2020-09-04 53 9

Location

in a small forest in Alveslohe, Schleswig-Holstein

Participants

π π π (talk)

Expedition

I almost forgot about this hash, and only remembered that I wanted to go there in the afternoon, two hours before I had an appointment. So I cycled the 4.4 km to the hash, then had to walk 600 m along a field and around a pond, trying hard not to damage any of the crops that grew there. The hash lay 17 m from the edge of a small forest, 370 m from the nearest path. I mostly had to navigate from only the features on the satellite map, because the location marker on my phone was way off at times. I settled on a spot and took photos, then went on to investigate a scene I had already discovered earlier, not even 10 m from the hash. Two birds lay dead on the forest floor. The first was a duck, whose legs were both severed and lay beneath it. Next to the duck was a spot with hundreds of down feathers, and some larger ones. An obvious trail of white feathers lead from the scene to the second dead bird a few metres away. Its ribcage lay on top of its plumage, but there were no organs inside. I wasn‘t able to identify if it was also a duck. And I couldn‘t tell if the second bird (who‘d left the trail) had dragged itself to where it died, or if it was dragged there by a predator, which to me seems more likely. In any case, a fitting crime scene for the detective story I‘d listened to on my way there. I walked the same way back, partially through the maize field to avoid some bushes behind the lake, and cycled home.