One member of Tring Ringing Group migrated to Germany a few
years ago. As our “foreign correspondent”, Chris regularly contributes to our
blog with his reports of 100’s of Siskin, Goldcrests and Brambling passing
through his garden ringing site near Munster that he calls Meisen Wood (Meisen is german for Tit). Last week Johne and I from TRG went to see Chris and Elke (and
hopefully ring some of their birds…).
Chris picked us up from Dortmund airport and
we drove north to a small village near Munster. It is a flat, agricultural landscape with fields are surrounded by narrow bands of trees, it reminded me a
little bit of Norfolk. A low range of sandstone hills, heavily wooded, called
the Teutenberger Wald (Forest) runs roughly east to west through this area. It
is a fantastic highway for migrating birds and Chris and Elke’s house sits
right at the base of these hills. Their garden stretches out behind the house
and up into the spruce and oak wooded hillside. They have bird feeders outside
the back door that attract red squirrels along with tits, finches and nuthatch.
The once formal lawn is now called the meadow and the Gothic overgrown fountain
and summer house were redolent with autumn decay, yellow fallen
leaves and mossy, lichen covered boulders.
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| The back garden |
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| Elke walking around the nets |
After a very enjoyable catch-up evening with plenty of wine
and food, Chris and Elke got up early the next morning to open the 12+ nets
that are dotted around the garden and set the tapes going. Johne and I were
treated to the luxury of a lie-in and wandering down to breakfast to wait for
some birds. Chris was hoping for Redwing but instead we got Great Tits, lots
of. Meisen Wood certainly lived up to its name. It
was quite amazing how many Great Tits were obviously passing through the area
and by the end of the morning out of a total catch of 127 birds, 78 of them were Great Tits. We also had Brambling, Nuthatch, Chaffinch,
Goldcrests, Redwing, Marsh Tits and Short-toed Treecreeper (a new bird for me).
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| Brambling |
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| Short-toed Treecreeper |
Chris was also very pleased with the Green Woodpecker which was only the second
one he had caught there. The woods are home to Great, Middle and Lesser Spotted
Woodpeckers and while we were ringing we could hear Black Woodpecker calling,
we did hope…
The next day Chris drove us about 50 miles north east to
Dummer See, a wildlife reserve in reclaimed agricultural land where thousands
of geese over-winter and Cranes stop on passage to Spain. It is a big area,
very open and flat and we drove around stopping to watch 100’s of White-fronted
Geese, Greylags and numerous Great White Egrets. Chris got the scope out to
look at a large bird of prey in the top of the tree, we had already seen a
number of buzzards but this one was a White tailed Eagle. A pair breed in the
area and this was a juvenile approximately 3 years old from its plumage.
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| White-fronted Geese |
It was a beautiful
day with bright sunshine, yellow autumn leaves and a surprisingly warm wind. We
finally we spotted some Cranes in a field, a small family group of two adults
and a juvenile with a gentle, brownish head. They are wary birds and we could
not get too close without spooking them. As sunset approached Cranes flew over our
heads with their haunting, joyful cries and slow flapping wings. They arrived
in small flocks of between 3 and 20; once I heard the high-pitched cry of a
juvenile. It was a real highlight of the trip for me. The roosting site changes somewhat from year to year, possibly
dependent on the water-levels of or what vegetation management at the reserve
has happened during the year and at its peak in late September 10,000 Cranes
stop over. The day we visited it was estimated that 6,000 birds came in to
roost. Although the day had been warm, after watching the Cranes flying in we
realised we were absolutely frozen. The restaurant we stopped at provided us
with good beer and food and we slowly defrosted.
We tried ringing again the following morning but although we
did catch some nice birds, Siskin, Marsh Tit etc the Great Tits had moved on. They
migrate down the Baltic coast through and into north Germany. A Tawny Owl flew
through the garden sending the smaller birds into alarm apparently it had been
seen a few times recently hunting during the day. In the evening we sat outside
and roasted chestnuts and mushrooms over an open fire and under a starry sky.
The area is rural and we stopped at a few farm shops
displaying pumpkins and squashes in all shapes and sizes.
A walk in the local woodland was spectacular with autumn colours and some interesting fungi, although the general countryside is lovely it is fairly quiet bird-wise. Chris and Elke are very lucky to have a garden which must be on the main migration highway through the area.
The final morning we opened a few nets again but it was very
quiet and after a sole Brambling. a Blue Tit and some Birthday cheesecake and coffee for breakfast, we decided to pack up and spend
some time doing a bit more sightseeing before the flight back. A very enjoyable
visit and thank you to Chris and Elke for making it so. There are
about 50 bird boxes in the garden many of which are used by Pied Flycatchers so
the next visit is planned for May!
Lynne
