The Little Prince knows that it is only with the heart that one can see clearly. With the second you can see better, claims ZDF. But the best way to see it is to have someone open your eyes.

This is demonstrated by the Long Day of Urban Nature this weekend, which, given the 28 hours, quite rightly bears its name. The program, which is overflowing with 500 events, lasts until 5 p.m. this Sunday, ranging from paddling a test paddling to a vineyard tour on Prenzlauer Berg (yes, on, exceptionally!) to a nocturnal forest hike with a naturopath and actually much more.

One of the highlights of the event that is booked out the fastest has always been the boat tours with Berlin’s most world-famous wildlife experts. A banner was specially made for him, which adorns the railing of the “Spree Comtess”: “Wilde Spree mit Derk Ehlert” is written on it, although the river is like a stale garden pond during the premiere tour on Saturday afternoon can, then Ehlert. After everyone is sitting on the upper deck and a woman has quickly snapped Franziska Giffey (“Mayor, may I take a photo, I voted for you?”) in the first row – the Green Senator for the Environment Bettina Jarasch is also in the picture – , is it starting.

Ehlert, only genuinely wearing binoculars, mentions the “goddess” named Nightingale, who sang about the queue when boarding – with short verses, because at this time of year the females are no longer brought down from the sky, but the male offspring have to be taught .

[If you want to have all the latest news live on your cell phone, we recommend our app, which you can download for Apple and Android devices here.]Then comes the swan. A mute swan at the Humboldthafen next to the main train station, well. “The Vikings brought it here,” reports Ehlert. Its career in Europe – i.e. that of the mute swan – began as frugal supplementary food that the Vikings brought with them from Asia. Whoa!

Then a cormorant. A ravenous gangster if you ask Angler. A living fossil that doesn’t give a damn about evolution – keyword: greasing feathers instead of expanding them – explains Ehlert. Oh! Above swifts. Annual flight performance 150,000 kilometers. Hammer! Pigeons coo to starboard. Air rats, murmurs an elderly woman in the fourth row. 7000 years of mail traffic, says Ehlert. And now a source of food for around 400 Berlin goshawks.

gosh! And on the port side, the mallard drakes are getting “hen-feathered” again, and when they look like the females, people are calling Ehlert in the environmental administration again and asking why the Senate has captured the drakes, haha!

[We report weekly from the twelve districts of Berlin in our People newsletter. Free and compact: leute.tagesspiegel.de] While Ehlert praises the rangers of the Nature Conservation Foundation on the microphone, who have even rediscovered the very secretive living otters in Berlin, his top boss bathes a bit in the crowd: “How do you like it then?” , she asks beamingly in the rows – and responds to the delighted comments with a gesture in the direction of Ehlert: “We have such great people in the Berlin administration!” Murmurs of agreement.

Ehlert is with the seagull breeding grounds at the Chancellery and the Alexa shopping center as well as with the beavers who now live here across the board, whose return almost 30 years ago caused a sensation. “So if you want to observe nature, just don’t leave the city!” That’s a good thing to take with you when fuel prices and the filling level of the regional trains speak against traveling anyway.