Franks 2025 year list (1 Viewer)

We were in France for New Years, and I got a reasonable amount of birds all seenon our property. I was certainly the most stoked about the Crane.


We left for Zurich January 2nd, arriving toward the end of the afternoon. Regardless, I could easily add Magpie to the list, about 25 roosting in a tree in front of our window.


A brief outing for the first Saturday of the month brought me to the Katzensee. It was cold enough for most of the lakes to be frozen over resulting in not too many additional ticks for the year. The advantage of the frozen ponds was, that two Kingfishers were easy to spot near a running creek.


The first full week of January didn't bring a lot of excitement, but I spotted a very nice Tawny Owl one evening on my way back home from work.

Goldeneye had been report at a place near the Lake of Constanz, it would be a lifer for me, so we visited. Saw lots of birds, and quite a few new ones for the year list, but dipped on the Goldeneye.


Sunday the 18th, we had a nice stroll along the River Reuss, with a hide somewhere near some flats. I was very surprised by the large amount (>100) of over-wintering White Storks.


Didn't really have time last weekend, but managed to jump on my bike for a quick turn around the Katzensee. I saw a Sparrowhawk being chased by a Red Kite, not something which I ever observed before. Amongst the Black-headed and Yellow-legged gulls, there was a juvenile Common Gull -- I wouldn't have been able to ID without the help of one of our local birding experts who was fortunately also present at the location. Sunday, a glance out of the window added a Goldfinch to the list.


#65 for the year list was a Coal Tit, in the forest through which I commute. Present in a flock with Great and Blue Tits. Occasionally, there's a Crested Tit as well, but I have not seen one so far.

Like many other birdforum enthausiasts, we went to Texel to see the Spectacled Eider. It was great to combine it with a visit to my parents, and my dad came with us to Texel. The birding was great, and I got a number of birds for the year list and some lifers appart from the spectacular duck


Picked up one more year-list bird on the way back to my parents place near sunset. I had seen the Barnackle Goose before in Switzerland, but that was considered an escape -- now a 'solid' one


My commute through the local forest added another Woodpecker to the list:


A few hours at the Katzensee last weekend got me some Goosander, Treesparrows and maybe the first of the spring migrants in the form of a Black Redstart.


Now, I just gotta find a way to exlude the exotic Emperor Goose from the year list when downloading from eBird.....

Couple of new birds, all seen in Zurich or surrounding areas.

Not updated in way too long -- leaving to the Netherlands this afternoon, so I figured I'd better get this done now.

The remainder of February gave a few expected ticks, as did the first week of April, quite happy with the Jack Snipe!


We spend a sunny afternoon walking around the Klingnauer Stausee. White Fronted Geese had been reported, but I didn't see any. A couple of year ticks anyway.


The following week gave some arriving spring migrants, and a spectacular Long-eared Owl.


The weekend we spend at a renowned birding site in the French speaking part of Switzerland, it was cold and windy, and none of the expected waders showed up. Regardless, we had a splendid time and definitely would like to go back


With my wife out of town the last week of March, I spend quite a few hours at our local wetland area resulting in an early Common Redstart as well as my first ever Penduline Tit.


I joined my spouse in France, and had a great time birding, got me a lifer Stone-curlew and a not all to common Grey-headed Woodpecker.


We spend the next weeks in Zurich, I had relatively limited time for birding, but the ticks kept trickling in, with the Swifts and Swallows arriving.


Back to France for Easter weekend -- very happy with the Black-crowned Night Heron!!!!


Then, the last couple of birds during the last two weeks here in Switzerland around home of during a hiking weekend.


The eBird download put the beautiful escape Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks at the bottom:


There's three roaming the local wetland area --easy to identify because of their silhouette!!

Some cool birds there Frank

Owene said:

Some cool birds there Frank

Click to expand...

Thanks so much

The two time-sinks moved out, I now got quite a bit more time to stare through bins!!

An excellent day in the Netherlands, especially considering I had to take care of a bunch of things (car had to go the the garage for a service, a watch needed to be brought in for a new battery etc.). I dragged my wife over to a local reserve at a 15 minute bike ride, sure to get for four year ticks. Actually, only managed three of them:

153. Spoonbill
154. Little Egret

Both have relatively large breeding colonies, together with Cormorants and Grey Herons. I needed their help of a local birder to point out two very low nests of

155. Purple Heron

Apparently, they arrived very late this year, and all prime sites had been taken. Cattle Egret also arrived very late, and were breeding out of sight. I hung around a bit, hoping to see one, but that’s a dip for today. However, a first for that site for me, two

156. Common Tern.

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At the end of the afternoon, we took my oldest son for a short walk to a local canal, about a 5 minute drive away. There’s also some small ponds, which had some Lapwing, Reed Warbler etc. I was showing my dad some Northern Shovelers, explaining the large bills when I heard and saw a

157. Whimbrel

two birders were intensely looking through bins, explaining they had briefly seen a Bluethroat — this year a nemesis bird for me. We continued our walk, and there was a

158. Sedge Warbler

clearly visible and singing on a small scrub. We continued our walk a couple of hundred meters before turning back. We past the area where we had previously looked for the

159. Bluethroat

It was now clearly visible, about 30 meters from path singing loud. Only thing to regret was that I had left my camera home.

I definitely will visit both locations again

My son decided that 6 am was the best time for breakfast today, and then disappeared into his bed very soon after finishing to eat. That gave me quite a bit of time to roam outside my parent’s place. There was a distant raptor which had a surprising amount of white in its feathers, it was too far to clearly identify — most likely a Buzzard.

I also had a warbler that is kind of a repeat from when I was in France two weeks ago, but being 1000 km more north I can count it again:

160. Icterine Warbler

After the rest of the family had woken up and was adequately provided with coffee, I grabbed a bike and my camera, and went of the to site where the Bluethroat was yesterday (didn’t bring my camera then, of course). I hung around for half an hour before giving up (did see my first ever Dutch Garganey though), before moving on. I went to a hide with guaranteed sightings of Sand Martins; indeed close to 100 were around — apparently not a year tick, seems I had some a couple of weeks ago in Switzerland

I had very nice views of some Marsh Harriers though, so no loss at all. More important, I also had a single

161. Black Tern

Only my second sighting ever, and I got some distant photos.I will have to wait until I am back in Zurich to pull it of the camera and massage it a bit, but very stoked to have seen this very elegant bird!!