cold and dull but at least it’s dry and windless. There is blue sky in the distance but for now overhead it’s grey. My companion has set up a Harpia 95 and out on the simply massive Bodensee there are the black dots of water birds through my binos. The Bodensee or more accurately the biggest part of it called the Obersee, stretches out in front of us for 63km / 39 miles meaning it extends well beyond the horizon and covers an area of 536 sq km / 207 sq miles and to our right is Germany, to our left is Switzerland while we are actually standing on Austria the eastern end of the lake. Lake? Inland sea is more accurate.
OK, here is the Harpia set to 23x magnification for maximum field of view. A sweep around reveals a raft of ducks and zooming in we can see they are Tufted Ducks but a longer something is diving and surfacing a bit further away. Up it comes and it briefly turns sideways and it’s a Goosander male, one of my favourite birds. The dim light isn’t a problem and in these temperatures the heat shimmer hasn’t become apparent yet.
Back down to 23x scanning along the margins of the reed beds I can hardly believe how many Great Crested Grebes there are. I mean there are dozens of them and mostly in pairs, some of them engaging in their curious pairing-up displays. And then a shape in the upper part of the field of view grabs my attention and I angle the Harpia up a little and there, gliding serenely across the view is my first Continental-form Cormorant with startlingly white cheeks and huge white patches on the thighs and looking quite different from the all-black Cormorants that we see off Scotland. I watch it glide across the full field of view and then return to scanning the surface of the lake.
Having found nothing more exotic than the grebes we pack up and move to a new site hoping to get more viewing before the strengthening sun stirs up the thermals. Half an hour later and closer to the Swiss border we hit pay-dirt. A flock of wintering small grebes that is a mix of Black-necked and Horned (or Slavonian) Grebes. Wow. I have only ever seen these in 4-6 maximum and usually fewer but here is a mixed raft of well over 20 birds. They are moving along together and groups of them are diving together. They appear excited, almost hyper-active and vary widely in appearance as they come out of winter into breeding plumage.
Bu now the blue sky has reached us and the warmth of the sun that our hands and bodies welcome has already started a heat shimmer and the sharpness of the images is waning. Overhead a Red Kite effortlessly circles with its tail twisting impossibly and then a kite with a slighter build and darker plumage briefly joins it before making off. A Black Kite, which reminds me a little of the Yellow-billed Kites I have seen in South Africa.
Near the mouth of the Rhine 2 Crag (Rock) Martins swoop over the water and in the trees behind us many Chiff-Chaffs chant their repetitive song that brings with it the promise of spring moving north through Europe.
Lee
OK, here is the Harpia set to 23x magnification for maximum field of view. A sweep around reveals a raft of ducks and zooming in we can see they are Tufted Ducks but a longer something is diving and surfacing a bit further away. Up it comes and it briefly turns sideways and it’s a Goosander male, one of my favourite birds. The dim light isn’t a problem and in these temperatures the heat shimmer hasn’t become apparent yet.
Back down to 23x scanning along the margins of the reed beds I can hardly believe how many Great Crested Grebes there are. I mean there are dozens of them and mostly in pairs, some of them engaging in their curious pairing-up displays. And then a shape in the upper part of the field of view grabs my attention and I angle the Harpia up a little and there, gliding serenely across the view is my first Continental-form Cormorant with startlingly white cheeks and huge white patches on the thighs and looking quite different from the all-black Cormorants that we see off Scotland. I watch it glide across the full field of view and then return to scanning the surface of the lake.
Having found nothing more exotic than the grebes we pack up and move to a new site hoping to get more viewing before the strengthening sun stirs up the thermals. Half an hour later and closer to the Swiss border we hit pay-dirt. A flock of wintering small grebes that is a mix of Black-necked and Horned (or Slavonian) Grebes. Wow. I have only ever seen these in 4-6 maximum and usually fewer but here is a mixed raft of well over 20 birds. They are moving along together and groups of them are diving together. They appear excited, almost hyper-active and vary widely in appearance as they come out of winter into breeding plumage.
Bu now the blue sky has reached us and the warmth of the sun that our hands and bodies welcome has already started a heat shimmer and the sharpness of the images is waning. Overhead a Red Kite effortlessly circles with its tail twisting impossibly and then a kite with a slighter build and darker plumage briefly joins it before making off. A Black Kite, which reminds me a little of the Yellow-billed Kites I have seen in South Africa.
Near the mouth of the Rhine 2 Crag (Rock) Martins swoop over the water and in the trees behind us many Chiff-Chaffs chant their repetitive song that brings with it the promise of spring moving north through Europe.
Lee
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