
Wordless Wednesday
3 ducks, 3 ducks, 3 herons. The herons were the catalyst for this small series. I didn’t even see them on the other side of the lake until I had the photo on my pc screen. And then, of course, there were ducks. Thursday Trios … Continue reading Three Chilly Bird Trios
Looking up into the trees. No leaves but … a kestrel perhaps. And surprise – a stork which hasn’t left for the south. Actually, we saw three in different nests. And here the foreigners amongst the local birdlife: ringnecked parakeets. Looks like I wasn’t the … Continue reading The Sky Above and the Camera Below
“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan Wednesday Quotes #185: Confidence
Leanne has asked me to pick a topic for her Monochrome Madness challenge. I decided that birds would be a good idea. I don’t have many bird photos but the good ones are amongst my private favourites. I usually wish that I had a better … Continue reading One for the Birds
Three storks Three waterfowls Three ducks Thursday Trios
When I looked at older Weekly Prompts I was delighted to see the name of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. He is definitely the master of aphorisms and I love paging through his collected “thought snippets” as he liked to call them.
It’s an added bonus that Lichtenberg comes from our area. He was born in Ober-Ramstadt in 1742, in the Odenwald near Darmstadt. The school our sons attended for a few years was named after him.
He had this to say about birds (or was it humans?):
“Die buntesten Vögel singen am schlechtesten. Das gilt auch bei den Menschen.”
I couldn’t find a translation into English, so here is my attempt:
“The most colourful birds are the worst singers. That also holds true for humans.”

In summer this is the beach of the local lake, busy with children of all ages, splashing in the water, laying in the sun, building sand castles, playing ball and generally enjoying themselves, joyously and usually noisily. In winter it’s quiet and there are different folks frequenting the water and the beach: geese and coots and ducks and swans and cormorants. They seem to be enjoying themselves just as much as the summer visitors.