I always take a walk around the area my office is in during my lunch break. There is a cemetery not far away that borders a forest and I always go there to watch birds. Today, however, I barely managed to see any birds and was about to head back to the office. Suddenly I heard a call that was unfamiliar to me so I used Merlin's Bird ID to help me — and it turns out to have been a Crested Tit (Haubenmeise)!

After some waiting around at a tree, I finally managed to see it briefly! Such adorable birds and also a new lifer for me! Not the best of photos but I am really happy to have finally seen one!

I am looking for some old school horror and (murder) mystery books and stories like the ones by Lovecraft, Sherlock Holmes, Scarhaven Keep, The Beetle, The House on the Borderland, Dracula.

Anyone have some recommendations?

A Eurasian Wren being true to his German name "Fence King" (Zaunkönig) and sitting on a wooden fence post while singing his signature and very loud song.

I love these guys, definitely one of my favourite corvids around here! Their calls are adorable and their eyes are really cool-looking too!

It seems like our birding community here has reached 1 thousand subscribers! I am very glad that there's this many birding enthusiasts here on Lemmy already :-)

I just want to take this time to welcome everyone to this community (do you still say "sub" even here on Lemmy?) and hope you enjoy your time here :-) Been seeing a lot of interesting bird posts here lately already.

Now, this is the first time I've ever moderated a community like this so I've no idea if there's anything that's missing. If you have any suggestions, feel free to tell me!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/898585

> I haven't had my own bicycle in quite a while even though I used to ride one every day until I moved to the city. So when I saw that DB (Deutsche Bahn, one of Germany's train operators) offers a subscription in partnership with Brompton, I decided to try it out! > > It's an annual subscription costing €41 a month that also includes insurance and an optional check-up after half a year. At the end of the subscription, you can choose to buy your own and get 50% of the total amount you paid for the subscription as a discount for your own Brompton (so around €250). > > I've been meaning to get a foldable bicycle for quite a while now since my workplace is a bit further away and getting there requires me to take the train. Regular bicycles cannot be taken on to the train for free (or at all if there's no more space available). > > I've tried it for a couple of days now and am really impressed! When folded, it's really tiny and you can take it with you basically anywhere you go (which also makes it being stolen much less likely). The ride is much smoother than I had expected and so is the handling. Despite having such small wheels, riding it is absolutely no problem for me and I can easily reach average speeds of 20 km/h. > > It's definitely been a good decision and I am almost definitely going to buy my own Brompton using the provided discount in a year.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/898585

> I haven't had my own bicycle in quite a while even though I used to ride one every day until I moved to the city. So when I saw that DB (Deutsche Bahn, one of Germany's train operators) offers a subscription in partnership with Brompton, I decided to try it out! > > It's an annual subscription costing €41 a month that also includes insurance and an optional check-up after half a year. At the end of the subscription, you can choose to buy your own and get 50% of the total amount you paid for the subscription as a discount for your own Brompton (so around €250). > > I've been meaning to get a foldable bicycle for quite a while now since my workplace is a bit further away and getting there requires me to take the train. Regular bicycles cannot be taken on to the train for free (or at all if there's no more space available). > > I've tried it for a couple of days now and am really impressed! When folded, it's really tiny and you can take it with you basically anywhere you go (which also makes it being stolen much less likely). The ride is much smoother than I had expected and so is the handling. Despite having such small wheels, riding it is absolutely no problem for me and I can easily reach average speeds of 20 km/h. > > It's definitely been a good decision and I am almost definitely going to buy my own Brompton using the provided discount in a year.

I haven't had my own bicycle in quite a while even though I used to ride one every day until I moved to the city. So when I saw that DB (Deutsche Bahn, one of Germany's train operators) offers a subscription in partnership with Brompton, I decided to try it out!

It's an annual subscription costing €41 a month that also includes insurance and an optional check-up after half a year. At the end of the subscription, you can choose to buy your own and get 50% of the total amount you paid for the subscription as a discount for your own Brompton (so around €250).

I've been meaning to get a foldable bicycle for quite a while now since my workplace is a bit further away and getting there requires me to take the train. Regular bicycles cannot be taken on to the train for free (or at all if there's no more space available).

I've tried it for a couple of days now and am really impressed! When folded, it's really tiny and you can take it with you basically anywhere you go (which also makes it being stolen much less likely). The ride is much smoother than I had expected and so is the handling. Despite having such small wheels, riding it is absolutely no problem for me and I can easily reach average speeds of 20 km/h.

It's definitely been a good decision and I am almost definitely going to buy my own Brompton using the provided discount in a year.

A corvid I don't see all too frequently around here, the Rook! Though when I do see them, they tend to be foraging with their buddies, the Jackdaws.

They look like slightly bigger crows with a more nasal-y call and a completely different beak. Though their young look almost exactly like Carrion Crows.

I finally managed to see a Little Ringed Plover (Flussregenpfeifer, lit. “River Rain Whistler) from up close! They’re so tiny and adorable, I love them! :-)

Got really discouraged because I barely saw anything in the nature reserve today but he really brightened my day. Thank you Plover!

Cormorant standing on a log in the water drying his wings after a short dive.

I really love this shot simply because of the nice frame that the surrounding trees provided!

I saw this adorable swift baby looking out of its nest today. Never seen one that wasn't flying so this was a great sighting! :-)

There is (fittingly enough) an old barn not too far away from where I live with lots of Barn Swallows nesting inside of it. Always lovely going there and seeing them fly about :-)

I finally saw a Common Firecrest from up close and even managed to take a photo! I was so excited to finally see one, such cute little birds! One of the smallest in Europe even. Their German name (Sommergoldhähnchen) is also great, it translates to “Summer Gold Chicken".

They were one of the birds that could have been German Bird Of The Year 2023, but unfortunately they lost against the whinchat. Such lovely colours though!

I posted some chicks earlier, so here's an adult from a few months ago when they were still a bit friendlier. Right now they're much more secretive because they have to take care of the chicks.

The moorhens have finally gotten some chicks — the chicks themselves don't seem too happy, though!

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.

I‘m relatively new to birding and don’t have a car (or a driving license) so my lifer count isn’t all that high yet.

I started almost exactly a year ago (around the end of June 2022) and am now at just under 110 lifers. Most of these were seen around my neighborhood or in nearby towns. There’s a few nice nature reserves that are somewhat easy to reach by train, bus and bicycle and I’m intending on going there a bit more frequently once I get my new bike!

How about you? Oh and I’m from Bielefeld, a city in North-Western Germany.