I saw this fellow in the trees.

Just got these brief few clicks – not the greatest shots, but hey, it’s a Lifer

Sunrise and a flock of Black-headed Gulls

 Click on the photos to see them bigger

Spent some time at the beach this morning. Nice bird flybys and nice sunrise

Greater Sand Plover, Great Cormorant, Grey Heron, Black-headed Gull

I watched a family of Common Mynas take a McD breakfast and sip some water – at least trash and Leftovers seem to be good for some and something, sometimes.

Common Mynas having fun with Leftover McD

King won a fight with a stray who wanted to show his female companions who’s the owner of the beach. No dogs got harmed & they went back to their own stretch after a while.

Birdcount: 64 Greater Cormorants, 75 Black-headed Gulls, 1 Grey Heron, 5 Common Myna, 2 Greater Sand Plover, 1 Kentish Plover, 3 White Wagtails, 9 Yellow Wagtails, 1 Northern Wheatear, 15 Slender-billed and one possible Caspian or Heuglin’s Gull, 1 White-eared Bulbul, 23 House Sparrows on my way home 2 Rose-ringed Parakeet

Maybe Caspian or Heuglins Gull, Black-headed Gulls, no idea?! and the always present fishing line

Some of you might remember these photos from my crashed blog.

Inspired by Mike’s blogpost over at 10.000 birds, I decided to dig them out and post them again.

More Info about Ospreys

Photos were taken in South Sinai, Egypt 2009 & 2010

The island is quite important for migrating birds as a stopover and for some birds as a breeding ground.

This was the second clean-up on this island. Due to the currents (I guess) and the visiting boats, a lot of trash gets on the beaches with the tide. Including dead sheep, 7 of them. Dumped, most likely, by big animal transports who don’t want to have sick or dead sheep aboard when they reach port. It’s scary to think of all the trash floating in our oceans… We also found 3 dead birds. Two in a state of decay beyond ID-ing and 1 a possible Steppe Buzzard.

We collected altogether 33 big black trash bags full of plastic bottles, Styrofoam, cans and other plastics, household stuff, fishing lines and hooks, kids balloons (I know why I don’t like those things), ropes and half a rubber boat. There’s also tires and a big pile of pallets that we couldn’t remove.

The Kuwait Dive team took us to the island. They helped burying some of the sheep above the tide line. The team of K’s Path, including John the manager whom I met for the first time, was there and the girls did a good job organizing the whole trip. Thanks for doing this! A big thanks also to the chief (?) of the Coastguards who had a big, yummy Lunch prepped for us when we were finished with the clean-up

To enjoy the photos, just click on them, or click on one and use the arrow below the photo to navigate (you gotta choose the pages) or just click on the slideshow. If you want to use any of the photos, just contact me.

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Birdcount:

At the Marina

8 Cormorant

2 Slender-billed Gull

4 Black-headed Gull

3 White-eared Bulbul

Um al-Maradim island

1 Northern Wheatear (1st wt)

3 Greater Sand Plover Plover

6 Kentish Plover

15 (Great) Cormorant (6 Juv.) – flying over

9+ House Sparrow

1 1st wt Caspian Gull (possibly more)

4 Black-headed Gull

1 White-eared Bulbul (voice)

Most exciting sightings were a Flamingo flyby and a Grey Plover.

Sadly the birds were all gone (thanks to someone walking around) when the light finally got better for my lens & camera skills

I hope you can enjoy them anyway (and sorry for them being just wild in the post, in my ‘backoffice’ they look neatly sorted and I am out of patience for now to sort them – Just click on one pic to see them larger)

Bird count:

2 Cormorant

1 Grey Heron (or Indian Reef?)

1 Little Egret (almost missed out on this one)

31 Black headed Gull (at least two oiled)

2 Caspian Gull

1 Flamingo (flyby)

2 Greater Sand Plover

2 Ringed Plover

1 Kentish Plover

1 Grey Plover

10 White Wagtail

2 White-eared Bulbul

9 House Sparrows

17 Laughing Doves

Have left Germany last Saturday and am back in Kuwait. Everyone is whining that it’s so cold here, even my dear husband

I am happy that it’s not 55C and blazing hot, neither is it dusty right now. The sky is a crystal blue and the air fresh and crispy. Perfectly fine with me

Will post some new shots another day.

For today, we’ll have some gloomy shots from German forests with a Marsh tit (a Lifer for me), a Nuthatch and a Jay (can you believe that I forgot the English names for the last two?! But Bavarian Birds‘ translation tool helped me out once again )

]]> http://nicoleb.org/mnblog/2011/12/good-bye-germany/feed/ 21 http://nicoleb.org/mnblog/2011/08/back-in-good-ol-germany/ http://nicoleb.org/mnblog/2011/08/back-in-good-ol-germany/#comments Wed, 24 Aug 2011 17:57:31 +0000 NicoleB http://nicoleb.org/mnblog/?p=1692 [...]]]>

Since last Friday I am back in Germany in my home town.

That’s one of the reasons why I didn’t pop by last week – sorry for that. I will catch up

Here’s just a quick glimpse from my refreshing eye candy.

Not the greatest photos, I yet have to get used to gloomy conditions again (not that it’s that different from dust – photography wise).

Bagged a Lifer on my second day – a Dipper. Never seen one before. Nice welcome gift

A post for World Bird Wednesday – hop on over!

Eifel, Germany – August 2011

Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-200mm

Copyright by NicoleB Photography

Seen in South Sinai, Egypt in 2010. Fascinating birds!

From wiki:

This species is unmistakable in the northern hemisphere due to its large spatulate bill. The breeding male has an iridescent dark green head, white breast and chestnut belly and flanks. In flight, pale blue forewing feathers are revealed, separated from the green speculum by a white border. In early fall the male will have a white crescent on each side of the face. In non-breeding (eclipse) plumage, the drake resembles the female.

The female is a drab mottled brown like other dabblers, with plumage much like a female Mallard, but easily distinguished by the long broad bill, which is gray tinged with orange on cutting edge and lower mandible. The female’s forewing is grey.

They are 19 inches long (48 cm) and have a wingspan of 30 inches (76 cm) with a weight of 1.3 pounds (600 g).

The Edible Frog (Pelophylax kl. esculentus) is a name for a common European frog, also known as the common water frog or green frog (however, this latter term is also used for the North American species Lithobates clamitans).

It is used for food, particularly in France for the delicacy frog legs.

Females are between 5 to 9 cm long, males between 6 to 11 cm.

Pelophylax esculentus is the fertile hybrid of the Pool Frog (Pelophylax lessonae) and the Marsh Frog (Pelophylax ridibundus), hence the addition of the “kl.” (for klepton or synklepton) in the species name.

During the ice age the population of the common ancestor of both species was split into two. These populations diverged, but remained genetically close enough to be able to create fertile hybrids. However, when edible frogs mate with each other, their offspring are often misformed, so there are no pure populations of edible frogs. The hybrid populations are propagated by female edible frogs mating with males of one of the parental species.

From wiki

Anthericum ramosum reaches on average 30–70 centimetres (12–28 in) of height. The grass-like leaves are 50 centimetres (20 in) long and two to six millimeters wide and are generally much shorter than the inflorescence. It has an erect, paniculate inflorescence. The flower spikes are branched (hence the Latin name ramosus)

The six tepals are white, 10–13 millimetres (0.39–0.51 in) long, as the sixstamens. The flower is scentless and pure white, the anthers are bright yellow. The flowering period extends from June through August. The capsular fruit is spherical to three-faced. The flowers are pollinated by hymenopterans, while the seed distribution is done by the wind.

Info from wiki

 

Balata to, Somogy, Hungary – August 2009
Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-200mm
© NicoleB Photography