We began our excursion to Ösling wetland from the small village church of Troine. At the church steps our guides Mikis and Marie told us about the local nature and birds which we could see, if we were lucky, since the weather was quite drizzly. Then our large group of bird enthusiasts started the walk towards the wetlands. First there were several birds of prey like common Buzzards, Sparrow Hawk and a Red Kite couple. Also a Grey Heron flew past us. Soon a weird looking dark shape appeared in the sky. We managed to have a good look of it through our binoculars and confirmed that it was a Black Stork. That really was the high point of our excursion as there are currently only about 15 pairs nesting in the whole of Luxembourg.
As we continued the weather improved. Nature was beautiful, there were cows mooing loudly and as the sun appeared so did the butterflies that appreciated all the flowers growing in the meadow. Regularly somebody enthusiastically told us that he has a bird like Wheatear in the binoculars, as also the birds became more active. We hoped to make a round trip but a bull in the field which we needed to cross made us change our plans and we headed back the same way. We noticed a small bird in the distance that was trying to look like part of a tree. With a good telescope we unmasked it to be a Spotted Flycatcher. A flock of Lapwings flew past us and we saw several Whinchats balancing on the fences. Our successful four hour birding trip finished at the church where we were greeted by a Black Redstart and a Rooster on the church steeple.

Panu Pietikäinen, 13 years

The natur&ëmwelt English-speaking Section is organising a day trip to Lac du Der, France to observe the migrating cranes on 10 November. As places on the bus are limited, please register early here:
http://visitcranes2013.eventbrite.com/