Ornithophilie...

Chapter 9 - A long awaited vistior - Wadi Habu mara - Migration

2010-05-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

Picture description:
1. Roosting White Storks in the desert.
2. Overflying White Pelicans.
3. The landscape of Wadi Habu mara.
4. "Schrecki", our Grasshopper pet, eating a fly.
5. A gecko caught in the desert in the night.
6. Two Egyptian Vultures (Schmutzgeier) at the oasis.
7. My love doing what I`ve been doing the last seven weeks.

Chapter 8 - Just a few images !

2010-04-25T10:46:00.000-07:00

Just a few images from last week:

1. Spur-winged Plover in Luxor
2. Nile-Valley Sunbird
3. A Bridge over the Nile
4. A crowned Sandgrouse.
5. Who finds the Bar-tailed Dessert Lark on the nest?

Thanks for the comments! Keep watching my blog!

Chapter 7 - Reptile and plant special

2010-04-19T11:52:00.000-07:00

After a lot of pictures of birds I thought it is time to put some pictures of other
things here on my blog.
Pictures show:

1. A small succulent plant in the dessert.
2. A lizzard hiding under my foot.
3. The same lizzard in my hand :).
4. Another species of lizzard caught.
5. A sere bush.
6. A green bush.
7. And of course, a picture of a White-eyed Gull.

2010-04-12T10:22:00.000-07:00

Chapter 6 - Luxor

Last Friday we went on a daytrip to Luxor! Because we only had about 6 hours there,
we had to do intense birding on Crocodile Island in the Nile river.
Pictures show:1. Whiskered Tern 2. Western Reef Heron 3. Red-rumped Swallow 4. Pied Crow, possible first record for Egypt!
5. A fisherman on the Nile river 6. View from the path on Crocodile Island

Chapter 5 - 2 Weeks already!

2010-04-02T10:56:00.000-07:00

Chapter 5 - 2 Weeks already!

Here are some pictures about the time since my last post! First one shows the bird which is my
favourite since my early childhood - the Quail. Second: The guys (Zegi, Erich, Daniel and Tobi)
seabird watching in El Gouna. Third: Me counting birds in the desert. Fourth: An exhausted
Woodchat Shrike in Zafarana. Fith: A lizzard called in German "Dornschwanzagame". Sixth: A
flock of 267 (counted!) White Pelicans soaring.

Chapter 4 - Barbecue and El Gouna

2010-03-26T08:03:00.001-07:00

Yesterday evening we were invited to a barbecue to the beduins in the oasis.
It was very nice and the grilled chicken tasted very good. Today we went to El gouna,
a man-made tourist oasis. Though I don't like golf places at all, this one is a very good
birding place! Just at the entrance of el gouna there was a wonderful Cream-coloured Courser,
and this one was much more tame than that in the oasis! (see picture ;) The other pictures show
a Black Kite during our observations; us at the barbecue and a watering moat in the Oasis.

Chapter 3 - Heavy MIgration!

2010-03-22T20:39:00.000-07:00

Hello again!
Today it was my third day of work and I'm still enjoying it ;) There is a lot to discover!
Today I finally ticked the Cream-coloured Courser, a beautiful shorebird species, at the oasis.
Unfortunately it was to shy to take good photographs. Not so those to Steppe Eagles, which were
roosting shortly on the top of a hill, then taking of. (see picture!) The other pictures show our 4wd-
car in the middle of the dessert (with Abdul, our driver, sleeping in it!), the view from my
window and a little boy, playing with goats in the oasis.

Chapter 2 - The first day of work

2010-03-20T13:13:00.001-07:00

Today was my first working day. We spent two times three hours counting migrating birds (mainly raptors) in the dessert. In the 4 hour break between the two counting periods we visited an oasis! It was very nice having lunch underneath palm trees and watching roosting songbirds!
Picture 1: My working place! (you have to zoom in to see Micheal and Zegi down there!)
Picture 2: The oasis where we had our break.
Picture 3: A nice male Subalpine Warbler in the oasis.
Picture 4: Manfred, Micheal and Micheal watching football.

EGYPT - Chapter 1

2010-03-19T12:16:00.000-07:00

This spring I got the opportunity to spend 2 months in Egypt to work as a field ornithologist. So yesterday I arrived in Ras Gharib - the town in where I live and today I had already a day off (every Friday). My work colleagues and I used the free time to visit to old coptic monasteries (Yes mum and dad - culture!!!) but we never put away our bins, so "birding" was done all the time. And it was really nice actually - there were many "lifers" under those birds observed. A really stunning observation was that of the Pharaoh Eagle Owl (formerly treated as a subspecies of the Eagle owl!) ! and birds in oases were very nice because they
weren't shy at all! But written enough - let's show some pics! The first shows a Hoopoe in an oasis. Second is the Pharaoh Eagle Owl mobbed by a Brown-necked Raven. Third is the view from the wall of the coptic monastery. The fourth picture shows just my room!

Week 4

2009-09-13T13:22:00.000-07:00

More than 4 weeks now in Canada - still enyoying it!

Almost Halftime!

2009-09-04T06:42:00.000-07:00

Yeah, almost three weeks up here in the wild. And it is great! Here are some nice pictures: An exhausted hummingbird in Stephanes hand and Glenn in his truck.

CANADA !!!

2009-08-25T11:02:00.000-07:00

For more than a week now I'm staying at the Cabot Head research station on the Bruce Peninsula! And I'm really enjoying it! After the six hours of mist net catching, I spent most of the time cruising around with Glenn, my fellow volunteer, searching for birds and snakes.
All in all I'm having a great time!

Pictures show: Great Horned Owl, View from our Cottage, Cedar Waxwing

Short trip to Croatia

2009-07-29T04:47:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

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"

2009-07-06T04:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-02T12:46:00.000-07:00

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:

Wasseramseln

2009-05-03T11:18:00.000-07:00

In Scheibbs an der Erlauf fotografiert:

Zwergohreule

2009-05-03T10:32:00.000-07:00

Eine geschwächt aufgefundene Zwergohreule wird am Lustbühel wieder ausgewildert (und vorher ausgiebig fotografiert!)

Exkursion nach Grado!

2009-03-22T13:43:00.000-07:00

Hier ein paar Bilder von der Exkursion nach Grado vom NWL-Verein Kärnten am 21.3.

Gulls...

2009-03-05T06:25:00.000-08:00

Bereits am 18.2.09 geschehen, jetzt erst fotos von rein gestellt: Ein trip nach kärnten, eigentlich um den Gelbschnabeltaucher zu sehen, aber letztlich doch "nur" um Möwen zu fotografieren! Hier das Ergebnis:

Bergfinken!!!

2009-01-14T07:50:00.000-08:00

Vergangenen Donnerstag besuchte ich (gemeinsam mit ca. 30 anderen Birdern) einen Massenschlafplatz von Bergfinken in der Oststeiermark. Obwohl Bilder die fantastischen Eindrücke niemals so wiedergeben können, als wäre man dort gewesen, stelle ich dennoch ein paar hier herein!

Geburtstagsgeschenk!

2008-12-16T13:34:00.001-08:00

Hier das Endergebnis meines Geburtstagsgeschenks:

Ein anderer Orni und guter Freund von mir hat mir nämlich eine tiefgefrorene Waldschnepfe geschenkt (ein Unfallopfer, wohlgemerkt!), welcher ich dann diverse Federn nahm und entsprechend präparierte!

ARKive!

2008-12-11T12:53:00.000-08:00

Vor etwa einer Woche wurde ich von einer gewissen Claire Thompson angeschrieben, ob ich nicht ein von mir aufgenommenes Foto eines Kurzfangsperbers dem Projekt ARKive zur Verfügung stellen möchte! http://www.arkive.org/

Tja, und wo ein David Attenborough sagt,

dass es gut ist, da mach' ich natürlich mit!

Öhm, also dann wär ich auch mal hier...

2008-12-11T12:11:00.000-08:00

Offizieller Eröffnungseintrag dieses meines bloggs! Platz finden werden hier diverse Berichte von Exkursionen und Reisen, aber auch Interessantes und Kurioses aus Biologie und darüber hinaus!

Um das ganze gleich etwas zu verschönern - ein Bild aus meinem letzten Auslandsaufenthalt in Aserbaidschan - eine weibliche Blaumerle Monticola solitarius !