I've been in Switzerland for around 22 years, always in or around the Basel area, and I've lived in Basel for the past 10 years, give or take a few months. After this amount of time in one place, you get the feeling that you know a city well. After a recent walk, I'm not sure that I know it at all!
I went for lunch at the Merian Gärten and decided afterwards to walk back into the city along the St.Albanteich down to the Rhein, and then complete the trip with a short stop at the Botanical Gardens to see if the Owls were around, they weren't.
The first creature that I came across apart from birds in the trees and chickens and rabbits in the Merian farm, was a Nutria. It was happily sitting on a slipway along the St.Albanteich. Originally a South American animal which if I remember correctly was introduced into Europe by the fur trade. I've also seen them in Petit Camargue. I've heard that a Beaver has also been spotted in this area, but as a nocturnal creature, I didn't expect to see it. I may have to go back at night to see if I'm lucky!
In the same area, perched so still on top of an apartment building, that I thought that it may have been a plastic garden ornament, was a Grey Heron.
On entering Schwarzpark, a Red Squirrel ran through the shadows of the trees. The image quality isn't great with these two shots. I was a little slow to react, it was quite a distance away and in the darkness of the shadows. Not too bad though.
There is a large Deer enclosure in Schwarzpark. They were all at the back of the enclosure, but a small group headed towards me and hung around for a while. I found it quite difficult to get an image of them. I was trying to get a shot without fence posts or didn't look too much like a zoo.
The final stop was at the Botanical Gardens. I love to watch the Damselflies here. I could sit by that pond for hours just watching their behaviour. They appear to have several perches which they fly to. This can make it a lot easier to get a good shot, as they are very fast in the air. I'm still trying to get that shot though.
This next shot is the closest I got, but it was more luck than anything else, I was focusing on the Damselfly in the bottom right corner, and it flew through the shot close to the point of focus.
There was also a lot of egg-laying going on, but the sun was in the wrong position and was causing a reflection on the water that was disturbing the view. I was able to get a couple of shots, although nothing spectacular.
I've left the Owls out of this post, if I hadn't been overly posting about them recently, they'd be in here too. What I got from this and other recent experiences is that sometimes you just have to look a little bit closer to see what right in front of you. I'll be looking for more in future.
