Zugvögel - Birds of Passage

Every year come autumn a predictable depression befalls me, when the sun disappears for months behind grey clouds, the temperature  drops to values where socks and shawls are required and staying indoors seems preferable to a walk in the garden. Then, my well-known melancholic streak gets the upper hand. 

This is the time when migratory bird pass over and I wish I could fly with them. Large groups of cranes in V-formation, up to 150 individuals, fly in from the north and pass over in southwesterly direction straight on with loud chatter in the sky. They seem to be discussing the flight route - look down there: these are the Taunus hills, we head for the Main valley, then the confluence with the river Rhine and follow that down south ... that's what it sounds like.  Or maybe they sing songs, marching hymns like soldiers or children in kindergarden, to keep up spirits on the way and last through the long flight. Or they are counting one, two, three,... seventy, seventy-one .. haven't we lost anyone? Apparently, cranes fly in families, they raise one or two kids in Scandinavia and take them southwards, joining other families, because they would not find their way alone. 

Storks, on the other hand, who travel these long distances to Spain and further on across Gibraltar as well, apparently have some inherited navigation system, some instinct knowledge where to go , because their young ones preceed their parents' journey by at least a week or so. 


Close to Berlin, one hour westwards, a small village called Linum surrounded by flooded meadows is a resting place , a sort of travelling station to stock up food and body fat, for passing cranes in autumn, in October. This is not an old natural, wild area. Meadows were only given back to nature in recent years, in the past 25 years or so, when a protected area for birds was established. And not until farmers turned to growing maize in large quantitites because of the renewable energy craze in recent years which leaves large fields with maize left-overs after the harvest, did cranes come in large numbers to rest here. The cranes feed on those left-overs during the day and sleep on the safer floodplanes overnight. Up to 60.000 cranes have been counted this autumn when they assemble here in the area. Due to the ongoing agricultural glut, the numbers are steadily and exponentially rising. Young cranes are fed well before they start on their arduous journey south and fewer individuals die from exhaustion. So for the moment and for our delight, crane numbers are rising. 

 Linum in  evening light

Before nightfall, one flight after the next comes in like on Frankfurt airport; you can see the next group in V-formation arriving one after the other far into the distance, 10 or 15 km away, accompanied by their characteristic trumpeting sounds. 

Cranes are very flighty companions, their safety distance is 300 meters, so visitors are not allowed any closer for fear to chase them away and to make them fly up and waste valuable energy that they need for their long-distance journey ahead. Maybe in a few years, when the numbers rise even more, visitors will be invited closer to chase them up for an exercise programme when they start falling out of the sky because of obesity ....

A couple of days more and we will follow the crowd and fly south for some sun - 

See you next year!   

An der Peene

As children we used to know a little song, a lullaby with an odd and sad text, whose origins come from way before the 19th and 20th centuries and their wars:

"Maikäfer, flieg!
dein Vater ist im Krieg,
dein Mutter ist in Pommerland,
Pommerland ist abgebrannt,
Maikäfer, flieg!" 

Therefore Pommerland in my subconscious mind was a destroyed land, lost long ago, burnt down and barren and bleak after centuries of wars, gone forever, where kids lose their parents and orphans pack up their things, spread their wings and fly away to a better future. Later we learnt that Pomerania was somewhere behind the Iron Curtain and we envisioned grey cities and pale workers. But today, and for the last 26 years, part of Pommerland  - Western Pomerania - is back in a united Germany, and an area of such beauty that it took us completely by surprise. We regret not having explored this region earlier, but it is "in the middle of nowhere" as they say, a long way off the busy centres of Germany. This "nowhere" has such an enchanting and calming quality of quiet and peace, wide skies and silence, that I had before only experienced in Africa on safari : this feeling where you stand in peace and awe under the wide skies, breathe in, breathe out, let your shoulders drop and relax and think: yes, this is it, this is where I come from, this is in my bones!

Three hours northeast of Berlin towards the border with Poland in Vorpommern lies a vast and sparsely populated area of extreme natural beauty, the Peene valley. The river Peene is a tributary to the Oder which joins the Baltic Sea a little further to the north in an extended delta. It is characterized by regular flooding, a large fen area with rare plants and birds and opportunities to see beavers at work. 

Parts of the river have been naturalized only recently to enlargen the protected area and introduce some soft tourism. Cultivated areas have been left to their own devices, flood barriers have been removed, trenches filled and formerly dry elevated polders turned into marshland again. This region (http://www.naturpark-flusslandschaft-peenetal.de)  offers outstanding possibilities for observation  of fish and sea eagle and other rare species that I have not encountered in Germany in such numbers before. 

A  gradual flooding of former forests has given rise to some very unusual sights:

 I got this picture in passing, shot out of the car window, when on on our way back to Berlin from the Baltic Sea  - no need to go to Namibia or Botswana anymore?

early morning on the Peene

A bank swallow (Uferschwalbe, sand martin, Riparia riparia) in the early morning mist on the river close to Stolpe , backlit from the rising sun.


A few resident European cranes (Grus grus) by the side of the road sounding their trumpet-like piercing calls:  

Storks can be seen on many fields behind ploughs in August waiting for what is turned up: 

We enjoyed a stopover at Gutshaus Stolpe (another place with a Michelin-starred restaurant) and spontaneously decided to come back to this area when we would have a little more time, when the northern bird migration passes through in October.  An exciting bird and beaver safari on a boat seems a real option here! 

 At the end of this alley you will find an excellent restaurant in Gutshaus Stolpe.

fresh fish