10,000 Birds

JANUARY 17, 2019

A Great Egret , a few Pygmy Cormorants and, by the middle of the Danube, about a hundred Greylag Geese. Two hundred yards further, the first Common Goldeneye and Smew started to appear and, while counting Smew and geese, a Great Bittern took flight from one stand of reeds to another, right in front of us.

Geese 149

Geese Serbia Birds Estonia 149

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 4, 2016

At the snowy Danube riverbank, we are waiting for geese to come to their roost inside the mostly submerged island. A shot or two coming from the opposite bank, but they do not sound like geese shooting – more like boar hunting. Scanning the water for rarer species… S. warns me of two locally rare Bean Geese.

Geese 179

Geese Hunting Boars Birds 179

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

I had just a split-second glimpse of this species – my only second ever – yet immediately knew what is it, but I was driving through a snowbound countryside and had another car behind me, therefore I stopped a good 50 metres later to eBird it. Greater Spotted Eagle – Clanga clanga. White-tailed Eagle – Haliaeetus albicilla.

Owls 106

Owls Serbia Greece Woodpeckers 106

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 19, 2014

I am certainly not complaining though, as a repetitive working routine that will lead to around 500 species a year is better than the working routine I had in the late 2000′s, where seeing more than 250 species a year would have been extraordinary. See more than 500 species. See more than 20 lifers. The Birding Diary.

2014 145

2014 France Germany Indonesia 145