Counting

Yes, again, like each and every year since 2005, I counted the waterfowl on two rivers in my country. The instructions said that we should have been there at 7 am but my experience shows that an hour later is just fine. It is too dark to see black dippers standing on rocks too early in the morning although the white patch on their neck usually betrays them to a skilled birdwatcher.

International Waterfowl Count

My salvation for few moments from deep snow.

It must be pleasant here in summer.

There were 13 dippers on my list this year, which is a record. Most likely I missed some of them because I had to watch my step and also snow on the trees prevented me to see the opposite river bank well. For the first time I was able to spot the kingfisher there and I found out that trudging through knee deep snow was not so tiring after all. I needed four hours for my

Knee deep snow - you can imagine that it lasted me long to walk just this far.

A dipper!

Green and cold.

The scariest part of my path. I ran until the end of it. The train came only a minute after.

section which is about 3,5 km long. Going back to the car by plowed country road, which lasted less than an hour, was like a pleasant afternoon walk.

Day two was as always a bit boring. Well, actually it is far from boring if sun shines. This year I caught cold just a day after the count...