Behind the image /  by Arne Bischoff

In Germany there is a popular saying. If you want to say somebody is stupid, you call him a “Spatzenhirn“, which literally translates to “sparrowbrain“ and has the same meaning as the English “birdbrain“. I long find this rather stupid. House sparrows are among the most adaptable species of wildlife. While their smaller sibling, the Eurasian tree sparrow, suffer from loss of habitat, house sparrows conquer our cities, villages or farmhouses from Anchorage tu Ushuaia and from Sydney to Svalbard. They thrive on our leftovers.
This particular individual and around twenty of its specimen came to a tree right in front of my office window for 30 to 60 minutes every day. They sat on the ground picking seeds until something stirred them up. Than they flew into the tree. That made it pretty easy for me.

Dozens and almost hundreds of sparrows besiege the bakery I oft go for lunch in the summer. The little birds wait patiently for a crumb to drop or a piece of crust to be left over. They even venture inside the bakery when its doors are open in warm weather. They precisely distinguish an open glass-door from a closed one and they find their way out with such ease that it almost looks cheeky. I don't know if they suffer from a high percentage of body fat, but they have plenty to eat at least.

My summer holiday led me to Norway. While I was waiting at a harbour to board one of its thousands of ferries to cross a fjord, I beheld to house sparrows – one female, one male – picking the dead insects from the number plates of the waiting cars. They found themselves a brilliant ecological niche. Every 30 minutes, they get fresh food delivered right to their doorstep. So don't say birdbrain anymore. They might turn out smarter than you.

The beginning /  by Arne Bischoff

So this is the beginning of this page. But what was my beginning? A so-good friend kindled both: the interest in photography and the appreciation for birds. The former was easier to ignite. I was allowed to use her D90 a lot and my interest grew with every picture I shot. But it took quite some time to go further than interest. I was missing a subject. I was missing something that I wanted to photograph. I was missing a reason to photograph.

Enter birds. I always was an outdoorsy person. And since I was a young boy, I was fascinated with nature documentary. I breathlessly watched tigers and snow-leopards and whales and and and in the tele. Subsequently I was dreaming of “spectacular“ subjects to photograph. But there are not so many spectacular species in Northern Germany. You can consider yourself lucky to see a pouncing fox. But as a matter of fact, there is hardly a more spectacular subject than birds. This is what my friend told me. And my friend told me more but never dug into my heels, giving me the room to understand myself. It took a while, but I did. Today I love that I see birds wherever I may go. They come in all varieties and they are literally everywhere. Be it the metropolis or the remote wilderness. They adapt to every possible habitat. And they come with so many behavioural patterns, sizes, shapes, colours, species. Of course, you have to work a little to fully appreciate all this. But the more you know, the more you understand, the more fascinating it gets. My friend knew.

My love for birds in particular and for watching animals exceeds my interest in photography. If I can choose only to watch or only to photograph, I'll watch. But more often than not, I do both. And of both I will tell you in this weblog. Of birds, of experiences watching wildlife and a little of photography.

Stay tuned and see my first ever picture of birds …