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Where can we lammergeiers in the swiss national park? (1 Viewer)

nowhereblue

Well-known member
Hi there

My girlfriend and i are staying in the swiss national park this weekend - we'd love to see a lammergeier as this would be a new bird for us both. Do any of you have any sites in the engadine / swiss national park that you could recommend for this species ?

Any other bird info for other interesting species would
be great too - in particular, hazel grouse, three toed woodpecker, rock thrush, wallcreeper, rock partridge and capercallie.

We are staying in the southern part of the park and have beeb thrilled by the sheer numbers of nutcrackers here !

Many thanks for your help
 
I've seen Lammergeier several times around Pass dal Fuorn, just outside the park. You can walk from Pass dal Fuorn (Süsom Givé) to Plaun da l'Aua, up to Funtana da S-charl and then over Valbella back to the Pass.
Another good spot is the Val da Stabelchod. Park at P9 and walk up the valley.

On the first walk Rock Partridge and Rock Thrush are also possible. Three-toed Woodpecker is around but scarce and hard to detect. There are better places in Switzerland for this species. But you may be lucky.
Hazel Grouse and Capercaille are usually not found in the park, they prefer wetter forest. Both species are rare (especially Capercaille) and there are no published places for them.

Hope this helps a bit. Take some warm clothes with you tomorrow!

André
 
Great !

Thanks andre for your message and the directions :)

Actually we are staying at the hotel at il fourn and this afternoon took a walk up val dal botsch so we were very close to val dal stabelchod which you recommended for lammergeier - sadly there were a lot of rain showers so not ideal for lammergeier sightings. We did see a medium sized game bird shoot over / through the forest and wondered if we might have gotten lucky with a hazel grouse.

We will certainly try pass dal fourn too - is it too late in the year for rock thrush there though?

If any other people have suggestions for lammergeiers or other engadine species that would be much appteciated :)
 
Hazel Grouse is very, very rare in the National Park. Unless you have seen the bird clearly you might consider the fact that it wasn't one...
It is late for Rock Thrush but some birds might still hang out. You just need some luck.
Rock Bunting is possible, however at this time of the year they have usually left their breeding sites and are moving around. Look out in areas with rocks, some bushes and some trees. The last record of Three-toed Woodpecker I found in the Swiss Database in your region is from Bellavista (the forested slope just south of Zernez). 2 birds were seen there on the 21. August.

André
 
Hi andre

Thanks again for the info ! No i certainly didnt see it clearly enough to be sure that it was a hazel grouse - it certainly wasnt from the partridge family as the flight was wrong and the fact it landed in the middle of the forest made me wonder if it might be a hazel grouse. But actually small female black grouse arent a huge amount bigger so possibly that is more likely to be what we saw. Thinkinh about it too the wing length seemed proportionally larger which again would suggest black grouse.

Well its been snowing here this morning so no birdwatching for us so far today - incredible this is still august !
 
Amazingly, I saw a (very quiet!) Three-toed Woodpecker at Bellavista 20 years ago, pretty high up on the ridge if I remember well, so that site is well worth a try!
Wallcreeper was seen on the way to Piz Quattervals, on a rocky, rather flat area above the treeline, but I guess you need a lot of luck.
I even saw Capercaillie near Zernez (a fly by female in God Baselgia, just northeast of Zernez).

I never definitely connected with Hazel Grouse or Rock Bunting/Thrush/Partridge in Switzerland... also because I don't trust sightings from when I was 10 (the gamebirds are still lifers).
 
Great thanks for the recommendations xenospiza we'd love any of those birds so lets hope we have some luck !

Well amazingly after the snow storm finished mid afternoon we walked up to val de stabelchod and as the sun came out late afternoon we got lammergeier, golden eagle and goshawk all in a 15 minute period so we were very very happy - thanks andre ! Apart from that we've seen lots of nutcrackers, lots of crossbills and pied flycatchers all very common here of course but still great to see :)
 
Great thanks for the recommendations xenospiza we'd love any of those birds so lets hope we have some luck !

Well amazingly after the snow storm finished mid afternoon we walked up to val de stabelchod and as the sun came out late afternoon we got lammergeier, golden eagle and goshawk all in a 15 minute period so we were very very happy - thanks andre ! Apart from that we've seen lots of nutcrackers, lots of crossbills and pied flycatchers all very common here of course but still great to see :)

Congrats on the Lammergeier B :)

But i still need Nutcrackers !:C
 
Well you cannot fail in the swiss national park from our experience - nutcrackers were without doubt the most visible and possibly the most numerous bird we saw this weekend ! I have a feeling i read somewhere that nutcrackers are much easier to see at this time of year and can be quite hard at other times. We stayed in wengen in May in the Jungfrau region and only managed one distant view of a nutcracker.

We took andre's suggestion of pass dal fourn but although we saw golden eagle and citril finches we didnt see any more lammergeiers. We did however see 2 male ibex fighting in valbella which was amazing. Also we discovered golden eagles nest in the cliffs just behind our hotel il fuorn which afforded us fantastic views.

We will definitely come back next year :)
 
But i still need Nutcrackers !:C

I have a feeling i read somewhere that nutcrackers are much easier to see at this time of year and can be quite hard at other times.

Here in Lithuania, this is certainly the case - I can go weeks or months without seeing them for much of the rest of the year, but they are near guaranteed most years in late August/September, often multiple sightigs per day. Saw one today flying over near my feeders, hopefully many more inthe coming weeks (last year was poorer than average).
 
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