Andau and Seewinkel - Great Bustards
Photography from a trip to Andau and the Seewinkel to watch great bustards during mating season.
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Andau and Seewinkel
My wife surprised me for my birthday with an adventure she planned for us. We drove off from Vienna at 4 am to arrive just after sunrise in Andau, a small town on the Austro-Hungarian border. There is one of the few areas where great bustards can be observed during mating season. They are the heaviest flight-capable birds one earth, although they clearly like walking a lot better than taking to the skies. Their mating spots require fairly open and flat fields, so they actually prefer areas with light agricultural use. Besides the stars of the show, we could see more pheasants, rabbits and deer than anyone could count, one nutria, as well as lots more birds, like hen and marsh harriers, geese and a whole bunch of small birds.
We had a picnic at a lookout location in the morning sun and were back home at mid-day. A perfect birthday trip!
