Lake Constance winter: 100,000+ waterbirds in the Untersee

Tufted duck, pochard, red-crested pochard, goldeneye, gadwall, coot, whooper swans (400), bean geese, great crested grebe; reed choruses in spring. Wollmatinger Ried, Ermatinger Becken, Mettnau — Untersee (German/Swiss), Germany.

Best time: 15 Nov – 31 Jan (November to January). Where: NABU-Bodenseezentrum / Wollmatinger Ried (Reichenau causeway), Ermatinger Becken (Swiss shore, Ermatingen – Gottlieben), Mettnau peninsula, Radolfzell (Vogelwarte Radolfzell) (Germany). Time of day: Rafts and gull roosts from 30 min before sunrise for the first 2 h of light.

• You can go on your own
• Free
• Telescope recommended
• Sound 4/5

Open it in the interactive calendarSunrise and sunset listening times for the day you pick, and the map.

When is the best time?

Peak: 15 Nov – 31 Jan. Mid November to end of January

Active from 15 Oct to 15 Mar (October to March) in a typical year.

Time of day

Rafts and gull roosts from 30 min before sunrise for the first 2 h of light; whooper swans call at night in the Ermatinger Becken, loudest in the first hours of dark.

• Dawn: 30 min before sunrise → 2 h after sunrise
• Evening swans: 30 min before sunset → 2 h after last light

What will you hear?

Massed 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.

Binoculars?

Telescope recommended. Rafts of tens of thousands are 200 m to 2 km out on the Untersee; scope from the dyke, binoculars minimum.

Where to go

• NABU-Bodenseezentrum / Wollmatinger Ried (Reichenau causeway) — 767 ha NSG managed by NABU; access only on c. 200 guided tours a year plus the public causeway and dyke. Map
• Ermatinger Becken (Swiss shore, Ermatingen – Gottlieben) — Up to 40,000 birds in the shallow basin; Swiss lakeside path public. Map
• Mettnau peninsula, Radolfzell (Vogelwarte Radolfzell) — Reserve with hides; the Max Planck bird observatory is here. Map

How to go on your own, and what it costs

Wollmatinger Ried is closed off-path all year: use the public Reichenau causeway and the Hegne–Reichenau dyke path (free, any hour) or join a NABU tour. Ermatinger Becken: the Swiss lakeside path from Ermatingen (free, open at night). Mettnau: reserve paths and hides from Radolfzell.

Cost: Free; NABU-Bodenseezentrum guided Wollmatinger Ried tours €10 adult, €5 child (2025/26 programme).

Who runs access

• NABU-Bodenseezentrum – Wollmatinger Ried tours (NGO) — About 200 guided tours a year into the closed reserve.

Field-recording notes

The Wollmatinger Ried is closed off-path all year — the Reichenau causeway (road noise) and the Hegne–Reichenau dyke path (quieter) are the public options; NABU tours give reed-edge access. The lake is a busy leisure water in summer but winter is calm; noise sources are the Konstanz–Radolfzell railway on the north shore and the B33. Fog in December sits on the Untersee for days and is acoustically superb. Whooper swans roost in the Ermatinger Becken and call at night — the Swiss shore path from Ermatingen is open.

Sources

• NABU-Bodenseezentrum – Beobachtungstipps
• OAB – Wollmatinger Ried
• NABU – Wollmatinger Ried

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More: all spectacles in Germany · winter geese, swans and ducks · Germany in January · Germany in November · Germany in December