I put together a compilation of bird observations and photos from the Seewinkel region in the winter of 2012/13 (in german) for my employer. You can download it here.

During the last five days, I was guiding a group of BirdLife Austria through the Po Delta/Italy. We had wonderful observations of many of the wanted species. I finished the trip report (in german) while on the bus trip back to Vienna: click here (9 MB). This wasn’t a photo-trip at all, but I still managed to get some shots – see a selection below.
Tomorrow starts the Pannonian Bird Experience, Austrias birdwatching fair in the national park Lake Neusiedl – Seewinkel.

 

Mit den herausragenden Illustrationen des ungarischen Natur-Malers Szabolcs Kókay habe ich ein Poster mit 60 häufigen Vogelarten Mitteleuropas herausgegeben.
Es ist in DIN-A1 Größe (84 x 59,4 cm) auf 130g Offsetpapier gedruckt. Die Artnamen sind auf Deutsch, Englisch und Latein angeführt. Das Poster kann ab zwei Stück zu je EUR 8,- + Versand- und Verpackungskosten, je nach Zielland, bestellt werden. Einzelstücke können gerne ohne zusätzliche Kosten in Graz und Wien selbst abgeholt werden. Zur Bestellung nutzen Sie bitte die e-mail Adresse hier.

The outstanding illustrations of 60 common bird species of central Europe by the hungarian wildlife artist Szabolcs Kókay are featured on a new poster I have published.
It’s DIN-A1 (84 x 59,4 cm) in size, printed on 130g offset paper. Names are included in German, English and Latin. You can order two or more pieces for EUR 8,- each + shipping and packing costs, depending on where you live. If you like to order, please contact me via this address.

In Austria, the winter of 2012/13 has been the one with the least sunshine of all time. After some sunny days during the last two weeks, people were starting to hope again for spring to arrive. There’s no reason to hope. Today, according to ORF, we experienced  one of the coldest spring days in eastern Austria – ever. With new snow, even in the dry, easternmost parts of the country.

I’m currently putting together a review of my winter observations in the top birdwatching-area Neusiedler See – Seewinkel.
For now, you’ll find just some of today’s images of birds in the snow – including some obviously disappointed long-distance migrants which now face a serious problem.

 

The first leg of my recent voyage to South America was partly a birdwatching trip at most. I travelled Ecuador for nearly three weeks with my brother and his workmate Tina. As I learned from previous journeys, birding on  a trip with non-birders is hardly possible and is well able to create discontent in a group. So I limited my passion to a minimum and more or less travelled as an average tourist, so far as this is possible for me… The longest lens I had with me was the (magnificent!) Nikkor AF-S 300mm f4, besides a 70-200mm, 60mm and 18-55mm.
We focused on getting a good overview of the country with its arid coast, high Andes and the rainforest of the Amazon basin and the, for my standards, epic climb of Chimborazo volcano, the highest mountain of Ecuador and the farthest point on the Earth’s surface from the Earth’s center. We succeeded on July 14, more than one month after the last successful roped party.

 

Just can’t finish with the Morocco images, there’s so much left to edit… No time to write too much about it, unfortunately. Just enjoy! The following were taken in February 2012, mostly along the Atlantic coast of Morocco.

 

Finally, a post I prepared months ago.. These are the last photos I’ll post from the desert regions of Morocco (- before I’ll hopefully find time to edit some images from South America.) All of them are from south of the High and Anti Atlas Mountains, most from Tagdilt track, Dades gorge and the Guelmim area.

 

I processed some more photos of my recent trip to Morocco with A. & M. Tiefenbach, before they pass out of mind. In the upcoming posts, I’ll focus on the desert regions we visited in February. These were the Tafilalt along river Ziz in the east, the bare plateau south of the High Atlas Mountains and the Guelmim-Es Semara region in the south of the country.

Rising in the Middle Atlas and flowing to the south, the river Ziz leaves the High Atlas north of Errachidia, nourishing the largest oasis of Morocco, the Tafilalt region. This area in the east of the country is particularily interesting for birdwatchers, hosting some of Morocco’s most sought-after species such as Barbary Falcon, several species of sandgrouse, Pharaoh Eagle Owl, Egyptian Nightjar, Maghreb Wheatear, Scrub Warbler, Desert Warbler, Fulvous Babbler and Desert Sparrow – just to name a few.

 

Some pictures of our two-day stay in Oukaïmeden, Morocco (3200 m) from 13. two 14. February 2012. The site, located near Jebel Toubkal, the highest peak of the Atlas, hosts a skiing resort and is, among birdwatchers, best known for its population of African Crimson-winged Finch (Rhodopechys sanguineus alienus), which can easily be seen here in winter. This subspecies is endemic to Northwestern Africa, was recently proposed as full species¹ and is already treated as such by some authorities².
We found plenty of this charismatic finch around the parking lots of the skiing resort. In the early morning of 14.2., around 200 ind. fed in the lower parts of the village, inbetween hundreds of Red-billed and Yellow-billed Choughs.
Other sightings included max. 20 Rock Sparrow, 2 Rock Bunting, 2 Dipper, 4 Alpine Accentor and 50-100 Shorelarks on 13.2., scattered around the whole resort in thick fog. The rather surprising finds on ca. 3000 m were a Lanner Falcon, a Long-legged Buzzard, a Green Sandpiper, a Common Snipe and one pair of Levaillant’s Woodpecker.

 

Watching Northern Bald Ibis (Geronticus eremita) is a must for any birdwatcher visiting Morocco. Only two small populations of this species, listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN ¹, remain in the wild. Little more than 100 breeding pairs live in western Morocco ² and only a handful of birds have been rediscovered in Syria ³ in 2002.
To protect the breeding birds, the exact locations of the colonies in Morocco are kept secret to the public. However, birds can be watched well at feeding sites in the Souss-Massa National Park or at the mouth of river Tamri, north of Agadir.
I visited the latter on my recent trip to Morocco with A. & M. Tiefenbach. We found the birds straightaway, about 40 adults and immatures, resting at the shore of the small estuary, formed by the river flowing into the sea. For the well-being of the birds, we didn’t approach, but waited for them to approach us, flying up to the sandy slopes in the afternoon, where they regularely feed and from where we were watching. We spent a half day there, watching and photographing the rarest bird we had ever seen – not an easy task! Although the birds seemed familiar with people watching them, it was hard to follow the restless flocks, constantly walking through the bush-covered sand-dunes, rarely giving good, direct views. The ibises fed on insects like large bugs, which they were tearing out of the sand. More on the conservation of Bald Ibis in Morocco: http://northernbaldibis.blogspot.com
Absorbed in these precious observations, we started to think about where to sleep only when it was already dark – and decided to set up our tent near the village of Tamri. Not be best decision, as it turned out that two guys tried to get into our car for hours, while we were sleeping just beside it. We finally woke up (and chased them away) by their noises and touches, when they apparently tried to find the key of the car inside our tent. Creepy…