Category: David

A wagtail standing right on the edge of the rocky bank as it eyes the Rhine from the shore directly opposite the Lorelei.

Swans, Egyptian geese and a heron finding something to stand on in the Mosel at Trier.

(If anyone thinks I’ve made a spelling mistake, the river is the Moselle while it’s flowing through France.)

The showy flower of a wild thistle, possibly a musk thistle, growing on the Lorelei rock.

A male lobed argiope (Argiope lobata) approaches a much larger female in her web prior to mating. The approach was very cautious – I think this is one of the spider species where he may end up as a post-coital snack.

Seen on the Crête, the dry limestone plateau inland from Cassis near Marseille.

The Lorelei is a steep cliff on the bank of the Rhine, towards the downstream end of the Rhine Gorge. Together with the hills on the other bank, it forces the fast-flowing river into a tight s-bend, which creates dangerous currents even on the tamed river of today.

Until recent times, it was the accident black-spot on the river. Ancient myth had the catastrophes caused by a beautiful maiden inhabiting the rock, whose singing distracted steersmen who failed to give the river their total attention, luring them to their doom.

The first picture shows the view looking downstream, with the Lorelei rock to the right. The other shows the rock directly across the river.

A paradise shelduck on the river at Oberwesel in the Rhine Gorge.

CORRECTION: Almost certainly an Egyptian goose, not any kind of shelduck.