Harz Spring

April is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.

From TS Eliot's The Wasteland, The Burial of the Dead.

The arrival of spring is anticipated I think more by bird lovers than most other people.  It heralds not only the return of light and warmth, for which we all retain a primeval need, but also of our feathered friends.  The first migrant to appear this year was our resident Black Redstart who turned up in a cold and gloomy Goslar on 27 March - he did his best to cheer me up and succeeded!  He was closely followed by the harbinger of things to come, the Chiffchaff, whose onomatopoeical and repetitive call resonates through the still bare trees.  I have learnt to be a bit patient in this part of the world for Spring comes a little later than is the case in South West England.  But more in hope than expectation I set out to some of my favourite haunts hoping to document the arrival of our Summer migrants.

Black Redstart - Goslar - 27 March

The Drömling is an amazing place but it set out to disappoint me in mid-April.  Save for Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers, a plucky Grasshopper Warbler, a Nightingale and some Swallows, there was scant evidence of Spring.  I knew I was a little early but had expected a little more than what was on offer!  Still, to paraphrase D-Ream, 'Things could only get better.'

Chiffchaff - Drömling - 29 March

Or so I thought.  The second half of the month was effectively blown away by the arrival of the most appalling and brutally cold weather system in which the Harz seems to specialise!  For days on end the thermometer struggled to reach 5C and all and sundry were treated to seemingly never ending deluge of sleet and snow.  Heaven knows what my little Black Redstart thought and most people here walked around in moods approaching depression! 

The Harz in the Spring! - 25 April

The other day things had improved sufficiently to persuade me to return to the Drömling.  Things this time were a little better.  Lots of Swallows, some Whitethroats and Blackcaps, some miserable looking White Storks standing in a waterlogged field, a lovely Blue-headed Wagtail, a Short-toed Treecreeper and a lonesome but valiant Swift struggling against the still cold wind.  So not brilliant.

Blue-headed Wagtail- Drömling - 28 April

Short-toed Treecreeper - Drömling - 28 April

Corn Bunting - Frose

However, on the last day of April the weather beckoned warm and calm and such was my desperation to see some migrants I headed out again, except this time in southerly direction towards Frose.  The extensive reed beds and flooded meadows here rarely disappoint but even here it seemed to be half-board.  No Marsh, Sedge or Great Reed Warblers signing from the reeds or bushes.  Everything seemed to be on the brink - not quite but nearly there.  Two Bitterns boomed from either end of the reed bed, restless Bearded Tits flitted from reed to reed.

Frose - reed beds yellow, water meadows green

A family of Greylags - Frose - 30 April

Redstart - Frose - 30 April

The resident Greylag Geese had clearly been getting on with things as there were families swimming about everywhere.  A pair of stunning Marsh Harriers quartered the reed beds and Reed Warblers sang their discordant song from the reeds.  I found 2 Bluethroats - one in last year's location and a second on the far side of the site far away from prying eyes.  Everyone I meet says that these birds are very rare but I find them in most areas which have suitable damp scrubby habitat.  My second bird seemed to be inhabiting reed beds only and it was wonderful to be able to sit down and watch him display in the warm and recently arrived spring sun.

Bluethroat - Frose - 30 April

Bluethroat - Frose - 30 April

Whitethroat - Frose - 30 April

Finally I visited the semi-flooded water meadows which lie on the other side of the road to the reed beds.  I must confess that I have tended to overlook these in the past but am learning to appreciate their potential.  Today the meadows were semi-inundated and had attracted a wide range of ducks including Teal, Shoveller, Gadwell and Mallard.  Lapwings were plentiful and a couple of Red Kites were present too.  Everything was surprised by the sudden appearance of a White-Tailed Eagle that looped its way across the site following by some Kites and a Raven.

Water meadows - Frose - 30 April

White-tailed Eagle - Frose - 30 April

Greenshank - Frose - 30 April

Waders were nicely represented too with a couple of beautiful Greenshanks and Wood Sandpipers and a Ringed Plover - all three species were new to me here in Frose and were presumably passing through on their way north.  My final very pleasant surprise was a little Jack Snipe that exploded from the meadow corkscrewing into the distance.  So, all in all at last a most satisfying day. I suppose the thing I enjoyed most was feeling the sun on my face having endured, along with everyone and everything else, the cruelest of Aprils.

Woodsandpipers - Frose - 30 April

Gadwall - Frose - 30 April

A Hare, looking for someone to box with - Frose - 30 April

Dem deutschen Volke! - To the German People!

The German's take their democracy very seriously.  Normally, the political style here is consensual with less of the extreme, winner takes all approach that we are used to in the UK.  In Germany coalitions are the norm and not the exception.  And so when Angela Merkel, the most popular Chancellor in modern German history, is left reeling from a series of regional election losses on Sunday, something must be afoot.

AfD advertisement - the caption says 'Children welcome - yes to the family!

AfD advertisement - the caption says 'Vote out the tax avoiders.'

In my travels around eastern Germany I am often intrigued at election time by the political advertisements one sees attached to lamp posts throughout villages and towns.  Democracy here in the east is still young - reunification took place only 25 years ago - and the vestigial parties of the left - Die Linke - and the extreme right wing - the Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (NPD) - vie for space with the more mature and sober offerings of the longer-established CDU and SPD.  More recently on the scene, and a big winner this weekend, is the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), formally a respectable anti-EU platform which has controversially adopted a more xenophobic tone in recent months.  So, something has shaken up the normally staid political scene.

Die Linke - the caption says 'Arsonists out!'  Below is a defaced CDU advertisement.

Defaced NPD advertisement - the caption says 'Stop the (people) smuggler Merkel'

I am often struck by how homogeneous Germany society still is.  Traffic safety advertisements on the autobahns rarely include black or Asian faces.  White is still the un-said norm.  And so the recent arrival of hundreds of thousands of genuine and economic refugees from Syria and the Balkans - with more to come - has unsettled many people.  The appalling incidents over the New Year period in Köln and other German cities where women were assaulted by immigrants has deeply upset many people.  Added to that, the fact that the authorities seemed to try and to cover up the attacks, raises some important questions about trust and the state's relationship with its people.

Defaced NPD advertisement - the caption says 'Turn off the liar-press. Our people first.'

AfD advertisement - the caption says 'We are for our homeland. Strengthen the police. Protect the citizens!' 

The impeccably progressive approach to social issues that has so long characterised the German political scene and society is under strain.  The mantra preached by Merkel last August, “Wir schaffen das,” (“We will manage,”), is being openly questioned.  No doubt she will vigorously defend her strategy on handling the refugee crisis, but the results of this week's display of democracy, some of it clearly distasteful, will make this task more difficult.

Late winter in England's West Country

Rural Dorset is probably one the last places in England where its possible to imagine you are in times long since gone.  Beautiful puffed-up hills, bisected by deep and remote coombes bottomed with gin-clear streams where the only sound you might hear is the mewing call of a Buzzard.  A coast to die for, containing spectacular cliffs and arches and, in the western part of the county, the Fleet lagoon banked on its seaward side by the gigantic Chesil Beach.  Climatically too this part of the world is a bit special with a climate so mild it could have been invented for clotted cream.  Everything is more advanced, indicated perhaps most clearly by jaunty daffodils, the first of which we saw braving the cold in early January. 

Aunt Mary's Bottom - Dorset

All Saints Church Nether Cerne - Dorset

Durdle Door - Dorset

It being late winter I was here to see predominantly winter resident species likes divers, ducks, geese and waders.  However, I was also keen to see a beautiful finch I had last seen 30 years ago in Devon, the Cirl Bunting, even if this would necessitate a bit of travelling.  Great Northern and Black Throated Divers are quite common here and can be found on any stretch of sheltered sea.  Portland Harbour provides ideal conditions and played host to several Salvonian and Black Necked Grebes, a Black Guillemot and a Great Northern when I called in.  Unfortunately the birds were too distant for photographs, bobbing up and down amongst the waves.  Some more obliging closer to Red-breasted Mergansers provided better opportunities.  Despite coming to these parts on and off all my life, I paid my first proper visit to the Ferrybridge - the point at which the Fleet is connected to the sea.  A raft of Mediterranean Gulls, some of which were close to being in summer plumage, were welcome.  I remember when this species was national rarity and yet now they can be counted at some local roosts in their high hundreds.  A fantastic white-winged gull set off with a spanking black hood and heavy red bill.  Some Brent Geese were mulling around on the far shore.  Just as was about to leave a Skylark dropped in before flying off in the direction of Portland.  What a beautiful and brave little bird.

Mediterranean Gulls - Ferrybridge

Brent Geese - Ferrybridge

Skylark - Ferrybridge

The waters of the Fleet lagoon are tidal, being filled and partially emptied by the ebb and flow of the tide under the Ferrybridge and into Portland Harbour.  The lagoon, which is 11 kilometers long, is also fed by a series of streams along its landward side meaning that the water is brackish.  As the water surges in, the ever diminishing amount of mud forces feeding birds up the Fleet and eventually into Rodden Hive.  So getting the tide right is important. Today I arrived on time but, because the day's high tide wasn't particularly high, there weren't a large number of birds to see.  A couple of Long-tailed Ducks swimming with Red-breasted Mergansers, Widgeon, Pintail and Shovellers were great to see, especially since the former tend to hide in the inaccessible Abbotsbury end of the lagoon.  On the wader front there were plenty of Redshanks and some Dunlin, some gulls, the pick of which were two Mediterranean, some Oystercatchers and a Little Egret.  Not bad, but I've seen better here.

Lesser Black Backed Gull - Rodden Hive

Red-breasted Merganser - Rodden Hive

Redshanks and Oystercatchers - Rodden Hive

Tufted Ducks and Teals - Rodden Hive

The beautiful Cirl Bunting was formally widespread throughout England but in the second half of the 20 Century began to decline drastically so that by the turn of the Century its remnant population was restricted to a narrow coastal strip in Devon.  The Cirl Bunting is mainly a Mediterranean species and is at the northern limit of its range in the UK.  Fortunately, intense conservation measures, concentrating on the introduction of less intensive farming techniques, have enabled a substantial increase in the bird's numbers.  Whilst it now numbers about 800 breeding pairs, its expansion more widely throughout Devon and more into neighbouring Cornwall and Dorset, has been frustratingly slow.  Thanks to active intervention, Cirl Buntings now breed in Cornwall, but we patiently await their return to Dorset. 

Labrador Bay RSPB reserve - south of Teignmouth in Devon

Male Cirl Bunting - Labrador Bay

Male Cirl Bunting - Labrador Bay

Female Cirl Bunting - Labrador Bay

Stepping out the car at Labrador Bay RSPB reserve, I immediately heard a Cirl Bunting signing - spring can't be too far away!  Walking into the reserve I quickly found a flock of about 40 birds feeding on seeds deliberately left in a stubble field.  The sun was out and the birds obliging flying up into trees affording wonderful views.  With them, but not amongst them, a similar sized flock of Linnets were also feeding.  One could not help have a sense of how rural Britain must have looked before the era of intensive farming, capable of supporting large flocks of formally common species.  I last saw Cirl Buntings about 20 years ago and so it was wonderful to watch this emblematic species again in its natural habitat. 

Wren - Labrador Bay

Dunnock - Labrador Bay

Linnets - Labrador Bay

Linnets - Labrador Bay

The Isle of Portland is a mythical place - reliant for many years on quarrying and the military - it is linked to the mainland by the Ferrybridge and juts 6 kilometers into the western approaches.  Its position makes it a magnet for migratory sea birds both passing its southerly tip - the Bill - and for passerines and raptors using it as a spring board for the 100 kilometer crossing to France.  Today I was accompanied by an old friend and we spent as much time catching up and making plans for the future as we did birding.  Birds today were few though our passage was livened by some smart Rock Pipits, a majestic Peregrine, some Stonechats and a small amount of sea traffic off the Bill.  It didn't matter really as I cast my eyes east and west along Dorset's spectacular coast.  In a few weeks the first Wheatears and Chiffchaffs will be making their eternal landfall before passing inland to their breeding grounds.  Today was more about reflection and reminiscing about all the wonderful times we had had on this magical island.

Rock Pipit - Portland Bill

Peregrine Falcon - Western cliffs Portland

Stonechat - Portland

Guillemot - Portland Bill

Black-necked or Slavonian Grebe - Portland Harbour

Poole Harbour is one of the largest natural harbours in the world,  It is a fantastic place for watching birds, especially in winter, as they feed on the abundant supply of fish and invertebrates within the mudflats and slat marshes.  There are dozens of locations from which to watch birds to choose from and the area includes the famous RSPB reserve of Arne - home to Dartford Warblers amongst other things.  My favourite vantage point is the Avocet Hide at Middlebere.  From here I have seen wonderful spectacles involving hundreds of Avocets, spring-time Ospreys, Hen and Marsh Harriers, raiding Peregrines and Merlins and many more species besides.  Like Rodden Hive, or indeed any coastal location, arriving just before high tide is vital.  Middlebere at low tide is hardly worth a visit.

Map extract of Poole Harbour in Dorset.

And today the tide was out - I knew it would be but I had no choice as I was travelling east towards London for the night before heading to the Continent the next morning.  Notwithstanding, I hoped to see a harrier or Merlin and of course there is always the chance of turning up something unusual.  Never was Robert Louis Stevenson's famous dictum 'To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive' truer as I saw very little except for some good looking Dark-bellied Brent Geese, a solitary Canada Goose, some Curlews, Shellduck and a handful of distant Teals. Never mind, it was great just to sit snuggly in the hide, sheltered from the wind and rain reminiscing about times gone by.  As I left I could not help but notice the hawthorn leaf coming out - bright green against the monochrome late afternoon light.  A sure harbinger of spring.  

Grazing Dark-bellied Brent Geese - Middlebere

Canada Goose - Middlebere

Little Egret - Middlebere

Curlew - Middlebere