Mettnau is a

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

, located east of the town of Radolfzell in the western part of

Lake Constance Lake Constance (, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein (). These ...

. It lies between the '' Markelfingen corner'' in the north and the '' Zeller See'' in the south and has a length of 3.5 kilometers and a width of up to 800 meters, a size of 140 hectares.

NABU Nabu (, ) is the Babylonian patron god of literacy, scribes, wisdom, and the rational arts. He is associated with the classical planet Mercury in Babylonian astronomy. Etymology and meaning The Akkadian means 'announcer' or 'authorised pe ...

Mettnau. A large part of the peninsula is a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

. The Nature Reserve Mettnau includes a small island name Love Island. It is managed by Naturschutzbund Deutschland on behalf of the

Regierungsbezirk A ' (, 'governmental district') is a type of administrative division in Germany. Currently, four of sixteen ' (states of Germany) are split into '. Beneath these are rural and urban districts ' (plural, ) serve as regional mid-level local gov ...

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

. A spa is located on the island, and a field station of the Bird observatory Radolfzell.

Nature Reserve

The nature reserve of Mettnau was established in 1926 by the town of Radolfzell, but only expanded to its current size of 140 hetctaresin 1984. A

pond A pond is a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression (geology), depression, either naturally or artificiality, artificially. A pond is smaller than a lake and there are no official criteria distinguishing ...

was accidentally created when the peninsula was used as a

landfill A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...

. The pond is independent of fluctuations in the water of Lake Constance, making it an attractive place for

hatching Hatching () is an artistic technique used to create tonal or shading effects by drawing (or painting or scribing) closely spaced parallel lines. When lines are placed at an angle to one another, it is called cross-hatching. Hatching is als ...

ducks. It is close to the nutrient-rich shallow-water zones of ''Markelfingen corner'', which provides food for the ducks and their offspring.

References and sources

* Peter Berthold, Karl Mühl and Siegfried Schuster: ''Naturschutzgebiet Halbinsel Mettnau: Geschichte - Natur - Landschaft'', Ornithologische Arbeitsgemeinschaft Bodensee, Constance, 1979

Footnotes

Geography of Lake Constance {{BadenWürttemberg-geo-stub