In February 2026, we visited the Ümminger See with a bachelor’s course to explore wildlife right in the middle of Bochum. We had hoped to see kingfishers and coypus, but unfortunately, they remained elusive, even though there were recent sightings reported on iNaturalist. Using the Merlin app, however, we were at least able to identify and hear the kingfisher. In addition, we observed many other water birds, including cormorants, coots, moorhens, as well as non-native species such as Canada geese and Egyptian geese.
We compared the observations we made on-site with reports on citizen-science platforms like iNaturalist and NabuNaturgucker to see what had already been documented and what we could discover ourselves.
For students interested in analyzing citizen-science data and developing it into a thesis, this is a great opportunity: Our homepage currently lists two openings for bachelor’s or master’s theses. Feel free to take a look!