The Birds

It has been a day of birds.

We started out for a walk at Schierstein and G found a Swift on the ground. Being on the ground is never good news for Swifts. It was trying and failing to take off - it just didn't get enough of the ground. So G nipped in and scooped the little blighter up. Obviously this is not an everyday occurrence in the life of Swifts and the poor thing was gripping one of G's fingers quite hard. G took it up a flight of stairs at a handily placed restaurant and let it go.

I am delighted to say it did not plummet to the ground. It had the time to get some power into its wings and it flew off. I'm not sure which of them was happiest. I did think about Blipping it but I'm much happier that I didn't and it flew off.

So then we took a walk along to see how the Storks were getting on. I can report that they are doing just fine thank you. I took a few shots of them on the nest and from looking at them in close up, there are Storklets in Schierstein. Unfortunately, the pictures are just too pixellated to make it on here. Still it was jolly exciting in a Springwatch sort of way.

We also found a couple of Parakeet nests, one with chicks in (or at least a nest that has a bird with a poo problem - if the streaks of white down the tree are anything to go by). That was quite something too because as we were standing there watching, there was a lot of Parakeet screeching in the trees around us - perhaps they were trying to warn us off.

And then to top off the trip out, as we were walking back through the harbour we saw a Cormorant on the water. Not so uncommon I know, but this one dived and we could see it swimming underwater. I've never seen that before.

Oh and it is very hot. 32 degrees. I know that's nothing compared to some parts of the world but to me, it's roasting.