Nature in North East Germany

Last September we went, because of our good experience last year, to NE Germany, this time all the way to the Polish border. Our main goal was to visit the nature reserves in Mecklenburg, Vorpommern and Brandenburg. We had quite ideal weather for walking, not too warm or wet and beautiful spooky clouds every now and then.

We hoped to see some cranes and birds of prey and that worked out very well!

Unlike Holland and the western part of Germany you'll find here a very quiet and huge area in which, next to agriculture, there is plenty of space for wild nature. The villages are cute (apart from some eastern bloc buildings), the people friendly and the roads sometimes somewhat simple, but that's part of the charm.

On our way back home we spent some time in the Harz mountains. That's unfortunately a sad area nowadays; the bark beetle got the chance to ruin these forests because of its monoculture. You can see the effect in one of my pictures.

But, whenever we are in unspoiled nature, its a question of looking carefully and closely (especially for insects) or in the more distant environment for landscape contours  or birds. It's all worth while!!

10 Hoverflies (Surphus), 16 Feverflies (Diophus febrilis) on wild Angelica

Anklammer stadtbruch

Red backed shrike (Lanius colurio)

Queen of Spain fritillary (Issorio lathonia)

Red fox (Vulpes vulpes)

Sunflower (Helianthus)

Cranes (Grus grus)

Wooly burdock (Arctium tomentosum)

                            

Tansy beetle (Chrysolina graminis)

                        River Ilse in Lower Saxony                    

        Hare's foot inkcap (Coprinopsis lagopus)

White tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla)

Landscape in the Müritz area

Southern hawk (Aeshna cyanea)

the Hartz mountains, largely destroyed

Spring dor beetle (Geotrupes vernalis)