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 163

Geese Serbia Birds Estonia 163

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 187

Geese Hunting Boars Birds 187

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 1, 2012

It is commonly kept in captivity and has therefore established many feral populations world-wide originating from escaped / released cage birds. The local flock of geese (mostly Pink-footed, Swan Goose) is not “countable” while the Egyptian Geese and Ruddy Shelducks that occasionally turn up are.

Germany 253

Germany Netherlands Zoos Geese 253

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. Feral Pigeon – Columba livia. Fortunately, B. managed to see it, his largest owl ever.

Owls 109

Owls Greece Serbia Woodpeckers 109

10,000 Birds

JULY 25, 2014

On 22 January 1879, a pair of Egyptian Geese sat quietly on top of Isandlwana Hill and watched closely. When I started birding in earnest during the 1980s in south-west Germany, no one talked about Egyptian Geese. And for the first time ever in Europe, I encountered a few Egyptian Geese somewhere around Amsterdam.

Germany 150

Germany Geese Netherlands Kenya 150