biodiversity day (GEO-Tag der Artenvielfalt)

(here’s the conclusion to “flying rats with radar”.)

i got up at 6 am on saturday (yes, SATURDAY! 6 AM!), because there was an ornithologic (=bird-) field trip that i wanted to attend.
although i talked to the nice lady who runs pension falkeis and told her that i’d just need some tea and a cup of cereal, she prepared a whole table full of yummy breakfast-stuff. unfortunately i couldn’t even *sample* all of it because of temporal issues and instantaneous satiety…

 
equipped with some binoculars (i could borrow one), we hiked (or actually, promenaded) up to the mountain pasture called aifner alm (1980m), and the two experts explained a lot to us amateurs.
we encountered several bird species, even though we were kind-of late already, having left at 7 am.

this was the first time i actually saw a living bullfinch (pyrrhula pyrrhula, gimpel) and a black woodpecker (dryocopus martius, schwarzspecht)!

the scenery up there is gorgeous! little weathered sheds every now and then, hilly meadows with wild orchids and globe flowers, …
 

for the rest of the day, i joined toni again, looking for bats in some of the sheds, old trees and a cave. we also talked to some of the scientists we met on the way – inspiring! those people just bubble with information (including lots of background-information that you won’t find anywhere else) :grin:
 

at the final event+dinner i unexpectedly met several friends&acquaintances: silvia hirsch and wolfgang auer (the leaders of a butterfly-workshop 6 years ago), barbara, andi and erich (from blattform) and peter pfister.
 

can’t wait for next year’s GEO-Tag der Artenvielfalt!

[view photos: biodiversity day, kaunerberg]

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