Posts Tagged: sylt

Comoroant in the wind

As common on islands you get a fair bit of wind and storms. The last three days have been up to “Orkanböen” (hurricane), hence wind up to 10-12 Beaufort at times. Sun and rain kept coming and going in the usual 5 minute turns and I had a hard time to keep my lens out of wind direction, as it blew up a lot of sand which acted as flying sandpaper.

Animals are used to be outside the whole time and can deal with harsh conditions better then we humans do, although the cormorants don’t seem to be happy about the flying sand either. They kept shaking off the sand and rather stayed ashore. Only could get a few shots from behind, as they were sitting in a restricted breading area where passer were asked not to step in.

Arctic tern

The name derives from their breeding area, high up around the north pole. During the harsh winters, it travels all the way down to the south pole which makes it the the migratory bird with the longest travel. I watched them hunt, over at Ellenbogen/Sylt until the rain came. Would have loved to stay longer, but I wasn’t alone and had to catch the ride back. Great flyers and wonderful to observe. This pictures do hardly justice to their skills…

last night at the sea

Last evening on the island and the weather hat really been nice that day, invoking an instant sunbrun throughout the day. It also was the last night for the German football team at the WM and so the beach was empty, just us, water, wind and a few people in the distance. A nice last evening.

morsum burning red

Completly overcast, when a suddenly a small slit openend up behind us and let the sun through, rendering Hörnung and parts of Keitum in this magic lighting. Hard to capture and I did mostly fail to ban the modd on the chip.

tiger moth baby

Yes… this caterpillar is actually a moth baby and was about 10cm long. We found it the meadows between Munkmarsch and Kaitum, along with many others. Brauner Bär (brown bear) is the German name and I think it fits quite well.

last 10 minutes

“…Nobody on the road – Nobody on the beach – I feel it in the air – The summers out of reach – Empty lake, Empty streets – The sun goes down alone…” (Don Henley – Boys of Summer). To be honest, I had to take out tons of people… you acutally never be alone on the beach of Wenningstedt/Sylt. Mhhh.. shrinking down panoramashots to fit my blog is not the best idea. I guess this will be the last pano posted here… the effect of the original 11.000px wide image is completely lost.

santiago

… he won’t find any marlin along the shore of Sylt, but I guess he knew that. A feeling of loneliness and infinty the clouds where so low that you could only see a few meters ahead, blanking out the Wattenmeer and the vis-a-vis mainland.

silver sea

Silver sea… again one from the Sylt holiday.

gull

When I look through my pictures from last weeks holiday it looks like I am obsessed about birds. I never thought about it but half of my shots show birds.

My favorite species are gulls. They are really great, acrobatic fliers, resourceful and highly-intelligent birds and they tend to get along with humans quite well. Some seem to live by stealing food from people that pay not much attention to the sky above. We wittnessed an old couple that got rid of their icecream, ripped off by a younger gull. This fellow was definately one of the calmer ones and passed me silently and speeded up, when it noticed my lens pointing its direction.

double power

Two power sources side by side. One is responsible for all life on our planet, the other one provides you means to view this blog and on the other hand is the one that is most dangerous when it comes to radiation and polution.