Planned: The full moon, a photo visit to Olympiastadion, a couple of gallery visits, a daytrip back to Nienhagen and Gespensterwald because I have an idea for the webinar with Blende2-Hamburg, birdwatching with another of Berlin’s excellent ornithologists – Benedikt Jackowski, and other events found in Umweltkalender Berlin, “Every month on the 9th” with Christine Kuhnert, NABU Spandau – finally – the weather was too awful in January and February, plus a VHS and an Artistravel course.
A visit to Olympiastadion 3 March:
A walk along Landwehrkanal – saw a couple of pochards – for me, a first at Urbanhafen.
Back to Nienhagen 6 March:
Birdwatching walk on Tempelhofer Feld, led by Benedikt Jackowski, Freilandlabor Britz, 7 March. Benedikt Jackowski’s infectious enthusiasm and enormous knowledge always makes these walks among the most informative birdwatching events I ever attend. We saw many different birds, all too far away to be photographed, except the Kestrels which seem to be quite used to having an audience.
Here is another of Benedikt’s highly recommended tours taking place this month.
Depressingly, I also got many new “trophies” for this series.
“Every month on the ninth” with Christine Kuhnert, NABU Spandau:
Among the many birds we saw were geese in flight, a couple of starlings securing the next generation, a volery, or zephyr, of long-tailed tits passing through, several eichelhäher, and a couple of wood larks, one very high up in the sky. A lovely walk in great weather – March in Berlin at its best.
Swung by my local cemetery on 12 March:
Went hunting for more photos of garbage in trees for an idea I have for a collage. Afterwards, swung by the cemeteries at Südstern. Being out in nature, and especially focusing on photography is a good distraction from the two bloodthirsty, murderous, maniacal countries who indiscriminately kill innocent civilians and are literally trying to provoke armageddong. It is all to awful for words, and I will do my best to never dignify those countries by ever mentioning their names here again. Ever.
And they are not only committing crimes against humanity – they are deliberately putting the already catastrophic climate crisis on steroids. So let’s enjoy nature while it is still there.
Talking about nature, this being Berlin, where nobody gives a sh.. about nature or the environment, any more than the Amer…… (oops, I promised not mention that country ever again), and everybody is more in love with those stupid balloons – it took me less than 15 minutes to find and photograph these six:
Finally went back to Naturpark Johannisthal, formerly Johannisthal Airfield – Berlin’s first commercial airport. It is wonderful nature protection area but sadly with no traces of its interesting history.
18 April walk around Stralau Peninsular and down Rummelsburger Bucht in glorious weather on my way to a “Berliner Morgenpost Monatsmenu” (almost always great value for money) with my two foodie friends in Hafenküche.
Some diptychs and a collage, playing around for a webinar course assignment
Birdwtching walk with VHS/Bernd Streinbrecher along Müggelsee 21 March
It was colder and foggier than the forecast had promised, and we did not see as many birds as normally in the area and light conditions were poor, so the photos are not great, though a couple of them “atmospheric”, thanks to the mist :-).
Once back nearer to home, the mist had lifted so I swung by my local cemetery and did not regret it. A Green Woodpecker/Grünspecht suddenly appeared. It had been on my bucket list for years. I had never seen one on that cemetery, and there it sat, in the sun, for quite a while. I also saw, for the first time there, a swarm of Longtailed Tit/Schwanzmeisen, and two buzzards did a lengthy flyover. I was a happy hobby photographer :-).
Birdwatching walk in Britzer Garten with Bernd Steinbrecher, this time on behalf of Freilandlabor Britz. Not that many birds, and therefore not that many photos either. Swung by Heidefriedhof Mariendorf on the way back and found an Eichelhäher snoozing on a bench.
Early-morning trip to Moorlinse Buch 23 March. The usual suspects on the water. This is a regular pitstop for migrating geese but there was no signs of the usual swarms coming in or out and nothing much else going on around the zigzag graben either. Did see a couple of long-tailed tits towards the end of the walk.
Kites are one thing – I guess it would not make sense to forbid them, but people could be a bit more careful and not get too close to trees. But I guess that would mean switching on your brain, which seems to have gone out of fashion. But those stupid balloons should be banned. It seems that here in Berlin, nothing can be celebrated, even among adults, without balloons which are subsequently released to end up in nature, some even in waterways. And they are made of a material that never goes away. Only five of the photos in the above collage were NOT taken during this month of March 2026 (I just needed the older ones in order to make an uneven number of rows – a rule of composition if I am not mistaken, and it does look better, for some reason :-)).
In the morning of 27 March I went to Parkfriedhof Neukölln, next to Britzer Garten – long on my bucket list since I have always noticed lots of birdsong on that side of the fence whenever I have been in Britzer Garten. Idiotically, I did not take my longest lense, so did not get any good photos. One bird I saw, I thought was a Hawfinch/Kernbeißer/kernebider but Merlin said Bullfinch/Gimpel/dompap. Also witnessed the usual drama Crow vs. Buzzard which almost always ends with the Buzzard being escorted to the nearest exit. Quite pathetic, really.
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Bonus tip: Looking for brunch on the way home, I came across Lemontree Café about five minutes walk from U Mariendorf. They don’t seem to have much internet presence. It is quite a nice place for breakfast with a good choice of different types of, also cooked, breakfast food. I had the acai energy bowl which was delicious and the capuccino was also good. It was very busy when I arrived (around 10.30 on a Friday, so it took a long time to get served (and also to pay afterwards) and the staff seemed a little bit stressed. My guess is that mid-morning is always a busy time there, but as long as you are not in hurry, that does not really matter.
Later, on my local cemetery:
On 28 March another great three-hour walk with Frank Wissing, NABU Mitte, in the area of Tiergarten adjoining the zoo, starting at the end of Hardenbergplatz.
I was only able to photograph a fraction of the birds that we saw.
In the evening of 30 March, the Starlings were restless:
