Wildlife to see in Germany in December
3 spectacles at their peak in Germany in December, and 2 more still going on. Wild animals only: no zoos, no wildlife parks, no hunting. Open Germany in December in the interactive calendar for listening times on the day you pick.
At their peak in December
Arctic geese on the Lower RhineWhite-fronted geese's high yelping in skeins of thousands, bean geese's deeper 'kayak', the roar of a roost lifting off the Rhine at first light, whooper swans on the Bislicher Altrhein; barges and the A57 underneath.
Helgoland migration falls and grey seal winterNocturnal flight calls of thrushes (redwing 'seep', song thrush, blackbird) in the thousands over the island, goldcrests in every bush at dawn; on the Düne, grey seal pups wailing and bulls roaring in December.
Lake Constance winter: 100,000+ waterbirds in the UnterseeMassed diving-duck rafts (wing-whistle on take-off), coot squabbles, whooper swan choruses, bean geese, gull roosts; the Untersee is shallow and calm, so sound carries across the water from the Swiss shore.
Also going on in December
Lower Oder Valley: whooper swans, geese and the flooded poldersWhooper swan bugling in chorus over the polder ice-edge, geese lifting at dawn by the thousand, smew and goldeneye wing-whistle, eagle yelps; in October, cranes; in May, corncrakes at night.
Bavarian Forest: pygmy and Tengmalm's owls, woodpeckers, lynx countryPygmy owl's piping series at dusk, Tengmalm's 'po-po-po-po' from the bark-beetle deadwood forest, Ural owl barking, three-toed woodpecker drumming rolls, nutcrackers; the loudest silence in Germany in the dead-spruce stands.