A few notes on species and plumages not regular seen at this site.
Regular winter visitors at the site are Black-headed Gulls, but this early spring we can see several individuals that have already a full-developed summer plumage at the beginning of April. It seems that this year the seasonal change is starting a bit earlier.
Another indication of an earlier seasonal change is, that other winter visitors, that stayed regular at the site up to after mid-April have already left. These include for example Mallard, Northen Shoveler, Common Shelduck and Comman Pochard. Others duck species like Tufted Duck, Eurasian Teal and Eurasian Wigeon are still present in smaller numbers.
Of special note this winter are six Garganey (four male and two female – Update April 18th: since 17th three female) that stay at the site now for over two weeks. All few former sightings of this species were always only for a single day. This is very special for the site, because this species is rarely recorded in the national winterbird censuses. The records in the last ten years are in January 2022 count 1, November 2021 count 6, January 2018 count 1, January 2015 count 12 and December 2014 count 3.
In March the site was visited on two days by several Saunders’s Gulls, the first day by seven and the second day by five and attracted some local photographers. There are a few single records for this species at the site.
A more regular visitor but always in very small numbers are Black-winged Stilt. Several observers have seen these two individuals on several days just beside a road construction area. While the construction activities seem not to impress them at all, they still stay distant from active heavy machinery.
