Wallcreeper at the Drachenfels (Bonn), 27.01.2024

While recently doing some random bird-related research on my laptop, I suddenly gasped in disbelief as I saw the words "Wallcreeper" and "Bonn" in the same sentence. Upon a little more reading I realized that a Wallcreeper had been seen close to the city since late December, and remained there throughout January. I was surprised …

Tegernsee, 23.12.2023-01.01.2024

For the Christmas and New Years holiday, my girlfriend's family offered my family to stay at their house by the Tegernsee, South of Munich. This was a very welcome suggestion as we had thought for a while about having a larger get-together, and a location as nice as this one was not to be forgone. …

The Island of Texel, 23. – 27.10.2023

Having visited Texel twice before in autumn (read about my last visit here), I was eager to pay this special island a third visit. The previous visits allowed me only very limited time and thus resulted in a slightly rushed birding experience as getting around the island takes a while (it's bigger than you might …

Helgoland (Part II), 18.09.-02.10.2023

This is the second entry on my two posts about my time as a volunteer on the island of Helgoland, following my previous post. By now, the work at the observatory and the other routines had become very familiar and I knew the island well. This was great as I could target areas in a …

Helgoland (Part I), 01.09.-17.09.2023

I had dreamt of visiting the North Sea island of Helgoland since my early years as a birder. Last year, I became aware of a bird observatory on the island and a little research soon revealed that they welcome volunteers to assist with ringing, counting, as well as other work around the observatory. This sounded …

Mallorca, 04.-13.07.2023

After an excessively busy final semester, my friends and I eventually saw the deadline for our bachelor thesis submission creep closer. As we had a month free between thesis submission and graduation, we decided to go on a small holiday to reward ourselves for the three years of studying and to celebrate the completion of …

Dungeness, 16. – 20.09.2022

My stay in England for my university's semester abroad started in Dungeness, a tiny village on the South coast of Kent. I stayed in the Dungeness Bird Observatory. This had the big plus of being surrounded by birders who are very knowlegeable on the birds in the area, and was also interesting to get in …

The Island of Texel, 12. – 13.09.2022

The Wadden Sea island of Texel is considered a premier, if not the best, birding spot in the Netherlands. Because of its position along a major migration route, over 400 bird species have been recorded. This makes the island extremely popular amongst birders. Things are not always as ideal as they sound - while birders …

Max Planck Institute for Ornithology internship (& birding!), 08.08. – 02.09.2022

For the second half of my summer after the cycling tour in July, I did an internship at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Ornithology. I was looking for internship opportunities earlier in the year and got a response from Dr. Henrik Brumm at the institute, who was very accommodating and agreed for me to …

South-East Europe cycling tour, 05. – 27.07.2022

While my fourth university semester was extremely busy with studies, it was also the best time I've had at university so far. My courses were in person, which made the study environment much more interactive and motivating, and I spent a lot of time with my friends, from studying together to going out at night …