[Dr_ADH]

hello
I have just searched and found the posts from 2004, I am heading to Zermatt in a week and would absoutley LOVE to see a wallcreeper in amongst the snow boarding sessions if possible. Does anyone know if this might indeed be possible and if the first railway viaduct is still a possible site?
Any other bird advice for the area would be very much appreciated.
thanks very much
Adam

[dalat]

I do not know of any good Wallcreeper sites myself, but as it is very cold and there is a lot of snow, the Wallcreepers are most likely to be all down in the valleys.
I attach the wallcreeper sightings from the last 4 weeks in Switzerland, downloaded from ornitho.ch, but nothing real close to Zermatt (you need to change the .txt to .kml and then open the file in google earth).
Good luck!

[bittern]

Hi,

An American visitor who I took out birding a couple of days ago here in Geneva on her way home after a ski holiday in Zermatt told me that she had seen one when she went on a hike in Zermatt earlier this week. Unfortunateky I am not sure where she went but apparently someone was organising alpine hikes in addition to the ski... By the way she also saw Snowfinch, Nutcracker, Alpine Chough etc, but not Alpine Accentors.

Best of luck,

Mike

[Dr_ADH]

Hi
thanks very much to both of you for coming back to me. Am very heartened by your message Mike, I'll look in to the alpine hike when there as those species would be wonderful. I downloaded google earth and changed the file extension but for some reason it wouldnt read the file and didnt generate any error, it simply ignored my request; bizarre! I wont have chance to travel away from Zermatt any how, but if I get lucky I will endeavour to post to the site.
Best regards
Adam

[Dr_ADH]

Hi
for those that were interested and in case its helpful to someone, I didnt manage to find a wallcreeper at Zermatt, after much scanning of the viaduct!
I did see a number of nutcrackers in the woods just hear it though which was wonderful, along with crossbills, nuthatch, goldcrest, GS woodpecker, raven, treecreeper, crested, great, willow, long tailed and coal tits.
I saw alpine accentor at Zmutt (though no rock buntings) and at the top of 1 of the lifts(forget which now), snowfinch at the top of the railway, and obviously alpine choughs in a number of places.
best regards
Adam