Subject: birding along the Germany-Luxembourg border<br/>
Date: Jun 09, 2002 @ 21:55<br/>
Author: David Mark (David Mark &lt;dmark@...&gt;)<br/>
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<div id="ygrps-yiv-1763295576">I am a serious birder/lister and also have a strong interest in boundaries<br/>
and tripoints. Last week on Tuesday (June 4) I visited the place where<br/>
Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg come together, and got into some real<br/>
trivia of bird listing and boundaries. The Germany-Luxembourg border is<br/>
very unusual, in that where it follows the rivers Our, Sure/Sauer, and<br/>
Moselle, the rivers are condominia under the joint sovereignty of Germany<br/>
and Luxembourg. So the question for European bird listing enthusiasts is,<br/>
on what list(s) can I count birds seen on or flying above the condominium<br/>
rivers? Both countries? Or neither country but a separate condominium area<br/>
list? Or what? I did not see a Mute Swan in Luxembourg proper, only on the<br/>
rivers.<br/>
<br/>
At the tripoint where Belgium, Germany, and Luxembourg meet, near Ouren,<br/>
Belgium, I saw a Dipper. First, it was flying up the middle of the small<br/>
brook (&quot;Rippach&quot;) which defines the Belgium-Luxembourg boundary. As far as<br/>
I know the boundary also follows the middle of the brook, so the bird<br/>
probably had its left wine in Luxembourg and its right wing in Belgium.<br/>
A little later it flew back down the brook, cut across the field a little<br/>
(all in Luxembourg at that point), and then flew down the middle of the<br/>
Our, being simultaneously 100% in both Germany and in Luxembourg, or<br/>
perhaps in neither.  I had seen Dipper previously in Germany, and briefly<br/>
it was entirely over land than was Luxembourg, but the right half of this<br/>
Dipper was the only part of a Dipper I ever saw in Belgium.<br/>
<br/>
Has any reader had a similar experience anywhere? <br/>
<br/>
David<br/>
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David M. Mark<br/>
Amherst, New York (near Buffalo; home location)<br/>
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="mailto:dmark@...">dmark@...</a><br/>
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.geog.buffalo.edu/~dmark/">http://www.geog.buffalo.edu/~dmark/</a><br/>
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