Habitat Spree Forest

The Spree Forest, the "Venice of the North" southeast of Berlin, is the habitat of rare birds and plants. In the region of rivulets and canals one also finds ninety-five pairs of storks. Areas of concentration are the communities of Burg with eleven pairs, Luebbenau with ten, Straupitz with eight as well as Schlepzig and Luebben with seven pairs each.

Magnets for visitors at Vetschau are, besides the White Stork Information Centre of Lower Lusatia, the Wendish-German Twin Church, the Town Palace at Vetschau and the Slav Castle near Raddusch.

These storks were photographed at Vetschau and Schlepzig

The designations Spree and Forest denote a virgin wooded inland delta with more than 625 miles (1,000 km) of a waterway network. Natural water branches and canals wind their ways in labyrinth fashion through
meadows, forests, fields and villages.

This district is unique in Europe and was declared a biosphere reservation by UNESCO in 1991 to preserve it in its original state. A typical mode of transportion on the approximate 375 miles (600 km) of navigable
rivulets and canals is for centuries the flat bottom wooden skiff, propelled by hand with the so-called "Rudel".

At a skiff builder(left), at a rivulet (centre), wedding garb at a Spree Forest skiff procession.