Long before the sun rises, early risers can hear them chirping: songbirds welcoming spring with their morning concert. Only connoisseurs know which species only warble individual wake-up calls and which ones belt out whole arias. Even bird lovers like Frank Külmaier find it difficult to identify the voices. Which is why Germeringer, who often walks with his wife through the fields between Harthaus and Freiham, likes to take his mobile phone with him on his trips. Because there is an app on it that helps him to identify the animals.
One of these excursions last summer is particularly memorable for the couple. “Two larks,” remembers Külmaier, “flew across the meadow that day and kept returning to the same spot. That’s probably where they had their nest.” The app assured him that it was larks. Back then, it wasn’t just birds that were out and about in the vast area. “We also saw a dog struggling with its catch in another part of the field.” The mum, says Külmaier, who has a different name but doesn’t want to read his name in the newspaper, called for her four-legged friend from the side of the road. But the dog didn’t respond. A little later he proudly brought her his prey: a mouse.
Not an isolated case, as Külmaier now knows. “The entire area, actually an ideal area for ground breeders, is a playground for free-roaming dogs all year round.” Many owners parked their cars at the beginning of Harthauser Weg and let their four-legged friends jump out of the vehicle there to do their business. It is then not far for the dogs to reach the protected areas. Külmaier likes dogs and understands their urge to move. But because he is also involved with the State Association for Bird Protection (LBV), he is aware of what letting dogs run across the meadow can mean for birds: a massive disruption that may lead to them giving up their eggs.
Skylarks usually lay their eggs in April. The chicks hatch after about twelve days.
(Photo: Ralph Sturm/LBV)
Sophia Engel is an ornithologist, she confirms Külmaier’s concern for skylarks, lapwings and little ringed plovers. “Through traffic from constantly changing directions is a big problem, especially for ground breeders. Right now they are coming back from their winter quarters and are looking for a nesting place. If there is too much disturbance, the animals won’t even settle down.” Those that do breed on gravelly areas from the beginning of March to the end of June. The “most critical time”, explains the specialist from the LBV, is in April and May. During these months, the birds should by no means be unsettled by dogs sniffing or lifting their legs – or by cross-country joggers and families picnicking. “Staying on the paths is not a problem, the birds come to terms with that, they get used to it.”
The fields serve as ecological compensation for the construction of the second S-Bahn trunk line
Engel says that ground-breeding nests are very well camouflaged. “You often don’t see them, especially not the eggs.” But you don’t have to step on the nest to prevent chicks from growing. “It’s enough to just walk past on the left, sometimes on the right.” Then the birds fled – without hatching the eggs. This is “a great pity”, especially in the case of compensation areas that are deliberately created as substitute habitats.
The 20-hectare area between Germering and Freiham, the size of 28 soccer fields, is the largest ecological compensation area for the construction of the second S-Bahn trunk line. It was created in 2020, the predominant area is nutrient-poor grassland. In order to preserve this subsoil, the nutrients were deliberately withdrawn from the field with grain plants, and fertilization was also omitted. An excavator finally removed the top layer of the remaining humus to allow the growth of “extensive grassland rich in species”, as the nutrient-poor grassland is called in technical jargon.
Dogs roaming free, but also cross-country joggers and families picnicking pose a danger to ground-nesting birds from the point of view of bird conservationists.
(Photo: Catherine Hess)
But there are also habitats specially created for reptiles such as the strictly protected sand lizard on the edge of the Harthauser Weg: large heaps of stones, artistically arranged next to piles of dead wood and sand. Ground breeders love these locations, and not only them: Bird species such as the whitethroat or the chiffchaff also like to lay their nests between grasses, explains Sophia Engel. Due to the cultivation of the fields, however, the population of these animals has declined immensely in recent years: by 80 percent for the lapwing and around 75 percent for the skylark.
It is all the more important to get places to retreat to. “In the past, when you walked across the fields, you could hear the lark everywhere,” says the 50-year-old ornithologist. “That’s over now.” So what to do? Asking the dog owners to leash their four-legged friends? Raise awareness of the topic with information signs? Frank Külmaier advocates both. He himself has been looking for a conversation with his mistress and master for a long time and usually meets with great understanding. Most dog owners, he says, are completely unaware of the problem.
The situation is also known on the railways and they are therefore planning to have information boards set up on the spot. “There we will point out that dogs are not allowed to run into the ecological compensation area,” explains a spokeswoman. The state association for bird protection is also becoming active: a day of action on the topic of dogs and birds is planned for Friday, April 1st. However, not on the Harthauser Weg, but in the Langwieder Haide.