• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Swiss bits (2 Viewers)

String? Rope is more like it....
I spoke to the county recorder once, trying to find out what else it could have been and he said that a lot of people tell the same story and he's got no idea what people keep mistaking for nutcrackers. Makes me glad that a lot of other people have gooned it up, too...
 
Well, what can be best described as a 'plume' of swifts over the Grosser Bremgartenwald yesterday. Must have been something hatching out in that bit of the woods. I'd read in a few places that sparrowhawks will go for swifts, but had never seen it until yesterday when one chased a swift for a few seconds before giving up and going for something easier. Close thing, though. Otherwise, been a bit quiet lately as I've been a bit busy with work and family.
Ah well, hopefully some decent birding soon...
 
So did you get any of the vultures around Bern this last weekend? There were nearly 40 Griffons at the Col de la Colombière on Sunday as well as a Black Vulture. Also saw 4 different Lammergeiers and a nice sighting of a Lammergeier flying in formation with a Griffon. In fact there were two Blacks as photographic evidence showed... I read that around 90 Griffons have reached the north of Belgium. Mike
 
Although I only saw my first one a couple of weeks ago, I did manage this morning to identify another spotted flycatcher at the uni this morning. Damn' shame that a) it was quite overcast and the light was too poor for a photo (I did get quite close) and b) I didn't have the camera with me anyway.
 
colonelboris said:
Although I only saw my first one a couple of weeks ago, I did manage this morning to identify another spotted flycatcher at the uni this morning. Damn' shame that a) it was quite overcast and the light was too poor for a photo (I did get quite close) and b) I didn't have the camera with me anyway.
Click to expand...

Given b. surely a. was irrelevant. ;)
 
Helenelizabeth2 said:
Given b. surely a. was irrelevant. ;)
Click to expand...

Indeedly, but I was building up to it...

Should have seen the storm we had this morning. We nearly lost sight of the building across the road and there were hailstones nearly one inch across. Damn glad I was messing about with the new internet connection at home instead of walking the three miles to work at the time...
 
Same storm hit us an hour later. Wow, it was like in India with the monsoon. Luckily I was in with my class and not out in the woods like yesterday....

André
 
Awesome to watch from indoors, wasn't it? An opinion not shared by the girl from the office who got absoultely bombed on while she was walking from the train station...
 
André, do you know if there's any birding to be had at Schynige Platte? I'm taking Mrs Boris up there on Saturday as it shouldn't be too much of a trek, but just wondered if she'd get to see some Alpine choughs or anything like that.
 
colonelboris said:
Should have seen the storm we had this morning. We nearly lost sight of the building across the road and there were hailstones nearly one inch across.
Click to expand...
I heard some houses got destroyed (near Zürich?) where two colleagues of mine were applying for a job. They'd had a hell of a landing at Kloten (a very funny word in Dutch (namely b*llocks), so I just had to write it) on Wednesday evening... in between thundershowers.

Alpine Choughs occur at the Schynige Platte. The Citril Finches and Alpine Accentors are even better (but probably less entertaining): http://www.riverland.net.au/~peterw/1999SwitzIt.doc
 
Sorry Colonol, didn't see your post earlier. I don't know Schynige Platte, but as Xenospiza said, you can expect the commoner alpine species. Look out for Griffon Vultures, there were several sightings in the Berner Oberland in the last days, sometimes up to 7 birds!
Good day tomorrow

André
 
Well, not too bad a trip. One of the girld at work said it was a bit touristy, which is was a bit, but not too bad - plenty of space to walk about in and not too many 'Nordic' walkers (hold on, was that an 'l' or an 'n' in that bit...?), so it was very nice. Good weather, too. On the trip up in the cog railway, we both saw a nutcracker at the same time - good view, too. Jo was happy as that's a lifer and one she'd wanted to see. A few Alpine choughs were about (photos later), but no Alpine accentors, which is a shame. Did, however, get a look at a male ring ouzel, wheatears, lots of black redstarts and my first view of a citril finch. The colours were a lot brighter than the pictures in Collins suggests. Some awesome views of the Jungfrau-region mountains and valleys.
 
And some Alpine chough photos...
Panoramic Alp shots coming later.
 

Attachments

  • bfac1.jpg
    bfac1.jpg
    106.5 KB · Views: 138
  • bfac2.jpg
    bfac2.jpg
    17.6 KB · Views: 133
Nice on-the-way-to-work birds over the last couple of days. Friday had four (count 'em - four!) spotted flycatchers in a very small patch, giving some really good hovering displays - it was a big, brown, featureless humming bird. Then I got really close to a pristine-plumaged male black redstart at lunch. Once again, a sod that I didn't have my camera with me.
Lovely views of the Alpine swifts over the town today as well as some very juvenile sparrows, learning how to scrounge chips with their parents at the zoo. Also heard, but not seen, was a raven, gronking near the zoo.
Nothing to phone birdline about, but still nice.
 
Had a black kite very low over the town in Bumpliz today, wheeling all over the place. Quite nice as I've not seen one round this way yet.
 
Another trip to Fanel. Tons upon tons of black kites and grey herons in the fields on the way. Also a great egret in a field near the reserve. Very quiet on the lake itself and the wind was really up - water was being blown off the wave tops onto the path by the canal. Didn't see too much, but did get a little egret (which brings the Swiss list to 98) and saw three ruddy shelducks that I've seen listed as escapes. Otherwise, huge flotillas of coots, great crested grebes and cormorants. Not a whiff of any terns, but loads of yellow-legged gulls and black-headed gulls about. Went over the other side of the canal for a change and saw a chap very intently lining up his camera through a break in the bushes overlooking a pond. I stopped, not wanting to disturb him, but he waved me over and pointed to a juvenile night heron a few feet away. It could see us but wasn't very bothered at all, so I managed to get some really bad photos. No. 99 for Switzerland this year...
on the way back, saw maybe two dozen black kites and similar number of grey herons in a single field, seven great egrets in a field over the road and a flock of about 30 curlew that a raptor had put up before they settled into a field of maize and were lost to sight.
 

Attachments

  • nightheron1.jpg
    nightheron1.jpg
    79.7 KB · Views: 92
  • blackkite1.jpg
    blackkite1.jpg
    35 KB · Views: 108
Last edited:
Sounds great. I wish I could come visit and get out of boring old Norfolk ;). So many birds out there that I'd love to see.

Jason
 
Warning! This thread is more than 15 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Similar threads

Evan Atkinson
A nice weekend out and about.
Replies
1
Views
698
watcher347
W
rollingthunder
Malaga - last week.....
Replies
0
Views
380
rollingthunder
rollingthunder
JTweedie
Wolf-watching in Spain
Replies
7
Views
899
jogresh
jogresh
hookem2010
A Day at Muyil
Replies
2
Views
1K
hookem2010
hookem2010
Jos Stratford
Italia Exotica, 29 March-3 April.
Replies
11
Views
824
Jos Stratford
Jos Stratford

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 3 (members: 0, guests: 3)
Back
Top