BirdForum

Together with 11 people from our local society and a local wildlife guide I spent the weekend at Vargistain in the canton of Graubünden, in the Swiss Alps.
The weather was not so nice, we got really wet on Saturday and it was awfully cold on Sunday (10 degrees at 2650m). But we found most of our target birds and animals.
We had a good variety of mammals, many Ibex (one group with 34), Chamois and hundreds of Marmots, some of them really close. A roe deer and a fox completed the list,...

wintibird

Yesterday evening a Black-shouldered Kite was reported from Avusy near Geneva. So this morning I took the train (3.5h) and a taxi and found the bird (and some birders) after another 10 minutes. It was a stunning adult bird, perching most of the time (as it was raining like hell). What a beauty! It's the 5th Swiss record as far as I know and the first twitchable. I also learnt out there, that the bird was present since 10 days but surpressed (no idea why).
After a beautiful Oystercatcher...

wintibird

This week was quite succesful for my Swiss list. Tuesday I went out to Schaffhausen in northern Switzerland to look for a Long-legged Buzzard who was found two days ago. I arrived on the spot only to hear that the bird has left and couldn't be relocated. With another birder I drove around the region, looking out for raptors. There were many Common Buzzards, Red Kites, Black Kites and Kestrels. We just checked some buzzards when I spotted one with prominent long leggs! There it was, pretty distant...

wintibird

After Pulicat Lake today's program was Vedanthangal, south of Chennai. First I looked around in dry habitat before the lake, but there wasn't much activity. A pair of Red-necked Falcons was very nice, but otherwise I saw just common stuff.
The Vedanthangal Sanctuary had obviously another good rain season, the tank was filled with water and with birds. Hundreds of Spot-billed Pelicans, Little Cormorants, Black-headed Ibisses, Darters, Asian Openbills, Painted Storks, Little Egrets, Glossy...

wintibird

Today I went to Pulicat Lake, north of Chennai (formerly Madras). The lake was filled with water after a good monsoon season and also filled with birds. Some 5000 Greater Flamingos, a nice little group of Lesser Flamingos between them (lifer for me), thousands of waders (Little Stints, Marsh Sandpipers, Black-tailed Godwits, Pacific Golden Plovers, Lesser Sand Plovers, some Greater Sand Plovers and many many more. I didn't find one of the really rare ones, the best find was a young Curlew Sandpiper...

wintibird