Category Archives: Photography

Schafbergkante (Wildhauser Schafberg)

Schafbergkante (Wildhauser Schafberg)

Während wir den Kreuzbergen im Osten des Alpsteins im letzten Spätsommer schon vielfach Besuch abgestattet haben, blieb der Süden für mich bisher unbekanntes Gelände. Daher nehmen wir heute (26.10.2024) als sachte Einführung die Schafbergkante am Wildhuser Schafberg. Es ist ein wohliger Sommertag im späten Oktober: Der Zustieg ist gesäumt von bunten, raschelnden Blättern, die Sonne wärmt von außen, und der kurze steile Anstieg von innen, insbesondere weil wir einen ungewollten Abstecher nehmen und einige Höhenmeter extra zurücklegen müssen.

Die leichteste Route über die Kante ist mit 5c in der Schlüsselseillänge fair bewertet; schwieriger schien uns eher die Routenführung im unteren Teil: Vom ersten zum zweiten Stand gibt es eine Vielzahl möglicher Wege, die durchaus auch mal in den Bereich 6a fallen können. Hier gibt es eine wunderbare Übersicht, sowohl über den Zustieg als auch über den Weg des geringsten Widerstands für die ersten zwei Seillängen.

Ein erneuter Solo Durchstieg im Dezember blieb mir verwehrt, da sich in der Route doch einiges an Schnee und Eis in den schattigen Rissen sammelt; an den sonnen-zugewandten Wänden konnte ich indes super topropen um schonmal zukünftige Projekte auszuspähen.

Einige Zeit später gab es für mich dann noch die Tour Patschli am äußeren rechten Rand der Schafbergwand. Hier sind die Bohrhaken in angenehmen Abständen vorzufinden, dafür gibt’s teils erstaunlich anspruchsvolle Platten-Passagen und eine (sehr) kurze athletische Dachkletterei in der vorletzten Seillänge.

Reitergrad, Alpstein

Reitergrad, Alpstein

Hoch hinauf auf steilen Schrofen
schreite ich dem Schmerz davon
der sich einen Weg erschlich
ins Herz, ein scharfer Stich,
einwärts gekehrt quer ich
zum schmalem Pfad
zum scharfen Grat, bin frei, endlich.
Ein kleiner Stoß, ich fliege los
Gedanken brechen aus,
aus ihren Runden raus,
der Grat verschwunden, ungebunden
schweb ich hier in Dunkelheit – 
es tut mir Leid.

And all is lost in a storm, of something sinister.

The Feeling of Losing Everything, Archive

Around the Island

Around the Island

Spring went as quickly as it came,
and summer knocks with heavy rain
on our door and window front,
but most things stayed the same, quite lame:
The wren berates the passing cats,
at evenings we watch the bats,
the nightingales still sing aloud,
and locals show quite proud
the whole island to every crowd.

April (a diary entry)

April (a diary entry)

The time of winter vegetables is over and suddenly there is a lot more than only cabbage: cucumber, green beans, salad, kohlrabi (why is this the correct English word?), and fennel. Especially on the island, things seem to grow fast. In accordance, April continued the temperature high of the first three months and brought us 30 degrees before my birthday. Just to plummet to zero afterwards. Thus, somehow here we are, still discussing e-fuels and heat pumps. So, instead of debating politics, we continued to learn a lot about birds. Most recent progress includes the effortless identification of the songs of the short-toed treecreeper, the willow warbler, and the Savi’s warbler – black birds and starlings are breeding in the garden, and the frogs intone their chants. I am ready for summer.

Entangled

Entangled

I guess I missed my 3rd blog anniversary earlier this year. I also missed my 200th blog post (it was this one six posts ago). And in general, I don’t like milestones all that much. They represent not only the beginning of something new, but also the end of a chapter. And this entails reflection, which I often struggle with. But today I will try to make an exception. Without contemplation, I will simply let another milestone happen.

Interim (a diary entry)

Interim (a diary entry)

The weather turned. Temperatures are beginning to creep past 20 degrees. The bouldering gym has moved from second home to third home as work has now become my second home. It’s too much – but who would say otherwise? Sometimes it seems unclear whether I live life as intended – but who would say otherwise? But: Old hobbies are waiting to picked up again. Juggling balls have already seen the light of day, and 88 keys are waiting to be pushed again. Visitors are coming by the lake and we are delighted to host them. Yet, I have to find time to return the favor. Instead, we watch the birds coming back with memories from endless journeys across continents. And they bring back our wanderlust, to go out and explore, and enjoy, and soak up life.

In a Heartbeat

In a Heartbeat

77 760 000 heart beats of a robin, 39 340 000 fallen leaves on the island dam, 9 072 000 heart beats for me, 246 000 migratory birds at lake constance, 17 300 people for democracy, 2398 lines of code, 830 kilometers on the bike, 462 hours of work, 91 sunrises, 35 bouldering sessions, and three full moons.

While we experienced the longest summer last year, from autumn to early spring felt like a single heartbeat. Is this a glimpse of the future?

The Guardian

The Guardian

They swarm in hundreds from below,
trudge through the meadows in a row,
to infiltrate the sacred realm,
to irritate, to overwhelm
the residents below the sky
who simply sigh and shy away –
their habitat is in decay
because of mankind's holiday.

A Large Family of Small Birds

A Large Family of Small Birds

‘Lately, we have been photographing many birds – I even bought a used lens for wildlife, but I am still struggling to use it properly.’

This is how I started this blog post – more than three years ago. It should’ve been my second post ever, but for some reason I never finished it. Until now.

One of the most dominant groups of birds in our region are tits, grouped together into the taxonomic family of Paridae. Especially during winter time they are omnipresent and like to cause havoc at the feeding stations. Still, they are absolutely lovely: Little balls of fluff, chirping around non-stop, and always bouncing around between the branches faster than any camera can focus. In total the family comprises 63(!) species, scattered mostly across the northern hemisphere and some regions of Africa. Because of their noisy nature, North American representatives of the family are also referred to as chickadees.

In Europe alone, there are great tits (Kohlmeisen), eurasian blue tits (Blaumeisen), marsh tits (Sumpfmeisen), coal tits (Tannenmeisen), willow tits (Weidenmeisen), and crested tits (Haubenmeisen). And for each of them, there are often close relatives in other geographic regions. For example, eurasian blue tits belong to the genus of Cyanistes which they share with african blue tits (Northern Africa and Canary Islands) and azure tits (parts of Asia); especially the latter are beautiful, check them out.

For some species, the classification as a tit came rather late due to their unusual appearance and habits: For example, ground tits and sultan tits have very distinct visuals and characteristics and were only included after analyzing their genomes. And to this date the debate about their exact systematics is still ongoing.

I also just recently discovered that our favorites, the long-tailed tits (Schwanzmeisen), taxonomically don’t even belong to the family of Paridae – and neither do penduline tits (Beutelmeisen) nor bearded seedlings (Bartmeisen)! We saw the latter just last autumn for the first time, check it out here. Thus, despite their deceptive German names they do not share a common ancestry with other tits inside the family of Paridae. Furthermore, penduline tits are sadly extinct in our region anyways and the last sighting of their nest in our region is already more than 7 years ago).

For more information I suggest you check out birdsoftheworld.org.