I was in Munich last weekend and, at the suggestion of a local birder, went birding at the Starnberger See, about an hour to the south. I did a lovely, 7.5km walk along the lakeshore from Seeshaupt to Bernried and the weather was perfect with no wind whatsoever. The best birds were a group of five Black-throated Divers but I also saw several other species which can be tricky for me to find in Belgium, such as Goosander, Common Scoter, Red-crested Pochard, Yellow-legged Gull and Tree Sparrow. The following day, I visited the Nymphenburger Schloßpark, which is famous for its Tawny Owls. A local photographer, who had just taken pictures of one, gave me directions and I was soon looking at a nice, rufous morph on its daytime roost. Finally, having researched sightings on eBird, I visited the Maximilianbrücke over the river Isar in the hope of seeing a Dipper and succeeded, with a pair of the city's thriving population of Mandarin Duck also there.
