Walks with my walker

Since our new passports arrived earlier this week we decided to go looking for bee eaters at a new (to us) site.

Birding Hotspots : 43 Routen rund um den Neusiedler See lists three places. The first one we know, and getting there with the walker is just too hard. The other two are both in Hungary. The book doesn't mention difficulties for those using walkers, but one of the descriptions didn't sound promising. But the other... (This is route 37 in the book.)

So we drove to the other side of the lake than where we usually go birding, and fairly easily found the border crossing and the big parking lot. Down the road a piece, the place where we thought we ought to be turning in had been dug up and didn't look very passible.

We continued on down the 'main' road. The two lanes between the white lines were in need of new surface, but were at least there. The shoulders had at one time been asphalted, but were not passible with the walker. In spite of the holiday, there was a fair amount of traffic, but the cars had to go around me.

It was a relief to get to the second turn in. Yes, the previous place was what we had wanted, but this would do. We turned onto a well kept dirt road. Soon afterwards we saw a stork in the field. It had found a big green lizard, and we watched as it threw the lizard around, caught it again and again, and finally swallowed it. It made you feel a bit sorry for the lizard. But we had never seen this before.

Eventually we got to the turn for the sand banks. The new dirt road was somewhat overgrown, but seemed passible at this end. We saw a turnoff marked on the map, but not highlighted, so continued to find the highlighted place. The only places we saw were not suitable for me. Eventually we saw the torn up bit near the road. Jerry decided to check out the places I couldn't get to. I went back to the turnoff, and followed an even less used path. A few challenging bits, but I fairly quickly was close enough to see the banks with my binoculars. Yes, bee eater holes, but no bee eaters. No sign of Jerry either.

We will gloss over my stupidity in trying to follow a possible path up the hill when I knew nothing came out to the other path. Soon I was in trouble. I knew I couldn't get back down the way I went up, but there was no good way forward either. I managed to force my way through to the path and sat down. Eventually Jerry found me and we decided to chance the bad section out to the road and back to the car.

The stork was a real high, but the rest of the walk was a washout. Question: Are the birds gone from there, or is it too early for them this year? We decided to pass on the remainder of the route, but to head into Mörbisch.

In Mörbisch is route 36 in the book. We found the parking area and headed out along the reeds at the edge of Lake Neusiedl. We had already noticed. This side has geese, too. The goslings have gotten a lot bigger than they were 2-3 weeks ago in Illmitz.

The paved field road soon gave way to dirt. Yesterdays rain filled many parts of the ruts, but usually it was possible to get through with dry shoes if not always dry wheels. The lake to our right was invisible behind the reeds, only occaisional canals gave us views of water. We could hear the reed dwellers, though. A patch of water to our left held geese (duh!) and avocats, and other smaller water birds. We watched them for as long as our noses could stand. This was not clean water! Another similar area had fewer birds, and Jerry's camera went on strike. He was not able to fix the problem, and we continued around and back towards the car. The return path was a paved bicycle path. Easy for me, we just needed to listen for cyclists behind us. At this point we were further back from the reeds, and could watch the Rohrweiher (Western Marsh Harriers, fairly large raptors) flying above the lake edges. I think the cyclists all missed those, though some of them stopped at a field full of geese. In one field there was a large bird standing very still with its beak high in the air. Then I took my eyes away from the binoculars for a moment and it was gone. This was a Purple Heron, and a new bird for me. A lovely sight. None of the pictures I saw online showed the beak straight up the way this one was standing. It would have been very good camouflage in the reeds. Less so in a grassy field.

Just before we got back to the car we passed a small wooded area that we had also passed going out. There were several birds singing in there, but no chance at seeing them.

I think we will try this again. It was an easy walk with good chances at seeing the same birds we know from Seewinkel.

We are on a short break in the south of Austria. I love falconry shows, so we went to the one at Landskron. This was shorter than some we've been to, but the scenery is amazing - the eagles seem to fit here. There was also some interaction with wild birds. A buzzard objected to the eagle getting close to his nest. A Wagtail came in to investigate the little pool. A black stork flew past.

And they finished with an exciting money raiser for their work with injured birds.



If you decide to do this and need a walker or similar, the parking spots after the castle gate are much flater, and would make unloading and reloading a lot easier. The arena is at the top of the ruin. It is steep in places, but otherwise quite passible. The birds can be seen in their cages on the way after the ticket booth.

BTW For holding the kestril they wanted a donation of at least €2. I was not posing, I totally ignored anything else as long as "Jerry" was on my hand.

>3 MarthaJeanne: That's thrilling. And who named him "Jerry"?

They did, not me.

>1 MarthaJeanne: A few weeks later there is no stork, but the bee eaters are there. We saw several dozen flying around. Besides the cliff I saw their holes in, there seem to be other close by colonies. I stupidly forgot to take my binoculars, but still enjoyed myself.

We didn't park at the parking lot, but at the side of the tractor road going in. This saved a lot of difficult walking. The one spot that was hard going in turned out to me much easier going down. We were gone from the car only about an hour, but enjoyed the walk and the birds. Jerry got a good chance to try out his new telephoto, and is now up seeing if any of the pictures meet his standards.



This is just a shot of the wild flowers beside the path. The far left poppy has a tiny grasshopper on it, but it is too small for my iPad to catch.

One of our favourite short trips is to the Schlossinsel in Orth. The snakes were very active yesterday. One of them caught a frog - and lost it again. This little fellow just stuck his head out.



There were five or six snakes around as well as a slowworm. A ranger pointed out that the slowworm has eyelids and can blink, which snakes don't.

They usually have something dead on exhibit, slowly being taken apart by maggots, etc. Yesterday was a large fish. Not for long, the thing was moving with the work of the insects. And if they don't hurry, the whole thing will have to be taken away before they finish. It had rather a high odour. Small deer from road kill are the usuals. They can get pretty smelly, but this was in a whole different class.

There are also turtles, and an underwater fish observation area.

Right around the corner is Gasthaus Binder which serves very good fish, and also has chestnut/nut crepes on the menu. We skipped the farmer's shop we usually visit in Mannsdorf.

>6 MarthaJeanne: If you can't see the grasshopper, Here is Jerry's shot of that poppy:

https://www.jerrybarton.eu/Miscellaneous/DailyPicks/i-JcwRCsm

The same folder also has a picture of the stork with lizard I mentioned in >1 MarthaJeanne:

He's just put up several months worth of pictures.

Well, after all that effort to see bee eaters...

I had looked forward to the Schlosshof Gartentage. Always before I have come home with some sort of new plant that I was pleased about, whether it was the Szechuan Pepper from the herb garden stand, or just a few basic vegetables from the social project stand. Come to think of it, I didn't see either of them this year. Every year there have been fewer stands, and especially fewer stands with tempting plants.

Anyway, yesterday I was looking forward to it. The weather had turned at least dry. Our plan was for Jerry to leave me at Schlosshof and go off to try to photograph the storks that nest in the trees of a nature reserve in Marchegg. The best views of the storks are from the viewing platforms that are just too high for me to climb.

I had a year card, but that was no longer a way to avoid the ticket lines, as I need a special day pass each time now to be able to get in and out the handicapped/baby buggy gates. The guy behind the counter gave me a lot of grief about this, but finally I could go in.

Signs pointed to the Gartentage up at the palace instead of down at the home farm, which rather surprised me. Most of the stands were set up in the outer courtyard - tents on raised floors. So to see each stand it meant lifting the walker going a few meters, backing up, (all assuming there was nobody else in the narrow aisle) lifting down, then repeat for the second aisle of the stand. Things down low were very hard to see, too because of the narrow aisles. All this lifting gets very tiring, and of course there were also lots of cables with their protective humps. Ghastly to get over.

I was pleased to finally talk with one of the people who are growing oyster mushrooms in cellars on the coffee grounds they collect from cafes around the city. Their products taste really good, and I can get them at the greenhouse that uses fish to fertilize the vegetables. They started with fish that we don't really care for, but have since expanded to include salmon trout (?) which we do like. They also make a super ketchup which is in a spoonable jar. Anyway, one of their greenhouses has the fish tanks, and the fish water waters the veggies. In the meantime the various organic startups are selling each other's products.

But I was tired and found that I was so disappointed that I wasn't interested in visiting the four horned goats etc. The whole area is really large, and I realized that I just wasn't up to walking further than back out to the parking lot. As I left I tore up my year ticket and gave it to one of the attendants. This was supposed to be the highlight of this year's visits. We didn't make it to the Easter market, and Christmas had felt like I'd seen everything before. If I can't even shop at this, and the distances are getting too far for me, it's time to cross this off our list of outings.

Anyway, it was very early, but I called Jerry to say I would be at the parking lot reading. He was having his own problems. The March river was in flood, so he couldn't get where he wanted to be.

So he came back and picked me up. But at the exit from the parking lot he turned right. "I want to show you something." Just North of the palace complex is a site with a lot of earthmoving going on. And a colony of bee eaters has taken over some of the earth and sand banks for their homes! We were able to park at the entrance to the work site and just watch them swoop through the air catching insects. Lovely! And I did have my binoculars along.

We also stopped in Mannsdorf for various veggies and a duck breast that joined sausages on the grill for supper.

BTW we were also pleased to see that the abandoned railway line that parallels the road is now an asphalted bike and walking path. They were working on it last summer. Now it seems to be done, and being used.

Schlossinsel again today. Hot and humid. It seemed like the only critters moving about were the mosquitoes. (One shouldn't kill the wild animals in a national park, but I plead self defense.) We did see a new (to us) dragonfly, and Jerry got good pictures. Bear in mind that I really only saw the bottom of the wings, as it opened the wings only for very short times.

https://www.jerrybarton.eu/Miscellaneous/DailyPicks/i-cSpH39K/A and the next one, too.

>11 MarthaJeanne: Forgot to mention that we went to Rosenburg on Saturday for their 'Rosentage'. It's the first time we've been their with the roses in bloom, and they are spectacular.

However the falconry show was a disappointment. Not only have we seen it too often; not only did we miss the mountains and wild birds flying through from Landskron (and taking a selfie next to the guy holding the falcon isn't anywhere near being in the same class as holding the bird); but they have gone over to giving the commentary both in German and some slavic language AND the PA system wasn't working right. So if you really concentrated and happened to hit the German you might get 50-60% of the words - but probably not which sort of eagle is flying just now.

They aren't getting as many, or as interesting stands for their special days now. I left Jerry downstairs with my walker, and went up just with my cane. Pro: I got several things I'm happy about. Yes, including a gardening book. Contra: It was awfully hard to look at things with one hand stuck on the cane and no way to sit down. Walking the last bit back to the stairs I was very shakey and almost didn't make it. The stairs down were a bit better with a good banister to hold, but I was really shot.

We then headed to Schönberg for ostrich. (Freezer bag in the car with ice packs.) We got there during their lunch break. Hmm. Over an hour to wait. I tried Woll Land around the corner, which should have been open. But I know perfectly well that whether or not it is her normal opening hours, I need to check with her first, and I really don't need more wool right now. So we sat on the benches in front of Straußenland. Actually, they saw us and let us buy the meat earlier. I like ostrich meat, and we know it's good quality. The baby ostriches and nandus run around in pens there at the shop. We have also visited the birds in the field and seen how they are kept. It does make a difference.

We mentioned to the young woman who served us that we had seen their eggs ('ostrich scrambled egg kit') at our local supermarket. "And where were our eggs?" Apparently last year they were just on a normal shelf. This year we could report that they were in the refrigerator section next to the chicken eggs. Nice to know that they pay attention both to quality there and quality in the whole chain to the customer.

We had ostrich steaks that evening, I've been enjoying ostrich leberwurst with my breakfasts, and I have two bags of small pieces in the freezer.

What does ostrich meat taste like?

It's meatier than most poultry, but not as fatty as beef. I like it and I also find it easier to digest that other red meats.