Autumn and Winter in Germany

[Manu]

@Felis: Beautiful pictures of the plants (and the birds in the other topic) from your walk on this cold Sunday .

[Felis silvestris]

Thank you, Manu! Now it is snowing again. And a storm is blowing, I am glad I am inside, where it is warm!

[Lussi05]

Very nice pictures from your trip in the cold Felis. Seems like winter is taking grip in your place too..cold and stormy weather..brrrrrr

[Manu]

A few guests in my garden today

[Felis silvestris]

They do look quite hungry ... somebody else blocking the food?

I still have not hung mine as the cat net has to be put down first and that needs some climbing about. For that we need some time, better weather and daylight. Maybe tomorrow, as the Christmas tree will also have to go that way.

[Lussi05]

Beautiful visitors in you garden, Manu
I think we pretty much have the same species at our feeders:)


Felis, how are your new feeder doing?

Edit: I saw your comment above Felis

[Manu]

No,no they don't look hungry... It has a lot of food in my garden for all of them .

Felis: A few day's ago I thought about your feeder, but I've forgotten to ask you . Now we are curious what's going on...

Lussi: I saw on Facebook you had really nice visitors on your feeder too

Today and a few days ago I saw the sparrowhawk again in my garden .

[alice44]

But they do look kind of hungry -- maybe they are just surveying the food sources.

[Manu]

Yesterday and today I made a few "test-shootings" with the camera of my dad.
Near the village where I live there is a field where they playing "Polo" in summertime. Sometimes there are 20 red kite sitting on the ground. The last few days wheather wasn't good but I see still a few birds there. 5 red kite, a few crows and a kestrel...

It was not so easy to catch them "in flight". And one of the red kite came very close to me and circulated a few meters above where I stood, he was so close so I could "count the feathers" . It was a bit scary but also impressive.




The usual visitor's on my bird-feeder:

[Felis silvestris]

The camera makes nice photos, quite clear, I guess it is a good one! Red kites are not so common here, on the contrary, if one is around, they might also halt wind energy if necessary! Some people are not so happy then.

[Manu]

Here in Switzerland red kites are also not very common. For example we have 25 000 breeding pairs of common buzzards and only 2000 red kites. But near my area we can see them really often.

Thanks for your friendly comment, but I'm not really satisfied with my photos, I've a lot to learn now.

[Lussi05]

Great pictures Manu, what a day you had
Red kite ( It´s called "Glente" in norwegian) is not common here neither. We have Eurasian Kestrel - Falco tinnunculus - ("Tårnfalk" in norwegian) here.

I managed to get a picture of a Jay today. They are very jumpy and shy, so it´s not easy to get a good one.

Most pictures of them was "flapping", like this


Even if I have the old version of Photobucket, all pictures has the same size, and I know the lower picture is in smaller size than the first

[Manu]

I like jays also they are so colorful .
I've taken at least 100 photos this morning and most of them were "garbage", it's really not easy to take good photos of our feathered friends.

[Lussi05]

Ooops, I just discovered that I posted my pictures of the Jay in the German forum
It should have been in the- birds birds birds - forum, sorry!! You can delete if you want to..

I've taken at least 100 photos this morning and most of them were "garbage", it's really not easy to take good photos of our feathered friends.

No, it´s very difficult, Manu. You can, as you say, take hundreds of pictures, and maybe be satisfied with only one.
But we will not give up Manu, we will practice and practice and practice and practice....
Because practice makes perfect

[airras]

nice photos and lussi manu ... Here are many common kites and real, are becoming real scavengers are always near roads looking corpses, also abound buzzards, kestrels and common as both the kestrel

[Felis silvestris]

Ooops, I just discovered that I posted my pictures of the Jay in the German forum
It should have been in the- birds birds birds - forum, sorry!! You can delete if you want to..

No problem Lussi, as we are discussing the art of taking photos, I find them very okay here!

Manu - that's the thing, sometimes the outcome is disappointing, with best equipment and knowledge. And sometimes "the" photo just comes, without any real effort, because everything is just fitting, time, theme, light, camera settings ...

[meierlein]

I like jays also they are so colorful .
I've taken at least 100 photos this morning and most of them were "garbage", it's really not easy to take good photos of our feathered friends.

:peek:

try the sports-function on your camera
to get the pics sharp ^^

[Manu]

In the morning I saw a really nice and rare visitor on my feeder

I was really happy to see this little guy, but at this time I didn't know what kind of experience I would have in the afternoon .

I was out of home with my parents to watch gulls and ducks on the place where I'm at work (Lake of Bodensee).
On the way back at home we saw some buzzards and red kites... And suddenly I saw a big bird sitting near the road. I said (or shout) to my parents: "This is an osprey!!!!!" I stopped the car and changed direction. Unfortunately the bird fly away and my dad and I could not take better pictures . This was so exciting.




We are 99,9% sure it was an osprey. We waiting a few minutes and saw in the distance 2 of them on the ground, but they were to far away.
Wow, it was sooooo nice to see this bird. And I cannot believe I (and my mam and dad too) saw AN OSPREY in my area!!!!!

EDIT:
January 13: After a lot of discussions with a lot of specialists
It wasn't an osprey but a light coloured Buzzard

[Felis silvestris]

Wow, Manu, what luck! Maybe they are already on their way home? Who knows, Nori, Elo or Uno?

But the goldfinch is also beautiful! Have not seen one here.

[Manu]

This was one of my questions too. Are they already back to the north? Or why are this birds here in this area? Tomorrow I will stay a while before and after work on this place. Maybe they are so friendly and stay a bit there...