I finally managed to see the Red-Backed Shrikes in my neighbourhood!
There is a pair of Red-Backed Shrikes in my neighbourhood that I haven't yet been able to see. I knew, however, where they typically hang out so I went there yesterday with my camera and tripod, set up the camera to point and potential perches and finally managed to see them and take a few short videos!
Their German name, Neuntöter, translates to "Nine Killer". It is said that they kill nine things before they actually eat one. This isn't actually too far fetched as Red-Backed Shrikes kill insects, small rodents or baby birds and hang them up on thorny bushes and other plants for later. The bush the female is perched on later on in the video is a blackberry bush which has thorns.
From personal experience I can say that it runs very well at high settings! Nearly level 20 now and haven’t had any issues yet.
Ich folge Laszlo auf Mastodon und Pixelfed tatsächlich bereits :-) Einen Pixelfed-Account habe ich nicht, ich bin aber auf Mastodon und betreibe meine eigene Instanz für Vogelliebhaber und poste dort auch meine Fotos.
Morgens rausgehen und Vögel beobachten und fotografieren! Heute auch wieder gut vier Stunden unterwegs gewesen.
White Wagtail Hovering Above the Water
Wagtails are always fun to watch! Here's a White Wagtail I saw on my morning walk hovering above the (honestly rather disgusting-looking) water with its mouth already full of insects.
Spotted Flycatcher Taking a Break
Went for a walk and managed to take a photo of a bird I hadn’t been able to photograph yet: A Spotted Flycatcher!
Its German name, Grauschnäpper, translates to “Grey Snatcher” — probably because it likes snatching flies and other insects!
Ich habe schon darauf gewartet. Auch bei Mastodon passiert das gerne. Da werden dann komplette Instanzen (vor allem die großen wie mastodon.social) einfach komplett blockiert. Da werden sicherlich jetzt einige Benutzer von Lemmy abspringen - verständlicherweise, wie ich finde. Ich selbst bin ja auch auf Beehaw und folgen vielen Communities auf lemmy.world. Ich habe sogar selbst eine eigene Community dort erstellt! Vielleicht erstelle ich mir dann noch noch einen Account hier auf feddit.de.
I’ve had plenty of others recommend the H2n to me, I think I’ll be getting that one. Thanks for the recommendation for the wind jammer, I’ll check if there’s one for the H2n from Rycote. :-)
Okay, that's good to hear then :-)
I guess Lemmy is a little bit half-baked in some areas still, I'm sure it'll be ironed out in the coming weeks and months!
My recording of a Common Firecrest's song (and a question)
Macaulay Library ML584691401; © Marvin Johanning; Gütersloh, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/555041
> Managed to get a decent recording of the Common Firecrest I heard today and it was a lot of fun! I mostly do bird photography, but I want to start recording birds' songs and calls with something that has better audio quality than my iPhone. > > Basically: Does anyone know of a good and not outlandishly (≤ €200) expensive audio recorder you can use? Preferably one that also has microphones that can deal with wind noise.
My recording of a Common Firecrest's song (and a question)
Macaulay Library ML584691401; © Marvin Johanning; Gütersloh, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Managed to get a decent recording of the Common Firecrest I heard today and it was a lot of fun! I mostly do bird photography, but I want to start recording birds' songs and calls with something that has better audio quality than my iPhone.
Basically: Does anyone know of a good and not outlandishly (≤ €200) expensive audio recorder you can use? Preferably one that also has microphones that can deal with wind noise.
Is this you're telling me I shouldn't crosspost stuff to other communities? Is it frowned upon? I'm sorry if it is!
Common in the grand scheme of things, sure. But common for me? Nope. Especially the Firecrest is only rarely seen around here so it was exciting to finally be able to see it and also hear it sing :-) Same for the linnet, it isn't all that common either. The Common Redstart for example is also quite uncommon here, despite its name. You mostly only see Black Redstarts around here.
Where are you from that they're so common where you are?
I made [email protected] if you’re interested :-)
And you’re right about Merlin! I never fully trust it either, but in this case I just used it to confirm that the call I heard was, indeed, a firecrest. I don’t hear them too often so I wasn’t sure. I ended up seeing it as well.
But I’ve had Merlin misidentify things before. It heard part of a Song Thrushes singing and thought it was an oystercatcher 😬
Edit: wrong link
Lots of interesting birds on my lunch walk
cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/548613
> I always take a walk around my office during lunch. Finally managed to see and also record a firecrest. Such a tiny but cool-looking bird!
Lots of interesting birds on my lunch walk
I always take a walk around my office during lunch. Finally managed to see and also record a firecrest. Such a tiny but cool-looking bird!
That's one of the bugs.
Eurasian Bullfinch after preening
https://beehaw.org/post/545914
> Seeing a glowing (b)orb in the trees is always a delight! So here's a male Eurasian Bullfinch (Gimpel / Dompfaff in Germany) after just having preened, his feathers still slightly fluffed up. > > He was sitting in a tree really far away, but spotting him was simple — so colourful! Saw him on the weekend in North-Western Germany.
Eurasian Bullfinch after preening
Seeing a glowing (b)orb in the trees is always a delight! So here's a male Eurasian Bullfinch (Gimpel / Dompfaff in Germany) after just having preened, his feathers still slightly fluffed up.
He was sitting in a tree really far away, but spotting him was simple — so colourful! Saw him on the weekend in North-Western Germany.
Coole Aktion! Hätte mich damals auf jeden Fall angesprochen. Bin nur leider selbst ein paar Jährchen zu alt 😅
Ja schon, nur das Problem ist hauptsächlich das ein Großteil aller PeerTube-Instanzen solche Inhalte verbreitet. Die wenigen die es nicht tun haben meist auch nichts sehenswertes. Nur selten mal gibt es welche mit guter Moderation und auch gutem Content.
Ist natürlich alles rein anekdotisch, vielleicht gucke ich nicht richtig.
YouTube durch PeerTube zu ersetzen wird wahrscheinlich schwierig. Betreibe selbst eine PeerTube-Instanz und wie viele komische Schwurbelinstanzen da mit meiner föderieren wollen ist unglaublich.
Ich kenne nur zwei gute. tilvids.com (nicht deutsch) und https://video-cave-v2.de/ (deutsch).
Brief login as other user?
This frequently happens to me - I open the website and I am briefly logged in as another user as can be seen at the top right corner. It takes about a second and then I'm logged in as myself again. Managed to take a quick screenshot before it changed back.
The website theme is also changed from what I have it set to.
I find it a bit concerning how frequently this happens. Anyone have any idea as to why this happens?
Ist gut möglich, dass sich ein Baum in dem Glas spiegelt und sie meinen, sie können da dann langfliegen. Am allerbesten sind ist hier eine Art "Milchglasfolie" mit ggf. Mustern drin, damit man noch durchschauen kann.
Kannst ja auch mal beim NABU schauen: https://www.nabu.de/tiere-und-pflanzen/voegel/helfen/01079.html
What problems are you facing on the website exactly? I'm just accessing my instance's website via Safari and it works pretty okay. I'd just recommend opening threads in a new tab, perhaps.
There isn't really an alternative to Mlem at present, so the only thing you can do is to make due with it for now and / or use the website. I mainly use the website at present because Mlem doesn't have a compact mode.
Chaffinch on a roof
https://beehaw.org/post/526754
> I really like how this photo turned out! I took it one evening a few days ago in North-Western Germany. A very common bird around here with a distinctive call you can hear basically everywhere.
Chaffinch on a roof
I really like how this photo turned out! I took it one evening a few days ago in North-Western Germany. A very common bird around here with a distinctive call you can hear basically everywhere.
Rook on a cable
cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/518744
> I was playing a game and heard a lot of loud cawing outside that sounded a bit "off", i.e. not like the cawing of the regular crows. > > Therefore, I decided to look outside and saw this rook perched on a cable right next to my window! > > Its beak is probably slightly open because of the heat. If I remember correctly, this is how bird's try to dissipate heat (their form of "panting", I guess) since they cannot sweat.
Rook on a cable
I was playing a game and heard a lot of loud cawing outside that sounded a bit "off", i.e. not like the cawing of the regular crows.
Therefore, I decided to look outside and saw this rook perched on a cable right next to my window!
Its beak is probably slightly open because of the heat. If I remember correctly, this is how bird's try to dissipate heat (their form of "panting", I guess) since they cannot sweat.
A rarity for my region — a Yellow-Billed Duck
I was taking a walk (as I always do) on Saturday morning around my neighbourhood. There's a couple of ponds around and on the bank of one of those ponds, I saw two strange ducks. Their bright yellow beaks really caught my attention and I took a couple of photos, but I thought they were just strange mallards.
Upon further research once I got home, however, it turned out that these ducks were, in fact, Yellow-Billed Ducks! They are only native to some parts of Africa. Not sure how or why they came here to North-Western Germany! Maybe escaped pets?
A rarity for my region — a Yellow-Billed Duck
I was taking a walk (as I always do) on Saturday morning around my neighbourhood. There's a couple of ponds around and on the bank of one of those ponds, I saw two strange ducks. Their bright yellow beaks really caught my attention and I took a couple of photos, but I thought they were just strange mallards.
Upon further research once I got home, however, it turned out that these ducks were, in fact, Yellow-Billed Ducks! They are only native to some parts of Africa. Not sure how or why they came here to North-Western Germany! Maybe escaped pets?
After not having been able to see one for months, I finally saw a Green Woodpecker again! (North-Western Germany, June 2023)
cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/498187
> After having eluded me for months, I finally managed to see a Green Woodpecker again! I often hear their laugh-like call, but haven't been able to see them for a while. They're one of my favourites! > > If you haven't heard their calls yet, I strongly encourage you to go to YouTube and listen to them — they're fantastic. They really sound like someone's laughing at you.
After not having been able to see one for months, I finally saw a Green Woodpecker again! (North-Western Germany, June 2023)
After having eluded me for months, I finally managed to see a Green Woodpecker again! I often hear their laugh-like call, but haven't been able to see them for a while. They're one of my favourites!
If you haven't heard their calls yet, I strongly encourage you to go to YouTube and listen to them — they're fantastic. They really sound like someone's laughing at you.
A shiny and fluffy European Starling
I know these guys are frowned upon in the US, but they are a pleasant sight here in Germany!
In fact, their numbers in many of their native habitats (for example here in Germany) have actually been declining in the past years, so I am always happy to see some of them running around.
This particular bird was collecting some bugs and insects to feed to the young birds that were nearby. He ruffled his feathers a bit which is when I took this photo — looks so fluffy!
A shiny and fluffy European Starling
I know these guys are frowned upon in the US, but they are a pleasant sight here in Germany!
In fact, their numbers in many of their native habitats (for example here in Germany) have actually been declining in the past years, so I am always happy to see some of them running around.
This particular bird was collecting some bugs and insects to feed to the young birds that were nearby. He ruffled his feathers a bit which is when I took this photo — looks so fluffy!