Urban birds – Politepix

The Dream of One Thousand (* 80) Cranes

Halle Winkler — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 20:11:09 +0000

When you think of the crane, Brandenburg is perhaps not what springs immediately to mind, yet every October the village of Linum in our neighboring state is host to the largest or near-largest congregation of Eurasian Cranes in Europe. As many as 80,000 of the overall European population of 400,000 cranes depart Scandinavia and the Baltic region and take a multiweek rest here to fuel up before continuing their migration to Central Spain for the winter.

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We go to Linum every October, since hearing and seeing these beautiful birds in their numbers takes some of the sting out of the otherwise grim onset of Central European autumn. So far, local observers have counted 30,000 cranes and the stopover season has only started.

The farmers there share the lore that if you scare off the cranes from your fields even once, you won’t see them again in your lifetime, so I guess Linum has shown the cranes some gentleness and hospitality and I’m glad of it. I took some pictures:

OK, the Peacock Butterfly is not a crane, but I saw it while I was waiting for cranes. NABU is the conservation society concerned with the support of sustainable tourism and species protection in the region and due to their efforts and that of the village and surrounds, Linum is host not only to cranes but also wild breeding populations of storks, and an equally-impressive stopover population of grey geese.

Ducklings weren’t on the balcony

Halle Winkler — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 12:57:05 +0000

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They were in Kladow:

Who is on the balcony, flying swan edition

Halle Winkler — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 20:19:04 +0000

A swan flies over, head downwards.

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Who is on the balcony, springtime addendum

Halle Winkler — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 11:12:03 +0000

Mallards are on the balcony, sitting heavily in flowerpots that E. just planted yesterday, in the rain, having a chat.

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Can we call it yet?

Halle Winkler — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:06:17 +0000

I hope it isn’t tempting fate to call this remarkable winter finished and share some images from it.

A grapevine runs along our walls; its little grapes were encased in ice before the last starlings in town could harvest them.

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Hooded crow in snow.

Swans walk along a frozen waterway, searching for a break in the ice that isn’t there.

But for a dog it’s just more room to frolic.

Who is on the balcony?

Halle Winkler — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 11:23:48 +0000

Given:

1. Sparrows are attracted by birdseed.
2. If you attract sparrows, kestrels will come to hunt the sparrows.
3. You want to see kestrels, but you don’t want to unwittingly engineer a sparrow slaughter.
4. Crows are attracted by peanuts.
5. Crows repel kestrels, but only until they’ve removed all of the peanuts, and,
6. This isn’t a logic problem, it’s business as usual on our balcony in the coldest winter months when E. feeds the birds who need a little extra help.

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So who was on the balcony this winter?

Sparrows were on the balcony.

A jackdaw was on the balcony.

A Cyanistes caeruleus was on the balcony, but it was supersonic.

A jay was on the balcony, and it took a little nap.

A mouse, eating a seed like a corn on the cob, was on the balcony (although it wasn’t exactly invited).

A kestrel was on the balcony, looking for the mouse.

A kestrel was on the balcony, being beautiful.