Starnbergersee

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On Tuesday the German expedition travelled to the glorious and reputation-preceding Starnbergersee, a lake where King Ludwig II drowned over a century ago. The lake itself is freshwater (or as the Germans call it, süßwasser) and has an enormous amount of different waterfowl, often with more interesting feathery patterns than seen at home. For instance, we saw a duck that was entirely black except for a white cap on its head, and remarkably had red eyes. We also saw numerous geese, mallards and female ducks, though none as glorious as that one black one. We took a boat tour of the water, before landing at King Ludwig's famous chapel, where we saw an enormous number of interesting black and white pigeons (pictures are enclosed below). Most are larger than the American pigeons, and almost every one has better color patterns and cleaner feathers. They are also even less afraid of humans than the New York pigeons, an interesting fact learned when one flew into me on our tour. It is interesting to see the societal ethics of said pigeons as their feather-laden mysticism knows no war, greed, or indifference. After landing by the chapel we walked through the forest to see the historic buildings, hewn mostly from marble, limestone and chert quartz. Afterwards we decided to swim at the frigid stone beach where Ludwig II drowned that fateful day. Jimmy Donoghue managed to collect a group of young ducks while swimming who seemed to mistake him for their mother. Jimmy is currently suffering from postpartum depression after leaving his beloved children.



Best,

Birdwatcher Arnold

Birdwatcher Donoghue

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