| AUTUMN IN NE GERMANY AND POLAND |
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During my Autumnbreak from school I went to Mecklenburg Vorpommern, in North East Germany. I was accompanied by 2 very fine nature photographers: David Pattyn (www.dpwildlife.com ) and Johan van de Watering. Because they both live in the southern part of The Netherlands we agreed to meet at a reststop along the motorway between Bremen and Hamburg. From Lübeck on the Baltic Sea we followed the road east to Rostock and Stralsund and we finally stopped at Naturcamp Pruchten, a few kilometers north of the city of Barth. This camp is close to the Baltic and the peninsula Zingst and at this time of the year there are thousands of Cranes in the area. 
Every morning we drove to the bridge which leads to Zingst and we took a lot of pictures at daybreak of the landscape and skies full of geese and cranes. We were very lucky with the sunrises and the sunsets. Specially the first morning at the bridge the sky was extremely spectacular with all the colours of the rainbow within one hour. What makes it even more exiting is that nearby there is the island Grosse Kirr, a sleeping and resting place for cranes and geese. Every morning thousands upon thousands of birds leave the island flying to the fields with grass or maize to feed. We also visited other resting and feeding places, like the Günzer See, which is a good area for picturing Cranes. A few kilometers from here is the Crane Information Center at Gross Mohrdorf. On Sunday we went to the island of Rügen and visited the scenic Jasmund National Park with the white cliffs and the beautiful beechforest on top. We walked on the stony beach near the Wissower Klinken (see picture).  On Monday Johan and David had to go back home and I still had the rest of the week off. I stayed 2 days in a small hotel on Rügen and managed to make some pictures of the Jasmund Forest and the Cliffs. On Wednesday I left the area and drove to Stettin (Poland) and from there to Lubcz Maly, a small settlement, close to Krzyz. Two friends of mine: Anna and Piotr Paluszkiewiecz are farming there and run a campsite and guesthouse. I tried several times to find the herds of European Bison which occur some 30 km north of where Anna and Piotr live. But I didn't succeed. While doing so I was thrilled by the autumncolours in the forests. Specially in the Drawiensky National Park it was very scenic, with the fast flowing Drawa River, the autumn colours and the many logs lying in the river or crossing it, because of the high number of beavers that live here So this part of Poland is not only good in Spring with all the birds and wildlife, but also in autumn with the colours of the Fall. |