Summer vacation 2023! Not as usual in Poland, but this time the Bavarian Forest in Germany. Originally the Black Forest was the intention, but we could not find a holiday home to our liking there. In addition, this region is very touristy and that is something we do not like either. By “we” I mean our family. It also became clear from the information we could find that the nature in the National Park “Bayerischen Wald” in particular looked much more attractive. And that soon became apparent on site. The forests showed a great variety of tree species and there was no shortage of undergrowth.
Our accommodation was part of a typical German house, if I may describe it that way. Because it was not permanently inhabited, we had the place to ourselves. Around the house was a large “wild” garden, bordered by forest at the back. At the front was an asphalt road, but there was so little traffic on it that it even provided some life in the brewery. Behind that followed an unmown, herb-rich meadow and then a large piece of forest. In short, a wonderfully quiet place with nature on the doorstep. Fifty metres to the left we walked straight into the woods. For us Dutch people, the hilly terrain obviously took some time getting used to when walking.
The National Park is very worthwhile. The policy now is that in a large part of this park, nature is allowed to do its thing. In recent years, large parts of the pine forests have died, but the areas that have been freed up are rapidly being regrown. And then with species that are able to maintain themselves without human help. Ultimately, a nature typical of the location is created and the associated organisms benefit most from this.
We stayed at an altitude of about a thousand metres. This was clearly visible from the vegetation, among other things. Species that had already finished flowering in the Netherlands still formed beautifully coloured roadsides here. And with plant species that are typical of more mountainous terrain. In terms of bird life, the large numbers of Crossbills were striking and it was during an evening walk that we saw our first Capercaillie. A female, admittedly, but it was one! To be honest, I hadn’t thought about the fact that we could find this species there.
A second surprise during the walk was a specimen of the Large Copper. It was sitting on the path and I just managed to not put my size forty shoe on top of it. Because the temperature had dropped considerably in the meantime, the butterfly could no longer fly away. Something had clearly gone wrong there. We then made sure that the butterfly could spend the night unharmed and that also gave us the opportunity to photograph the species at our leisure. A golden opportunity. It is striking that the biotope is very different from what we know in the Netherlands as a suitable habitat.
In short, it was a successful holiday, which would almost certainly lead to a repeat.
