Frosse and Osmarlsleben - Spring 2016

On Sunday I popped down to Osmarlsleben to see how last year's Bee-eaters were getting on and called in to Frosse on my way home.  The two sites are interlinked to some degree and the Bee-eaters use both, especially in the late summer when they can be seen swooping in and out of Frosse's reed beds.  The Bee-eaters do not arrive on their breeding grounds until about the end of the first week in May and I have already documented their success in colonising Saxon-Anhalt and the warm weather corridor east of the Harz.

Map of Osmarsleben (1 and 2) and Frosse (3) sites.

Today's visit brought no surprises and I quickly picked up some birds calling incessantly at site number 1 in the warm late spring morning.  Swooping and wheeling about the semi-industrial chalk quarry they present quite an incongruous site in the east German countryside.  If anything, there seemed to be more birds here than last year - in the region of 20 at least.  Worthy of note here is the Sand Martin colony, though access to get decent views is difficult.

Slightly distant view of Site 1 Osmarlsleben

Site 2, Osmarsleben.  The Bee-eaters are nesting in the sandy bank at the rear.

Having previously observed a sandy bank from Site 1, I decided to investigate it.  Approaching carefully, it quickly became obvious that it too was occupied by Bee-eaters, except that there seemed to be even more here than at the previous site.  It was great to be able to sit quite close to, but discretely hidden in some bushes, and to watch these beautiful and graceful birds to-ing and fro-ing and hawking insects, big and small, on the wing.

Bee-eater - Osmarsleben

Bee-eater - Osmarsleben

Bee-eaters - Osmarsleben

So, mission accomplished.  Bee-eaters, perhaps the most exotic of my local birds, safe and sound and in apparently really good numbers in the east-Harz corridor.

A nice shot of Frosse reed beds with the village with its distinctive twin towered church in the distance.

Whinchat - Frosse.

I have written several blogs about Frosse.  It is a brilliant site; compact, diverse and rich in terms of species (though less so in winter) and easily accessible.  My most recent visit was about 2 weeks ago and some characters were yet to make an appearance.  Today's visit seemed to confirm their return to Germany as Great Reed, Marsh and Grasshopper Warblers were seemingly everywhere.  Conspicuous by its absence were Sedge Warblers and indeed Red-backed Shrikes which ought to be back on their breeding grounds by now.

Marsh Warbler - Frosse.

An immaculate Reed Bunting - Frosse.

I heard probably 3 Bitterns booming and briefly the dog-like 'bark' of a possible Little Bittern.  Bitterns are notoriously difficult to see and luck is needed more than anything to catch a glimpse of a bird walking or flying about its territory.  The water meadows at the head of the reserve had dried out substantially but contained a beautiful lonesome drake Garganey, some Gadwell and Mallards.  Lapwings were also present pee-witting their way across the sky.  Whinchats were also present and a White Stork, perhaps a late migrant, was resting on the water meadow.

White Stork - Frosse

Garganey - Frosse.

In summary, a good visit.  Great to see the bee-eaters in such good numbers and lovely to find a Garganey at Frosse.  Next visit I might sneek into one of the hunting towers overlooking the reserve, in order to increase my chances of seeing a Bittern.