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Switzerland 2024 (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Mcnswiss2
- Start date
Mcnswiss2
Well-known member
Yipes..what a cold day!
Went with friends to Klingnauersee. Grey, cold and wet.
Just dipped on the Pied Avocet, as well as Hobby, Osprey and Marsh Harriers while drinking warming Coffee!
Some 50 species seen or heard included first Swift, Garden Warblers, Savi Warblers, Reed Warblers, etc.
A White Cheeked Pintail was also seen.
Felt sorry for the poor Barn Swallows.
Weather still predicted to be cold for next few days.
Went with friends to Klingnauersee. Grey, cold and wet.
Just dipped on the Pied Avocet, as well as Hobby, Osprey and Marsh Harriers while drinking warming Coffee!
Some 50 species seen or heard included first Swift, Garden Warblers, Savi Warblers, Reed Warblers, etc.
A White Cheeked Pintail was also seen.
Felt sorry for the poor Barn Swallows.
Weather still predicted to be cold for next few days.
Attachments
pbjosh
missing the neotropics
Apparently both species were present Saturday but the SC not refound after.
And yeah, the weather is a rude home coming 🤣
Richard Prior
Halfway up an Alp
Sunday playing Hide and Seek at Sionnet (GE)
As my wife insisted on going down to Geneva to work despite being ill, I in turn insisted on being her chauffeur there and back last Sunday (21st April), giving me several hours to bird in the general area. After several days of snow showers, biting winds and frost which had stalled migration at home in the Alps it was bound to be almost summer down there…. Hmmm, well, at 07h15 with the temp gauge in the car showing 0.5C I arrived at Sionnet, the wetland oasis just east of the city, at least there was no cold wind blowing though I was glad I’d put on the thermal long johns😊
The calm conditions enabled me to easily hear various songsters in the bushes, trees and reeds and I spent a happy few hours as the musical passerines played cache-cache with me. Several species that I never or hardly ever see at home too, good to get my eye (and ear) in again. I took my recently received Nikon present with me and it coped pretty well focusing on some of the reedbed songsters. Highlights were Chiffchaff, Willow, Great Reed, Reed, Savi’s and Sedge Warblers (the last one heard only), Common (Greater) Whitethroat, Nightingale, Stonechat, Skylark and Corn Bunting, a real birdy symphony! A pair of Cuckoo arrived noisily in the high branches of a tree, the female a hepatic (brown) form which is often the case at this site, I managed a photo of the male only of course
. It’s a place well worth visiting, particularly in Winter and Spring, weekends it can get very busy, but between my arrival at 09h00 it was free of the cyclists, joggers and dogs that can make birding less pleasant during the rest of the day. Wildfowl and waders were in short supply and by mid-April the reeds already obscure the view of the open water areas anyway, earlier in Spring can be better for these groups, plus Bluethroat is annual in March/April. Being so cold, the raptor and hirundine action was limited to Black Kite, Buzzard, Kestrel, Peregrine and a Marsh Harrier I managed to miss, by 10h30 just 3 Barn Swallows had passed, at a site that can attract big groups on warmer days. I had a look around a nearby vineyard and fallow fields for more uncommon passage possibilities, Tawny Pipit was my target, but all I managed was a Brown Hare (as Murphy’s Law dictates, someone had THREE Tawny P the next day, c’est la vie!). After a brief scan of a virtually birdless portion of Lac Léman from the nearest shoreline to Sionnet I decided to head west to the dam at Verbois on the Rhône. Mike (Bittern on here) was heading on foot to the same spot and we arrived simultaneously at this rather scruffy location, scruffy due to all the detritus that washes down the river to form floating masses of branches and plastic piled up against the dam. Due to a general lack of wader habitat in the area these masses of floating rubbish regularly attract them but there were just two Common Sandpiper on view on this visit plus good numbers of Swallow and Sand Martin, a few Swift and a single House Martin nearby. The overwintering Pygmy Cormorants left a few weeks ago and the Common Terns hadn’t yet arrived but a Grey Wagtail was collecting food for its young. At nearby Peney Dessous there was no sign of the four Night Heron Mike had seen a week or so previously but I was glad we checked there as a year tick Kingfisher shot across the water as we were scanning. This location has seen a late Spring male Smew tarrying in recent years so is well worth checking even into May.
With the rain approaching I squeezed in a visit to Les Allues, a mixture of farmland and bushes plus some set aside . In one of the fields are two depressions which still held water, a single Little Ringed Plover gave me a two wader species day (until now my only wader in 2024 was Common Snipe, how embarrassing!). A Wryneck called before flying past me and far away and a Cirl Bunting was singing (if you can call it singing that is…). Melodious Warbler, Red -backed Shrike and Common Whitethroat will soon be arriving at this location but a pair of Stonechat were the only birds in the set aside area on this occasion.
All in all a good smash and grab raid to the plain before we returned home, arriving in a blizzard of course!
Photos attached of a few of my hide and seek friends at Sionnet.
As my wife insisted on going down to Geneva to work despite being ill, I in turn insisted on being her chauffeur there and back last Sunday (21st April), giving me several hours to bird in the general area. After several days of snow showers, biting winds and frost which had stalled migration at home in the Alps it was bound to be almost summer down there…. Hmmm, well, at 07h15 with the temp gauge in the car showing 0.5C I arrived at Sionnet, the wetland oasis just east of the city, at least there was no cold wind blowing though I was glad I’d put on the thermal long johns😊
The calm conditions enabled me to easily hear various songsters in the bushes, trees and reeds and I spent a happy few hours as the musical passerines played cache-cache with me. Several species that I never or hardly ever see at home too, good to get my eye (and ear) in again. I took my recently received Nikon present with me and it coped pretty well focusing on some of the reedbed songsters. Highlights were Chiffchaff, Willow, Great Reed, Reed, Savi’s and Sedge Warblers (the last one heard only), Common (Greater) Whitethroat, Nightingale, Stonechat, Skylark and Corn Bunting, a real birdy symphony! A pair of Cuckoo arrived noisily in the high branches of a tree, the female a hepatic (brown) form which is often the case at this site, I managed a photo of the male only of course
. It’s a place well worth visiting, particularly in Winter and Spring, weekends it can get very busy, but between my arrival at 09h00 it was free of the cyclists, joggers and dogs that can make birding less pleasant during the rest of the day. Wildfowl and waders were in short supply and by mid-April the reeds already obscure the view of the open water areas anyway, earlier in Spring can be better for these groups, plus Bluethroat is annual in March/April. Being so cold, the raptor and hirundine action was limited to Black Kite, Buzzard, Kestrel, Peregrine and a Marsh Harrier I managed to miss, by 10h30 just 3 Barn Swallows had passed, at a site that can attract big groups on warmer days. I had a look around a nearby vineyard and fallow fields for more uncommon passage possibilities, Tawny Pipit was my target, but all I managed was a Brown Hare (as Murphy’s Law dictates, someone had THREE Tawny P the next day, c’est la vie!). After a brief scan of a virtually birdless portion of Lac Léman from the nearest shoreline to Sionnet I decided to head west to the dam at Verbois on the Rhône. Mike (Bittern on here) was heading on foot to the same spot and we arrived simultaneously at this rather scruffy location, scruffy due to all the detritus that washes down the river to form floating masses of branches and plastic piled up against the dam. Due to a general lack of wader habitat in the area these masses of floating rubbish regularly attract them but there were just two Common Sandpiper on view on this visit plus good numbers of Swallow and Sand Martin, a few Swift and a single House Martin nearby. The overwintering Pygmy Cormorants left a few weeks ago and the Common Terns hadn’t yet arrived but a Grey Wagtail was collecting food for its young. At nearby Peney Dessous there was no sign of the four Night Heron Mike had seen a week or so previously but I was glad we checked there as a year tick Kingfisher shot across the water as we were scanning. This location has seen a late Spring male Smew tarrying in recent years so is well worth checking even into May.With the rain approaching I squeezed in a visit to Les Allues, a mixture of farmland and bushes plus some set aside . In one of the fields are two depressions which still held water, a single Little Ringed Plover gave me a two wader species day (until now my only wader in 2024 was Common Snipe, how embarrassing!). A Wryneck called before flying past me and far away and a Cirl Bunting was singing (if you can call it singing that is…). Melodious Warbler, Red -backed Shrike and Common Whitethroat will soon be arriving at this location but a pair of Stonechat were the only birds in the set aside area on this occasion.
All in all a good smash and grab raid to the plain before we returned home, arriving in a blizzard of course!
Photos attached of a few of my hide and seek friends at Sionnet.
Attachments
Mcnswiss2
Well-known member
Hope you have recovered Richard.
Still cold in Basel region..I wait for the sun!
Bird of the day is
This wonderful bird is common in Mallorca, so I couldnt resist to include some of my photos from there.
What a great bird.
Question…name 3 other red billed Gulls around the world?
Still cold in Basel region..I wait for the sun!
Bird of the day is
- Audouins Gull
This wonderful bird is common in Mallorca, so I couldnt resist to include some of my photos from there.
What a great bird.
Question…name 3 other red billed Gulls around the world?
Attachments
foresttwitcher
Virtually unknown member
Red-billed Gull, Audouin's Gull & Laughing Gull?
Richard Prior
Halfway up an Alp
Med Gull, Red-billed Gull and Laughing Gull?
The Vaud Audouin’s Gull had a brush with death yesterday when a Yellow-legged Gull nearly drowned it (photos on Ornitho.ch)!
The Vaud Audouin’s Gull had a brush with death yesterday when a Yellow-legged Gull nearly drowned it (photos on Ornitho.ch)!
Mcnswiss2
Well-known member
Three others..come on Pete…
foresttwitcher
Virtually unknown member
Yes, sorry, my mistake - I meant to put Slender-billed Gull then looked at your photos and got confused ... honestly! It's an age thing.
Mcnswiss2
Well-known member
With friends we avoided the rain and headed to Inkwilersee and Augst.
Some 50 species seen or heard.
Night heron was one of the stars of today.
Penduline tits and Red backed Shrikes were reported at Inkwilersee but we failed to see them.
Also dipped on the Red rumped Swallow at Augst.
However, it was a great day out..blue skies and NO rain!
Some 50 species seen or heard.
Night heron was one of the stars of today.
Penduline tits and Red backed Shrikes were reported at Inkwilersee but we failed to see them.
Also dipped on the Red rumped Swallow at Augst.
However, it was a great day out..blue skies and NO rain!
