Short trip to Croatia

The last five days I spent in Moscenicka Draga, a small Village on the Istria Peninsula. Although it was basically a beachside vacation, I did a half-day birding trip to the back-country. Despite the blistering heat we did some nice observations.

The bird from which the penetrant song came: Zitting Cisticola

Common Bee-Eater:

As I was walking along the riverbed in which the Bee-Eater colony was located, I noticed a bird fluttering on the ground. At first I tried to take a picture:

To make sure that the bird wasn't injured or something, I tried to catch it, but it wasn't that easy!

The injured bird turned out to be a just flown out juvenile bird! Then I put it on a small tree so that it could wait for its parents to feed him!

Illmitz 2009 - Biologische Station

From July 11th to 18th I volunteered at the "Biologische Station" in Illmitz in the National Park Neusiedler See - Seewinkel. My job was it to assist in the (basically song-) bird ringing process. Besides extracting birds from the mist nets and scribing work I ringed more than 100 birds in this week! Thanks to the station head Matthias and the other team members Christine, Tom and Dennis!


The road to the mist nets:

Sedge Warbler:

Me processing a Reed Warbler:

The ringing lab:

Sedge Warbler:

Male Red-backed Shrike:

Ring snake:

Male Bearded Tit:

Juvenile Bearded Tits:

Matthias with a Common Sandpiper:

A weekend at the ringing station "Hartberger Gmoos"

Last weekend I got the opportunity to do some assistance work at the ringing station "Hartberger Gmoos". It is one of the biggest ringing stations in Austria and located not far from my home . Mostly passerines are caught with mist nets which are checked every full hour from sunrise to sunset. All in all, it was a great weekend (although I didn't get much sleep :) and
I enjoyed it to work with and learn from Otto S., head of the station!

Here are some pictures:

1Y Chiffchaff:
















Reed Warbler:






















Savi's Warbler:


















The room, where the birds are ringed, measured, aged, sexed and weighed. (The person on the left is Otto.)


















Me ringing a Blackcap.


















On the walk to the mist nets:


















A Marsh warbler hanging in the net:


















Otto with a juvenile Water rail:























Close up:

BirdLife - Seewinkel 2009

I recently changed my blog-language to English and so this is the first post!

In May there was the BirdLife annual congress in Burgenland in the national park neusiedlersee - seewinkel. This is one of the few pictures I took there: