Listing Through Life

alopochen (from alopos fox-like, and khen goose)  aegyptiaca (Egyptian)

Sunday, April 21, 2019 — 5:05 pm

Boblingen, Germany — Oberer See

We took a tour of the town on Sunday afternoon. We ended up downtown in a pretty park surrounding two small man-made ponds, the Oberer (Upper) See (Lake) and the Unterer (Lower) See. The two were connected by a cement cascade.

As we approached the Oberer See, I saw two Egyptian Geese along the shore. It wasn’t a terribly exciting discovery. They were very tame and allowed close approach. Egyptian Geese have been introduced from Africa and now form a feral population all across Europe and even in some parts of the United States.

The geese paid very little attention to us.

North American Lifer #557

Friday, June 9, 2023 — 8:55 am

Benton County, AR — Charlie Craig State Fish Hatchery

There’s a resident population of Egyptian Geese that are spotted frequently around Rogers, Arkansas. I drove over in March to look for them but missed them on that visit. This time I was successful. There were five of them standing on the berm between hatchery ponds, near a flock of Canada Geese. As I approached, they walked down into the water and swam about in the middle of the pond.

They aren’t officially accepted here as a fully naturalized species, but eBird lists them as provisional, which means they are “breeding in the wild, self-propagating, and have persisted for multiple years but are not yet naturalized.” All that means that when Arkansas agrees that they have officially become a resident species, so will eBird. They show up on my official eBird totals, so I’m recording it here. (They aren’t native to Germany either but are considered naturalized there.) This is the first bird on my list that I saw first in Europe and then saw in North America.

dendrocopos (from dendron, tree, and kopos, striking) major (greater)

Sunday, April 21, 2019 — 10:57 am

Boblingen, Germany — hiking trails through the woods along the Panzerstrasse

The Great Spotted Woodpecker very much has the vibe of a Hairy Woodpecker. It’s about the same size and has the same sturdy bill. I spotted two of them in the woods along the trail, and four days later, when I went back to the same area, I spotted two more. My guess is that I saw the same pair both times. The key marks are the red on the lower belly, the large white shoulder patch, and the black line that extends from the base of the bill to the black stripe up the back of the neck. The one in the photo is a female — it lacks the small red patch on the nape.

I certainly wasn’t looking for butterflies, but this one was so cooperative that I took it’s photo and identified it later. It’s a European Peacock.

picus (king of Latium, who married the beautiful nymph and songstress Canens and was changed into a woodpecker by the spiteful Circe, whose affections he had spurned) canus (gray)

Sunday, April 21, 2019 — 10:50 am

Boblingen, Germany — hiking trails through the woods along the Panzerstrasse

I located this woodpecker by its calls and drumming high up in a tree in an open section of woods. The calls sounded somewhat like those of a Pileated Woodpecker, but faster and higher pitched. For the 10 minutes or so that I observed it, it always stayed in the shade, making it hard to pick out details both with binoculars and with my camera. But I managed to see enough to identify it. Its back was very much the same color as that of the Green Woodpecker, but the head and underparts were pale gray, and the head only had two thin black markings and a small red cap.

coccothraustes coccothraustes (from kokkos, seed, and thrauo, to break,
to shatter)

Sunday, April 21, 2019 — 10:05 am

Boblingen, Germany — hiking trails through the woods along the Panzerstrasse

Panzerstrasse is a busy road. A bike path runs alongside it, and I had to walk along the bike path to get to the trails through the woods. I noticed two birds flying above the trees and thought at first glance that they might be Starlings because of their short tails and triangular wings. I managed to follow their flight until they landed in the very top of a tall tree some ways into the woods across the road. Through all the intervening branches, I managed these photos.

I did not identify them as Hawfinches based on these photos alone. Twice more during the same morning I spotted them high in the trees in the same general area. I got good looks, although they never stayed in one place for more than a few seconds.

One of my field guides says, “Very wary and shy and difficult to observe, spends most time up in canopy or seen flying fast high up between woodland-edge trees.” That was exactly my experience. It may help you figure out what’s going on the photo when you compare it to the picture in the field guide, in which the bird is perched almost the exact same way. You can make out the giant head and bill and the black chin patch, as well as the pale tawny breast.

myodes glareolus

Sunday, April 21, 2019 — 9:46 am

Boblingen, Germany — hiking trails through the woods along the Panzerstrasse

As I strolled through the woods near the Panzer Kaserne Barracks, I kept hearing rustling noises from either side of the path. I knew right away it wasn’t birds. I thought perhaps it might be lizards because we saw several on our hike up Rubble Hill a few days before.

I finally decided to track down what it was. It wasn’t hard. Wherever there was leaf litter on the ground, there was a colony of voles scurrying about. And they weren’t particularly hard to find once I figured out what I was looking in for.

The chief identification characteristic is the red back and gray sides. In the patch of leaves where I took these photos, which was maybe 20 feet by 20 feet, there must have been six or seven of them popping in and out of their holes.