Photographic trip to the beach (26/2/12)

26/2/12
On the 26/2/12 I went with Elly (my exchange partner) to the beach I alos brought my camera to see what I could photograph. We ended up throwing stones in the water and making stone sculpturs.

6/3/12
On the 6/3/12 I decided to go to the beach but not to see what birds I could see but to photograph what I see.
Luckily on that day the sea was nice and choppy and wild. This enabled me to get some good pictures of the sea. Also on the way I saw some Goldeneye and a Eider close enough to photograph.

Aas See (24/2/12)

I looked at the map of my local area and decided to go to a nice little lake called Aas See (See is german for lake not sea).

This is the route I took

After having my breakfast I set off to go to the lake. The trip was not more then 8km so I plan to go again soon. On the way I saw some House Sparrows and a Buzzard in the woods. The first thing that I saw on the lake were a few Tufted Ducks mainly males. There were also Goldeneye which were swimming and diving a lot. There were also a few Pochard swimming including 1 maile and 4 females. Then when I was looking at some Goldeneye a Great Crested Grebe came up from diving. In a feild next to the lake there were a lot of Greylag Geese laying around with a Grey Heron. Then suddenly when I was loooking over the field I heard a woodpecker drilling away. I went back to woods to try and find it but then when I arrived I heard it call and it was a Great Spotted Woodpecker call. When I was at the woods I saw 6 lapwings fly over and c.40 Goldfinches. Then when I went back to the field I saw 3 Buzzards circling the woods. Then I decided to park up my bike and walk around the lake. While I was parking my bike up I saw 2 Cormerants fly over. While I walked along the lake I took out my camera so that if I saw a Goldeneye up close I could photograph it. Unfortunately all the Goldeneye I saw close flow away to quickly even if they were far away. Then at one point were I stopped I saw c.800 Tufted Ducks swimming very far away. I looked into the group just incase there was something rare and I found 6 SMEWS 3 males and 3 females.

They were very far away so couldn't get a good picture but in the two photos you can tell that they are Smews. After that I decided to look at the sea which was right next to the lake. I had a nice long walk along the beach looking out for Shore Larks (unfortunately I didn't see one). On the sea I saw hundreds of Eiders, 2 Common Gulls, hundreds of Herring Gulls and both Black-backed Gulls, 2 Ostercatchers and 7 Common Scoters. After that long walk I decided to go back to Klein Waabs. On the way back I saw 2 more Buzzards and a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Two Mute Swans flying over the sea.

The beach at night (15 and 16/2/12)

15th
On the 15th the mum of my host family took me to the beach at around 17:30. When we arrived I had a good look over the sea. There was not much to be seen but then suddenly two goosander flow past and landed on the sea. If I can remember correctly they were both males. I also saw some Eiders and thousands of gulls floughting on the sea. There were also a few unIDable birds but it was to dark to see anything by the end of the walk.
16th
On the 16th the mother took me again to a nature reserve this time. Because it was getting dark and it was raining it was hard to see anything let alone ID it. but by the end I saw c.100 Goldeneye, c.100 Scoters ( unIDable most likly common) and about 20 Eiders.

At the beach (12/2/12)

Today I went down to the beach with my exchange family. I was not expecting to see much but as soon as we arrived on the beach I saw 12 Red-breasted Merganser fly past. Then I looked over into a bay were I saw some Goldeneye and some possible scaups but I was to far away to tell. Later I saw some more Red-breasted Merganser and some Eiders. Over the half hour I was there I managed to see at least 100 Eiders male and female. Behind the Eiders a lot further away I saw some Common Scoters. I saw lots of gulls aswell but nothing new with them. As I was looking at an unIDable bird 5 Long-tailed Ducks flow in and landed on the water. A bit later I saw another 2 Long-tailed Ducks swimming around which brought my count to 7 (oh yes). I managed to take some notes on the bird I couldn't ID and hopfully I will have a sulotion Solution by tomorrow of what it was. I also hope I will go again tomorrow because I have a free day off of school tomorrow.

Morning surprise (13/2/12)

This morning after I had said goodbye to my perents I looked outside and saw a lot of Tree Sparrows some were sitting on a nest and so this means I could have a pair of Tree Sparrows nesting in the garden.

The Tree Sparrows did get close but I was behind a window which was annoying