Illmitz

We got up early despite the vastly indulgent evening and set off to do some birdwatching around the marina and the area nearby. We parked our car and wandered about. It was lovely and quiet and we had some good sightings of the usual suspects round a lake. There were many birds a long way away, and some nice sightings of ducks and ducklings and geese and goslings. We then went to St martins spa to meet up with the seewinkel guide to be given a private bird watching tour. We had a very acceptable lunch and relaxed until two when our tour began. Our guide was called Ronald and he took us in a brand new discovery jeep to various points to see the birds. Highlights were a male great bustard still with breeding plumage strutting his stuff around a meadow whilst the female played hard to get, both to him and our binoculars.
We saw grey partridge and pheasants.
The Pygmy cormorant was a first for us as well
The inevitable stork and western marsh harriers were in evidence everywhere. Also buzzards and kestrel were plentiful. We spotted a pied avocet on the wing and many northern lapwing.
There were Eurasian curlew in the field where the bustards were and we also saw the common cuckoo.
Another highlight was the long eared owl chick.
The Eurasian sky lark was everywhere and we more unusual western yellow wagtail as well as the common white wagtail. We saw some other common birds, stonechat, great reed warbler, common chiffchaff, red backed shrike, carrion crow, Eurasian tree sparrow,common chaffinch, corn bunting, yellow hammer, and icterine warbler.
We had supper at the summer kitchen and then joined the dinner guests having the special meal at the hotel. It ended with a discussion about politics.Read more