Eyes closed, metabolism down: The garden dormouse, which belongs to the squirrel family, is now preparing for its long hibernation.

The first hedgehog offspring are here! Around seven centimeters long, with around 100 soft spines hidden under the skin, blind, but already with five tiny claws on each paw - this means that there are usually four to five hedgehogs in the protected nest.

Northern Bald Ibis are breeding again in Germany and Austria. 51 of the endangered ibis birds have safely mastered the more than 800-kilometer flight from their winter quarters in Italy.

When the days get warmer and the sun shines, the first butterfly of the year appears: the bright yellow brimstone butterfly (Genopteryx rhamnis) can be seen in parks and gardens with its typical flight - sometimes it rises up, then it drops down.

It's that time again, Easter is fast approaching and every child knows the Easter bunny - but very few people know about the "original", the European brown hare.

While the marching bands march through the carnival strongholds on Rose Monday to the sound of drums, a completely different performance takes place in the forests; Here attentive walkers can hear the drum roll of the black woodpecker.

In the past few days, a hawk, which had probably just vanished, caused a strange curiosity in Turkey.

Shortly before the official opening of the large panorama in the Dresden Panometer, we were also invited guests of the photographer, painter and architect Yadegar Asisi, who was born and raised in Vienna in 1955, then studied architecture in Dresden and painting at the University of the Arts in Berlin.

To further explore hiking routes as part of our project, we followed the R 1201 from Struga to drive via the town of Podgorci up into the mountains towards the Albanian border.

You can almost set your clock by it, because every day a family of swans appears promptly in the morning and again in the late afternoon. She is on the shore of Lake Ohrid directly in front of the Rino campsite on the way to and from her various fishing spots.

It promises happiness and the blessing of children, is a welcome guest on the roof and is eagerly awaited in spring: When the white stork circles over the house, people are happy.

Swifts make the beginning together with the skylarks: they start heading south in August as early fliers among the migratory birds.

Shortly before Nea Agathoupoli we left the E75 motorway towards Thessaloniki to take the country road to the royal tombs of Vergina, the ancient Aigai. One of the royal tombs was discovered in 1977 and identified as the tomb of Philip II. Another tomb, discovered a year later, was identified as the tomb of Alexander IV, son of Alexander the Great.

Autumn is slowly approaching and thus the nights are getting cooler and dampness rises, which then clings to bushes and trees as morning dew; but especially in the cobwebs, the fine droplets in the network give a bizarre picture.

We have already reported several times about the sometimes absolutely disrespectful behavior of people towards animals in Turkey, only recently about the shooting of the Anatolian leopard, before that about almost extensive poisoning of stray dogs and cats, the cropping of ears and tails of dogs and that too more properly termed 'slaughter', killing of animals during religious celebrations.

German Wildlife Foundation calls for better protection of forest habitats on Forest Day.

Just as interesting as the high-powered Wiesmann Roadsters produced in Dülmen at the time are their natural counterparts: the Dülmen wild horses.

Compared to the native woodpecker relatives, the green woodpecker is characterized as a “drummer” by its soft tones: Its “whirls” are unspectacular.

The first storks have already been sighted and have occupied their nest. Cranes and the red kite are also returning to Germany unusually early from their winter quarters in Africa and southern Europe.

German Wildlife Foundation: In February, the top dog also loses its antlers