On a short trip to Germany, I found myself in Offenbach am Main, and of course I just had to make some time to do a little birding. My time was limited, an hour at most but it would have to do.
From my hotel room I could see lots of Pigeons and Crows, but one bird, having a drink of water on a nearby rooftop, caught my eyes. It’s striking black and white with shimmering green-blue colors coming through with the early morning sunlight. I had not seen this bird before and a quick search identified it as an Eurasian Magpie. One for my lifers list, without having left my hotel room.
Along the river banks I could hear a lot of bird chatter, the Eurasian Blackbird made an appearance as did the Great Tit, further along a few European Robins foraged around.
Right on the waters edge were a few Egyptian Goose, with a warm mix of brown, chestnut, grey, and cream, bold dark eye patches that look like eyeliner, and a distinctive brown chest patch. Another lifer for me.
Canadian Goose swam in the river, Cormorants sat high up on lighting structures over the river pruning themselves and no doubt keeping an eye on the water below for a meal..
The European Goldfinch was another lifer for me, and not easy to spot as they seemed to prefer staying high up in the trees making it challenging to get photos.
Although my birding walk was short, I still managed to see three species that I had not encountered before, this to me was a successful birding adventure.
I did miss out on seeing a pair of nesting Common Kingfishers that someone told me about, but these were much further up the river than I had time for.
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