German Birds

So, I was pretty lazy on the birding front while I was in Germany.  At first, I really concentrated on my language studies.  When I went birding, I felt like I didn't have any room in my brain to memorize bird species.  But then I got the itch my last weekend there, and I birded that Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

While I stayed local on that Friday, on both Saturday and Sunday I did some traveling.  Each day I took the train between 12-20km away, and then biked to the birding locations.  When I was done I biked home to save on train fare.  I was riding an old, undersized, women's bike without gears.

Saturday was my best birding day, in no small part because I ran into some other birders.  A guy gave me all the bird-names (in German) of the birds that we were seeing, which helped me ID the birds that I wasn't certain about.

My favorite birds were the Northern Lapwings.  I got to see about 40 of them fly into a pond on Saturday, making a bunch of noise.  Other favorites were Fieldfare, Red Kite, White-throated Dipper, and Common Kingfisher (the German name translates appropriately as "Ice Bird").

Full List Below (40 Species):

Graylag Goose
Canada Goose
Mute Swan
Egyptian Goose
Mallard
Green-winged Teal
Tufted Duck
Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Great Cormorant
Gray Heron
Osprey
Red Kite
Common Buzzard
Eurasian Moorhen
Eurasian Coot
Northern Lapwing
Common Ringed Plover
Common Snipe
Common Kingfisher
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Green Woodpecker
Eurasian Kestrel
Merlin
Eurasian Jay
Eurasian Magpie
Barn Swallow
Marsh Tit
Great Tit
Eurasian Blue Tit
Eurasian Nuthatch
Short-toed Treecreeper
Eurasian Wren
White-throated Dipper
Eurasian Blackbird
Fieldfare
Western Yellow Wagtail
White Wagtail
Common Chaffinch
European Goldfinch