The Botanical Garden /  by Arne Bischoff

A bunch of pasqueflowers (Pulsatilla vulgaris).

My hometown of Goettingen boasts not only one, but three huge Botanical gardens, all founded by the university. As one of Germanys oldest universities, the gardens are very old, too. The oldest of the three, subsequently named “Alter Botanischer Garten”, was founded back in 1736 by famous botanist Albrecht von Haller. All three are quite different, but very beautiful. And throughout the year, they are a place of bloom and beauty. Recently, I visited this “Old Botanical Garten” right in the city center, to photograph the spring bloom. While it was midday and the light very, very bright and harsh, I focussed on my recent area of interest, which is high key.

I concentrated on mainly three topics. Pasqueflower, winter heath and grape hyacinth. But I was very happy to notice the humming and buzzing around me. The gardens are home to a lot of wild bees and also bumblebees. And of course, birds. But this is a matter for a different blog post.

At the fox den again /  by Arne Bischoff

Mr inquisitive!

I know quite a lot of fox and badger dens in my local area. But this one came as a complete surprise. Last year, my friend Luka (make sure to check his work!) called me. His dog, Boris the pointer, had been a good boy and sniffed out a fox den in the most unlikely of places: inside a huge stack of wood right beside a forest track only a kilometre from the next village. Fear not: Boris only pointed to the young foxes, but did them no harm.

It turned out the little fox cubs had come out every evening to play and explore the huge world outside their stack. And this is right when I went there.

The curious little guys where punctual like a clock. About an hour before sunset they came out. I usually heard them sniffing and playing before I saw them. They never strayed far from the safety of the stack though and if, then in the opposite direction of me into thick thorns and bushes. One pup was particulary inquistive and hit the forest road more than once. Exploring and sniffing. But even he kept quite close to the stack which provided him for safety and me with a quite ugly backdrop.

The experience was still beautiful though: Seeing the young cubs play and explore. I even saw mother bring food once and call them out. It was only then when I saw all four pups together.

I hope all five of them made it and they are happily roaming the area. Looking forward to seeing next generation of young foxes in a few weeks time. At another place. Special thanks to Paul for your company!

Spring again /  by Arne Bischoff

Common liverleaf | Leberblühmchen | Hepatica nobilis

I nearly missed those beauties and all the other early blossomer this year. Most of them are gone already, hanging their heads. But one or two remain still beautiful. And of course there is a lot more beauty in an early spring German beech forest.

The dirt spot /  by Arne Bischoff

I mainly blog about birds, nature and nature photography. But I happen to be an enthusiastic mountainbike rider for longer than I am into birds and I do work in bicycle media, too. So cycling and especially mountainbiking is quite a big thing in my life.

Recently, my friends from Trailtech Mountainbiking accomplished a community pump track project. A pump track is a circuit of rollers, banked turns and features, designed to be ridden completely by "pumping" – generating momentum by up and down body movements, instead of pedaling.

Kudos and a massive thank you to everyone involved in the project. The place has quickly become an attraction in the small community and more: a wonderfully inclusive, inviting and immersive spot for young and old, bicycle affected or not - for everyone! And boy, do I love this pumping!

Pheasant tales: Beautiful bird, sad bird /  by Arne Bischoff

When it comes to splendour and grand air, not a lot of European birds rival the Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus). But this is where the sad part starts. Because it is actually not even European.

Jagdfasan. The pheasant which lives to be hunted.

The Common Pheasant is native to East Asia. During the medieval period it has been introduced to European courts and royalty. With the beginning of the 19th Century humans began to breed and raise Pheasants to be released into the wild only for hunting purposes. This sad practice continues to this day and is reflected in the Common Pheasants German name “Jagdfasan”, which literally translates to “The pheasant for hunt”. The population is not self-sufficient, so every year a new breed of the colorful Gallinaceous birds is released to “freedom” to be shot. The birds that escape the shooting will sooner or later die of cold or predation.

Colourful beauty

Whenever I see a Pheasant, I feel both: Joy and sadness. Joy, because it’s such a gloriously beautiful creature. And sadness, because it only lives to be shot.

Lovely local Tawny Owls /  by Arne Bischoff

So much fluff!

After a one year break, my well known urban Tawny owls came back to the local park nearby to bread. You recognise the female owl by its distinct reddish hue. In 2021 it bred downtown, 2022 it evaded an Eagle owl, and 2023 it came back.

The early owl

I was more than a little surprised when I heard the little owlets begging as early as the first week of April. The next few days revealed three branchlings - one distinctly smaller - who all seem to have made it through the dangerous first days and weeks before they finally learned to fly and I lost track of it.

Spring love

I visited the owls nearly every day for a period of nearly two weeks. By day, they and their watchful parents preferred to hide within the dense branches of a Thuja. After dusk they roamed a considerably larger area, sitting every night in different branches of the surrounding trees, begging. With the owls, the park vegetation grew and grew, too. A lovely spring!

Seems sleepy, but always keeps an eye open. A parent owl.

Early blossomers: Liverleaf, wood anemone and snowdrop /  by Arne Bischoff

Right now, while I am writing these lines, the first liverleafs stretch their heads through the ground. Time for me to revisit two wonderful days in spring 2022 with lots of liverleaf (Anemone hepatica), wood anemone (Anemonoides nemorosa and Anemonoides ranunculoides) and snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis).

I am not a botanist, unfortunately. I had a flower lover with me, and without her, I would not have taken these images. This makes me very thankful. I myself overlook the wonder and beauty of plants way too easily, as I have very little knowledge about those beauties.

That’s why there is not much of a story that I can tell here. I leave it to you to behold and wonder and make your own story of it.

PS Oh and of course, I met some animals, too.

A winter walk with the GDT /  by Arne Bischoff

The winterly Oderteich lake seen from the eastern shore.

Back in February 2022, I spent some time in the local Harz mountain range. I was out with a group of the German Society for Nature Photgraphy (GDT). The GDT is one of the most renowned nature photography organisations in the world, best know for its annual competitions European Wildlife Photographer of the Year and GDT Nature Photographer of the Year. The society is organised within regional sub groups, who go out on excursions, do exhibitions, book projects, critique images together or just share some time with like-minded spirits. And this is exactly what we did. I accompanied my friends through “my mountains”, sharing a little local knowledge and learning from much more skilled and accomplished nature photographers.

Harz mountains: Nature’s building site

The Harz mountains are a classic Mittelgebirge. Its highest summit the Brocken sits only 1,141 m above sea level but features a Scandinavian or Alpine climate. The mountain range was subject to centuries of mining which lead to the plantation and harvest of fast growing spruce monoculture. In recent years, the Harz lost nearly 75 percent of the spruce biomass to a combination of climate change, heat, drought and the bark beetle benefitting from all of it. The erstwhile dense spruce forests seem dead to a lot of people, but it is not. The local national park (Nationalpark Harz) does not intervene with natural processes and lets nature do its very own rewilding programme. Especially the standing Coarse woody debris and the open space attract a lot of pioneer species and lead to a renewed ecological succession. What many perceive as dead is actually more biological diverse and species-rich than the plantations, we learned to know as “nature” (if you are interested in an in-depth explanation, check the embedded video). Losing the spruce monoculture is actually a win for bio-diversity.

Winter photography at Oderteich

Oderteich - a barrier lake - sits at the heart of the national park. It was a quite obvious location choice. You can experience all changes of the ecological succession here. Living spruce, dying spruce, dead but standing spruce, windthrown spruce, pioneer plants such as white birch or mountain-ash; and of course the winterly lake with ice, frost, snow, open water, and mute colors in all its glory.

I know the place really well, but this visit was a true first for me. We were a group of twelve (ish) and everyone was on his or her own and together at the same time. Wandering alone or sharing ideas or thoughts and working, slowly and deliberately their crafts. I felt a little shy in the beginning and was completely unused to this style of photography, usually preferring to be a lonely wanderer with animals as my hasty subject. So I did not take a lot of images. But I learned a lot. Thank you, for the experience, my friends!