Within the last weeks we went to an area called “Geiseltal”
near Merseburg (FRG).
It was a brown coal pit till 1994. Now the area will be changed to
a immense water landscpae for all kinds of sports.
Some animals which life there today would disappear.
One of the fine species there are the Bee-Eaters Merops apiaster.
There´s a breeding colony and at the last times we saw up to 60 birds…

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© Pictures by Marcus Held

On spring 2008 the ornithologist Reinhold Brennecke (Haldensleben, near Magdeburg, FRGermany)
told me about a Corn Bunting Emberiza calandra he watched for 3 years, which singing like
a Yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella. At the Forum of “Verein Sächsischer Ornithlogen” (VSO) i read
a report about the same topic. On early summer i visit the described place and had the luck to see and
hear the bird. Actually it was a Corn Bunting (on Dick Forsman´s homepage i read 1 month ago about nearly
grey Yellowhammers!)
While our SINGWARTE camp in July 2008 Marcus Held and i went out to record the singer.
The bird sang 2 different kinds of songs. A nearly equal Yellowhammer and a mixed
Yellowhammer/Corn Bunting song. The mixed one starts with Corn Bunting like short single sounds,
followed by a Yellowhammer part (typical first part double sounds in Yellowhammer song). The song
of our Corn Bunting ends with the typical short Corn Bunting sounds.

Corn Bunting, typical song

 

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Corn Bunting, atypical song – mixed one

 

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Corn Bunting, atypical song – nearly equal to Yellowhammer

 

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Yellowhammer, typical song

 

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End of July 2008 i visited the Drömling, a great area of grass- and moorland northerly
between Braunschweig and Magdeburg (FRGermany).
At the fields i recorded the Common Quail Coturnix coturnix and at a homestead 4
Barn Swallow´s Hirundo rustica singing (Passer montanus in background).

Quail Coturnix coturnix
 

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Barn SwallowHirundo rustica
 

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At times i am birding at a park (formely grassland and then brown coal pit) in Leipzig (FRGermany) called Halde-Lösnig-Dösen. On 2008, 12th July´s morning i encountered a family of Golden Orioles Oriolus oriolus.

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Meanwhile waiting for the call of Eurasian Bittern Botaurus stellaris a Roe Deer Capreolus capreolus
came closer and called “alarm” as it noted us… Nearby a Nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos.

22 June 2008, Schladebach near Merseburg, Sachsen-Anhalt (FRGermany), 11pm
 

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