Wednesday 21 November 2018

A German Jolly - TRG visit Meisen Wood


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.

The back garden 
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).
Brambling

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.

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