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Autum and Winter 2011/2012


We've had a "Spring in Germany" topic but it seems summer somehow did not take place this year
We have a fantastic autumn where I live, no rain since weeks and the trees show colours I have not seen for years!
I have not much time and chance to be outside the city, but I have been to our zoo a couple of times and brought back not only animals but also "autumn photos". A few of them I would like to share here. But I also would like to invite my "Landsleute" to share theirs here over the next few weeks and months!

Late September:





October:

Last rose of summer

Ready for winter?



November:

Very nice pictures Felis. I am an "autumn person" I love the colours and fresh air. Unfortunately wet and rainy weather and special temperatures this summer, gave the leaves a disease and they just turned brown and fell of. So the "colour party" this year was cancelled...Thank you for posting the pictures

We usually have lots of rain, some storms and bad weather in autumn, so leaves also just fall and by beginning of November trees are bare. This year it is much different and it is absolutely fantastic! We hardly get to see beeches in their glorious colours as they seem to turn their colour very late, but this year they are absolutely flaming in colour. I like to take photos to show the different seasons, my favourite is spring, when everything turns green, and it's not only green, it's so many different shades, everything has new flowers. But autumn this year is much different.

Felis, thank you for these super autimn pics!
I hope we can look forward to more, as winter starts. (If it is going to -)
Seasons are not quite as usual, this year.

Very nice photos, Felis, I enjoy seeing them. Some plants look similar to ones we have here, & some look entirely different. The colors are very nice!

Autumn in my home region this year has a lot to do with the worries and distress for the river shipping. The Rhine (Rhein) as the most meaningful navigable waterway in Middle Europe has in large sections very little water so skippers have enormous difficulties to handle the capacities that are to be transported. Furthermore many of the important ferry connections are now closed (established where no bridge exists for large distances). This is the second time this year – in the meantime the river simply didn’t get enough water from its sources in the Alps and the other tributaries. And not to mention the lack of rain: For at least 4 months it was totally missed by now in my region!
Weather experts are saying that it would take a 4 weeks' rainfall without any pause to fill up the water line...

How ever things have more than one view:
Our scenic “Middle Rhine valley” between Mainz (home of book printing inventor Gutenberg and the first country’s TV station) and Koblenz (Mosel river confluence at the Deutsches Eck) now offers quite new possibilities to spend free time.
You can do large walks on the ground, pick up mussels (as a child I collected them from near sandy banks carefully as a rare object at that time), visit small islands and say Hello to some birds (apart from seagulls, further English names only known by specialists)…
While taking the train you will have a view to numerous impressive rock formations which normally are under the water line.

Main internet source for interested is as mostly the Wikipedia.

NB
Some facts: navigable length: ca. 800 km (of 1,232 (766 mi) in total) -
To your compare other important rivers length
in EU:
Oder (through Poland) - 854 km (531 mi)
Volga (Russia) - 3,692 km (2,294 mi)
in the U. S.:
Columbia - 1,243 mi (2,000 km)
Mississippi - 2,320 mi (3,734 km)

NB 2
For those readers who have a sense for certain adventurous aspects:
Still there are “blind” bombs and mines from WW 2 found during a low water period in the Rhine. So actually near Koblenz, and of such extent that preparations for a prophylactic evacuation of half of the town’s inhabitants will take time until the next weekend.
I wonder why a systematic search there by stately institutions was never realised.

NB 3
At last!
Here you are some new YouTube videos to this topic:
Der Rhein verdurstet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4ZID0q1ouY
(the music doesn’t fit as it’s from a 1970’s love movie)

Rhein-Schifffahrt wird schon behindert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR_407GZn7Y
(very short, near Düsseldorf)

Der Stein aus dem Rhein http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R3xosoUI48
(nice short story of finding stones in the riverbed)

Im Rhein wird das Wasser knapp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnoLgM_5kuQ
(low water in May 2011, Karlsruhe region, also some typical birds to be seen)

Felis I just took some photos of mushrooms that look very much like yours. I will try to get them posted in Oregon fall tonight.

Your landscape is beautiful.



Katinka this year I think we are okay but water and river flow is a big concern for us -- not so much about navigation, but for irrigation, salmon and electricity. Our water falls almost only in the winter. If it does not land as snow in the mountains and then melt slowly in the spring and summer we are in big trouble. As it has been getting warmer we worry all winter -- Will the mountains get enough snow?

I live on the Willamette, which flows into the Columbia

I heard today morning, that this November was the driest November since they record weather in 18something! Also no real snowfall in the mountains yet, skiing season on Germany's highest mountain (Zugspitze) had to be postponed because of lack of snow, and there is actually a small glacier up there, but for skiing it needs some fresh snow as well.

I have taken some more mushrooms, I remembered when I saw yours.



Actually, those photos are all taken at the zoo! I did not get the chance to leave the city for taking photos, the only time I drove to the cemetery where my parent's grave is, but I had no time to stop and I also had forgotten to take my camera.

Before winter is over officially I want to post a few winter impressions - spring is hopefully already lurking behind the next corner!

I saw these "tracks" in the snow and wonder what they are or who made them and how?

Detail:



and the whole "picture"



(my first thought a bird - the wings?)

These are quite clear

You're right Felis, it's wings from a bird. I often see the same pattern on the ground at my bird feeder place. Thank you for nice pictures

Autum and Winter 2012/2013


From my outing today:













There are not so many posts in this thread, so I thought I will delete the year and keep it for more than one autumn and winter in Germany, if you all don't mind!

Felis I think it makes it easier to compare years (so we can see if years are or are not brothers) if the thread includes more than one year, but maybe you could put a big Autumn 2012 at the top of this your first post for this year.

Such a cute squirrel.

Do you know anything about the flower the butterfly is resting on?

It's a good idea, to put the year, Alice. Basically, this thread has not even two pages, so I don't want to clutter the forum with too many short topics. Olga's squirrels have so many pages, I feel it's good to have new ones for new years.
The flower. I'm not sure, it could be Red valerian - Centranthus ruber.

Now I see, Felis! What a cute squirrel you have seen! Other photos are great too. I think I have also to take some other photos of nature, not just of squirrels and small birds around them.