Karlsruhe wildlife

I was surprised to discover, after all these years, that Karlsruhe has no river running through its center. This is quite unusual as most towns and cities are built around rivers for obvious reasons. Maybe the Rhine was just too wide so the city developed between the Rhine and the Alb tributary. However this discovery led me to a park on the outskirts of Karlsruhe where the small Alb river winds its way towards the Rhine. Fortunately, I came across a dominant hill (see pic) soon after arriving, allowing me panoramic views of the park, which helped me find my bearings.

 A lake below caught my attention, so I headed towards it hoping to find some wildlife to photograph (having just joined the British Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition). Everywhere the grass had been dried to a crisp and drained of its colour, leaving most of the park the colour of dirt. In fact by now most of the park was just dirt. What with the park being relatively empty too, it was a rather sad sight to behold. Nevertheless once down by the lake I spotted a lone cormorant perched on a grassy spot beside the water.

 The cormorant obliged, showing me its profile while I snapped away, resulting in the above photo. So things had got off to a good start. However, after wandering over a few bridges and up and down some paths there was not much else to report. There were some unusually tame coots and moorhens and in the distance I could see some ducks and swans. Crows dominated the skies and most people preferred to cycle through the park, making it all seem like it had seen better days. The weather was not ideal of course being overcast and cooler. Still, the park has potential, with long walks along the river Alb all the way to the Rhine and France, but that will have to wait until next year when things warm up again.

 

 

... and finally some late wildflowers that were in the park that I have not seen before and a sign showing some of the many places I have visited with the exception of Athens, Ptuj and Svendborg.