Vienna in June - birds, insects and a mammal or two...

We had a lovely long weekend in Vienna - partially cultural, partially walking and always on the lookout for wildlife.

The birding started before we even disembarked, one Kestrel, two Buzzards and what looked very much like a Peregrine pursued by two Hooded Crows, seen from the taxiing plane.

We booked a hotel (Hotel An der Wien) on the edge of town, opposite the Lainzer Tiergarten - more of which later.

View from the hotel

Our first full day was spent in the gardens of Schonbrunn Palace and ogling the art in the Belevdere. The palace gardens have the great advantages of opening at 6am in the summer and of being free. There are acres of formal garden and a forested hill behind that.

Schonbrunn Palace

Much of the wildlife rather startles you by queuing up to mug you - particularly the Great Tits and Red Squirrels. Apologies for the lack of pictures of tits sitting on our hands being fed, but idiot boy here had the camera on 1/2000th (well, it was bright in the open) and forgot to change the settings in the woods.

It turns out that squirrels don't like garlic flavoured hard tack ;-)

The crows are an interesting mix of standard Carrion Crows and Hooded Crows - I wonder if they hybridise.

The woods were full of Nuthatches and, a lifer for me, a Middle Spotted Woodpecker - a very, very, elusive one.

Behind a structure called the Glorietta there is a small reservoir - with its own party of herons and a single cormorant..

Leaving Schonbrunn we headed to the Belvedere (Vienna has a great underground system) and in the middle of Karlsplatz a pair of enthusiastically mating Blackbirds caught my eye (taken with the little lens - didn't have time to change it).

I'm not quite sure what the sculpture below is, it looks like a human/owl hybrid...

The next day was spent in the centre of Vienna doing culture stuff so apart from the ever present Swifts, Hooded Crows and Pigeons it was a bit thin on wildlife - so here's a random mix of bird related sculpture and objets d'art. 

I have no idea what he's doing with that bird ;-)

On Sunday we took a hike down the Danube, heading towards the Donau-Auen National Park. OK, we underestimated the distance and the 33 degree heat, so didn't get quite that far. We did however discover some nice wetlands with a good range of insects (and a few birds). If anyone would like to have a crack at identifying these I would be most grateful ...

Why yes, the Danube is actually blue ;-) 

The reeds were full noisy but utterly invisible Reed Warblers but we did spot a nice, if distant, Red-backed Shrike, hordes of Blackcaps, Blue and Great Tits, Mallards, the odd heron and some of the world's loudest Blackbirds.

Here's the insect selection...

Mayfly

Marbled White

For our last full day we went hiking in the Lainzer Tiergarten - a huge old hunting park. This is a mixture of forest and pasture, with great views of the city and the first non-rainforest bird waves I've seen.

Our first bird wave was composed mainly of Nuthatches and Collared Flycatchers (which insisted on skulking in a dark bush) but with the added bonus of a Juvenile Greater Spotted Woodpecker (thanks for the correction TJ!)

The next one was an all together grander affair, with Nuthatches, Greater Spotted Woodpeckers, Collared and Spotted Flycatchers and a family of Song Thrushes.

Apart from the forest birds there were a pair of Buzzards, Kestrels and a single Hobby. A very smart Black Redstart sang from the chimney of one of the buildings in the park.

The mammal highlight was the Wild Boars, although quite frankly they didn't seem to want to do "wild" and completely ignored all the passers-by.

A great city with some good wildlife and a nice lifer in the form of the Middle Spotted Woodpecker. Oh, and our hotel had a Wurst stand on the corner across the road, for that essential beer and sausage refuelling...