Frankfurt am Main

A brief trip to Frankfurt for a EURO 2020 qualifier to see the best team in the world play Germany was all in all not a terribly enriching experience for a variety of reasons. Each one on its own was bad enough but put them together and the overall result was one I have no desire to repeat. The downsides were as follows:

1. It was cold, grey, damp and a typical  Central European winter scene. I think we had a brief glimpse of the sun on one day.
2. Daylight was short to begin with and the weather didn't help.
3. Frankfurt is a financial capital and is not really a tourist mecca..
4. The Christmas market does not open until this week..
5. We lost 1 - 6 and were expected to join in a Mexican wave - we refused!
6. I picked up a cough and a cold and was generally feeling a bit miserable, well under the weather and not up to walking/birding as much as I would have liked.

There were a few brief moments of joy and happiness:

1. I finally nailed a GSW for 2019.
2. I got two other year firsts.  
3. For 12 glorious minutes we were beating the Germans 1 - 0.

Here are a few photographs from the trip:

Beech woodland south of Frankfurt - easily accessible by bus and good range of woodland species including sparrowhawk, jay, treecreper, nuthatch, gsw, mallard and mandarin duck on a small pond.

River Main and the CBD

Old church

River Main looking upstream

A year tick

The riverside had a flood overflow area which provided Egyptian goose, black-headed gull, cormorant, greylag, mute swan, mallard, coot and moorhen. 

Finally a few of the WOW residents chilling in the low winter sun.

2019
160: Egyptian goose
161: Mandarin duck
162: Great spotted woodpecker
 
Bangor West
66: Mistle thrush

Belfast WOW
98: Stonechat