I did put together a gallery of photos that I shot at the Schellbruch, I noticed many birds showed flocking or swarm behaviour and I want to show you the photos. It was pretty interesting to see all the birds, and to hear them, in flocks they are quite loud, it’s really a nature spectacle and I enjoyed this much.
When I was there, I met a nature park ranger who was counting the birds, I am sad that I didn’t ask how he is doing it, but while we talked about other things, he was often looking through his field-glass, I assume he knows how to estimate the amount of birds.
He saw me with my camera and asked me if I did already take some great photos, after telling him that I still have a hard time to get close enough to the birds as I have no tele lens, it turned out he is photographer as well and we started to talk about photography.
I told him that I just started out with DSLR photography, and that it will take me some time to get additional gear. I noticed he knows his stuff, not only about birds, but also about photography, he told me about good lenses for “birding” and what to expect.
He also said that it shouldn’t demotivate me if I don’t own specialized gear yet, everyone started out, it took him some time too to accumulate gear. He seemed to be in his 60’s, he knew every name of the birds that flew over our heads, he seemed passionate about this.
He also explained me some nifty tricks about my D7100. While he talked to me, it surprised me that he had the whole menu structure and buttons of Nikon cameras memorized, that’s why I said he must know a lot, definitely a lot more than I know yet.
I am not that far that I know every shutter speed settings for different situations, it’s still confusing me, but he motivated me again and said that this will take time too, but like with other things we learn, our brain will memorize all this like the alphabet at some point.
I hope I meet this guy again on my next hike through this area, it was fun to talk with this person, also I wish I would have asked some questions about the area and all the birds. It’s said that there are over 200 different bird species, and on my way back, I wondered if he could have given me information’s, because I didn’t find a list in the internet.
Enough said, I think I should show you my bird flock photos now. Of course, I had to resize the images to save space on my blog, it’s sad because you see more details with the high-res photos, but I still think that you can get an impression of the amount of birds!
One more thing, bird migration is starting and many birds will fly away soon, and the ranger told me that this is why it’s a perfect time to see the flocking behaviour of the birds now. Most birds you see in the photos are grey geese, I assume not all, but most of them.
Diary of Dennis 
It sounds as if you should do a few more hikes to the Schellbruch before the winter sets in both to see the birds and to see if you can meet up with the ranger again. He sounds like a man who has found his perfect job, lucky person. I am sure you can learn a lot more if you chance to meet him again. At least he can probably tell you where to research information about the birds. There certainly was a lot of bird activity the day you were there. It’s interesting to see how they fly in formation.
True, I think once you studied all the birds and plants, this is probably one of the more fun jobs. Beeing outside and observing plants and animals, that sounds like a really good job 🙂
I currently still have a huge backlog of photos that I didn’t upload yet, I am not that fast at the moment as I started to play more PC games (like every autumn), but I was wondering too if I should go there again, I might do this, but I definitely want go there in winter too to take photos of the winter landscape.
Those look like migrating geese to me. Do your geese migrate south in the winter? Many of our do, though many now winter up north instead of migrating. But they always fly in the V formation. Great pix!
The ranger I met said it would now be the perfect time to see them in masses in our natural reserve, that’s when I shot the photos… I believe he said they would migrate south soon, but I am not sure anymore as we talked about a lot of topics, including a lot of other birds, and photography, all that in a short time.
But I did a little research about our Northern European geese and what you said seems to apply here too, although I find mixex articles. According to the German Wikipedia entry, the geese from the North- and East Sea would migrate to the eastern coast of Iberia, the coast of Algeria and Tunisia, and the Adriatic Sea. But as in your case of staying geese, some of our geese do now even stay at the German North Sea too. I found other articles that had mixed answers and that state things like: They are very capable of adapting, that the northern geese can also stay over winter, the migration route is not fix, climate change could be the reason… a lot of inconsistent information’s anyhow.
I must admit, these are the questions I would have liked to ask the park ranger, but as often, the best questions come to mind when it’s already too late, but who knows, maybe I’ll meet him again on my next hike. I’d like to learn more, that’s another great aspect of photography 🙂