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Conference Birding: Zurich and Geneva 30 Sept - 4 Oct 2015 (1 Viewer)

MKinHK

Mike Kilburn
Hong Kong
On the last day of September I began a five-day work trip to a conference on sustainable aviation in Geneva by stopping off for a visit to Zurich Airport where I was kindly shown around by the airport’s Environment Manager. In addition to discussing issues around air pollution I was especially interested to see how the airport deals with having federally protected woods and seasonal wetlands that host an impressive array of biodiversity, and most visibly, a large variety of birds, between its runways.

The normal response, even from otherwise intelligent people, to hearing that there are birds at airports is to blame the birder for increasing the risk of bird strike. Having cleared the first hurdle in the obstacle course back to rational thought, the next assumption is that birds at airports necessarily cause bird strikes. While it is well known that bird strikes have indeed damaged and even brought down aircraft –a flock of Canada Geese that caused a plane departing from JFK airport to crash-land in the Hudson River being the most famous example - the reality is rather more complex that the urban myth would have us believe.

Birds like airports. Night-flying migrants are attracted by landing lights at HKIA. Frankfurt holds the largest population of Skylarks in Southern Germany and also hosts breeding Eurasian Curlews, and Kansai –built on a huge reclamation outside Osaka – hosts a substantial tern colony. On my visit to Zurich I saw no less than a dozen Common Buzzards, three or four Red Kites, numerous Carrion Crows a dozen Yellow Wagtails and a Northern Wheatear in a little more than an hour.

Airports have been managing these visitors for decades. David Melville, who later became the manager of Mai Po was hired as Hong Kong’s first Government ornithologist to address the issue of the large numbers of Black Kites at Kai Tak Airport in the 1970s, and Puerto Vallarta on Mexico’s Pacific coast uses trained raptors to dissuade other birds from using the site.

All kinds of technical solutions have been developed to identify and keep birds away from airports, and particularly runways, but ecologists at many airports agree that the birds quickly become habituated to the various noise-makers and scarecrows. And herein lies the key reason that birds at airports do not necessarily lead to bird strikes – the birds become habituated to the presence of aircraft and learn to stay out of their way.

An officer in the bird control unit at HKIA told me that Crested Mynah, the commonest bird on the airfield, had never been hit by an aircraft. He said simply: “the birds are too smart and stay out of the way. I watch them wait for an aircraft to land, and then the flock flies across the runway. ” Likewise birds of prey that spend time around an airport learn how to avoid aircraft, and should one be shot, its territory is likely to be filled by another bird that actually increases the risk, as this new bird would have to “learn” the airport from scratch and is less likely to be struck the longer it stays. As a result shooting “problem birds” is the last resort in Hong Kong’s bird control programme and in Frankfurt shooting has stopped completely.

Between my meetings in Geneva I spent two free afternoons in the beautifully kept Botanic Gardens (just down the hill from the UN campus and just east of the main railway station), which held a nice variety of woodland/parkland birds, which we see in Hong Kong extremely rarely, if at all. These included Nuthatch, Treecreeper, Great Spotted Woodpecker, a family of four Jays, Blue, Coal and Great Tits, some rather murky-looking Chaffinches – albeit with an unexpectedly green rump - and a couple each of Greenfinch and Goldfinch.

Other birds included a single Mistle Thrush, the odd Robin and a Wren, plus several Carrion Crows and the odd Magpie. On day two at least half-a-dozen Blackbirds were highly visible, and I enjoyed one especially tame female perched in a fir that was, to my delight, photobombed by a Firecrest – a bird I‘ve not seen for over 20 years.

Other highlights included an exceptionally confiding female Black Redstart, which hunted from the posts surrounding the sheep pen. The next day a much less co-operative but very beautiful male, complete with a coal-black face and clear white wing panels, was in the same spot, but kept flipping away just as I was about to press the shutter.

Shortly after finding the female Black Redstart I was slightly taken aback to find myself looking at a moulting male Common Redstart with a fine red underparts that, also allowed a close approach and a few photos. Any thoughts on the race would be much appreciated.

I was also pleased to discover a trio of Blackcaps feeding on a small tree that had produced clusters of fine black berries. This tree also attracted a couple of phylloscs, one of which I was happy to confirm as a Chiffchaff.

On the first day I also wandered down to the shore of the lake, where the range of waterbirds included flights of Great Cormorants, a pair of Mute Swans, hordes of Mallards and Black-headed Gulls, plus three or four Great Crested Grebes, and the same number of Goosanders and what I think are Yellow-legged Gulls -please correct me if I'm wrong. A pair of small brown ducks flying away across the lake looked potentially interesting, but disappeared among the choppy waves before I could get anything on them.

However it was the gardens that provided the best moment of the trip. Half-a-dozen Long-tailed Tits chirruped and dropped in as I was trying to pish a recalcitrant phyllosc. Having checked me out they flipped over to a tiny stream in the rockery where the whole flock dropped down to wash – just brilliant!

Cheers
Mike
 

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  • IMG_3659 - Common Redstart @ Geneva BG.JPG
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  • IMG_3722 - Firecrest photobombed by Blackbird @ Geneva BG.JPG
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  • IMG_3703 - Gull sp. @ Lake Geneva.JPG
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  • IMG_3741 Blackcap @ Geneva BG.JPG
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  • IMG_3802 - Long-tailed Tits @ Geneva BG.JPG
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