Richard Prior
Halfway up an Alp
I’ve decided I’m too old to join the wonderful world of blogging but thought that occasional posts on birding in my adopted homeland (and sometimes elsewhere) might be of interest, especially as a lot of birders visit the French Alps and nearby Switzerland on family holidays or work trips, hopefully my contributions will be of interest and give an idea of what is typical birding throughout the year. I consider my local patch to be anywhere I go to by walking from the house, we’re at 1,000m altitude on the side of the Fier river valley as it descends past our village (Manigod, in Haute-Savoie Département) on its way to flow just north of Annecy and on into the Rhône. Most of my birding is done on foot, but I like to wander down (in the car) to the lower altitudes every now and then (otherwise I’d never see any wildfowl or waders!), good sites that aren’t too far away are the three lakes and surrounding lowland habitats around Annecy, Aix les Bains and Geneva.
December doldrums are something local patchers are familiar with, migration is long over and the wintering species visiting the feeders tend not to change very much and although today didn’t produce any oddities it was nevertheless one of those days where everything clicked, producing what is my best-ever one day species total for December without straying more than 1km from the house.
28 December The usual suspects were taking advantage of the free food we and our neighbours supply, I estimated 2 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 2 Blackbird, 10 Marsh, 1 Crested, 5 Coal, 5 Blue and 10 Great Tit, a Magpie, 6(!) Jay, 40 Brambling, 25 Chaffinch, 15 Goldfinch, 6 Greenfinch, 1 or 2 Hawfinch, 20 Yellowhammer and the usual solitary male House Sparrow. Also a Siskin called but I couldn’t see it. A couple of Green Woodpeckers were about as usual and I heard, then later saw a Nuthatch. Siskin have been absent all winter so far apart from an occasional singleton, presumably they’re still a long way north in Scandinavia?
A nice surprise while I was scraping ice of the car mid-morning was our first proper flock of Fieldfare this winter, c40 chakk a chakking as they flew over. Redwing are uncommon here so it was frustrating to glimpse two smaller thrush sp with them, hopefully they’ll stick around to allow closer investigation. Things got better when I went for a walk, a Bullfinch over, a Wren calling and a pair of Mistle Thrush (first song heard a few days ago). There were at least 16 Yellowhammer on the straw and dung pile at the farm (so that’s where they go when they’re not eating the seed I put out!). A Raven was doing some acrobatics then dived into a tree where three more were waiting, a real cacophony ensued! Back near the house I heard a Nutcracker wheezing in the distance, the local Buzzard flew over mewing (most of the Common Buzzard leave us for milder climes in winter but one or two seem to stick it out) and a solitary Carrion Crow was perched in a tree top. Just before getting back home I heard an odd call I didn’t recognise from further up the valley, after a few seconds’ panic I located the source(s), two Golden Eagles wheeling around just above the rooftops up the road! Through my binoculars I could see one was a 1st year and the other an adult and after a couple of minutes a third one joined them, another slightly smaller adult. They circled, still quite low, for a minute or two before powering back up the valley. The nearest pair successfully fledged two young last summer about 5kms away at around 1400m altitude so I guess it was them, I wonder how long it will be before the young one gets driven away, pretty soon I imagine? A real thrill to see them down in the valley so near to home and the day was complete when through the window later on I had only my third sighting of Common Treecreeper from the house this year. If I’d only managed to see the usual Robin I’d have clocked up 30 species for the day!
December doldrums are something local patchers are familiar with, migration is long over and the wintering species visiting the feeders tend not to change very much and although today didn’t produce any oddities it was nevertheless one of those days where everything clicked, producing what is my best-ever one day species total for December without straying more than 1km from the house.
28 December The usual suspects were taking advantage of the free food we and our neighbours supply, I estimated 2 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 2 Blackbird, 10 Marsh, 1 Crested, 5 Coal, 5 Blue and 10 Great Tit, a Magpie, 6(!) Jay, 40 Brambling, 25 Chaffinch, 15 Goldfinch, 6 Greenfinch, 1 or 2 Hawfinch, 20 Yellowhammer and the usual solitary male House Sparrow. Also a Siskin called but I couldn’t see it. A couple of Green Woodpeckers were about as usual and I heard, then later saw a Nuthatch. Siskin have been absent all winter so far apart from an occasional singleton, presumably they’re still a long way north in Scandinavia?
A nice surprise while I was scraping ice of the car mid-morning was our first proper flock of Fieldfare this winter, c40 chakk a chakking as they flew over. Redwing are uncommon here so it was frustrating to glimpse two smaller thrush sp with them, hopefully they’ll stick around to allow closer investigation. Things got better when I went for a walk, a Bullfinch over, a Wren calling and a pair of Mistle Thrush (first song heard a few days ago). There were at least 16 Yellowhammer on the straw and dung pile at the farm (so that’s where they go when they’re not eating the seed I put out!). A Raven was doing some acrobatics then dived into a tree where three more were waiting, a real cacophony ensued! Back near the house I heard a Nutcracker wheezing in the distance, the local Buzzard flew over mewing (most of the Common Buzzard leave us for milder climes in winter but one or two seem to stick it out) and a solitary Carrion Crow was perched in a tree top. Just before getting back home I heard an odd call I didn’t recognise from further up the valley, after a few seconds’ panic I located the source(s), two Golden Eagles wheeling around just above the rooftops up the road! Through my binoculars I could see one was a 1st year and the other an adult and after a couple of minutes a third one joined them, another slightly smaller adult. They circled, still quite low, for a minute or two before powering back up the valley. The nearest pair successfully fledged two young last summer about 5kms away at around 1400m altitude so I guess it was them, I wonder how long it will be before the young one gets driven away, pretty soon I imagine? A real thrill to see them down in the valley so near to home and the day was complete when through the window later on I had only my third sighting of Common Treecreeper from the house this year. If I’d only managed to see the usual Robin I’d have clocked up 30 species for the day!
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