Birding halfway up the Alps (2 Viewers)

[Warixenjalka]

At last year one hunter shoot mountain biker in National park in Finland. The hunter said he thought it was a Capercailie.

 

[Richard Prior]

At last year one hunter shoot mountain biker in National park in Finland. The hunter said he thought it was a Capercailie.

Oh dear, a couple of years ago a Swiss hunter invited to hunt in France managed to shoot dead some donkeys in a field, mistaking them for Roe Deer, you couldn’t make it up. The hunter who accidentally shot dead the lady out walking last weekend is not surprisingly suffering from shock, she is only 17 years old (yes, you can be old enough to go hunting with a gun but not to vote or buy alcohol here

 

[Richard Prior]

More new songsters for the year yesterday (24th), Yellowhammer and Eurasian Treecreeper, the bunting has started up between the 17th and 25th each year we've been here so almost Swiss precision there! Song Thrush has yet to return though so this year will be the latest it's arrived here since we did in 2016.
I put the camera trap in the forest again last night, no badger this time but perhaps two different Pine Marten, one seemed to have a bushier tail than the other, a handsome Fox and a Roe Deer walked through without stopping. A fourth species in next post.

 

[Richard Prior]

The Wildcat also put in an appearance...
Still waiting for Brown Hare, Lynx, Wolf 😮 and (much more likely, especially if I leave the camera up in daylight) Red Squirrel.

 

[Richard Prior]

22 March A Crake’s Progress, or going off the Rails

We finally made it to England on 3 March for an 11 day tour around, seeing the family over there for the first time since 2019. My sister has had the good sense to move to the Kent coast, just 5 minutes’ drive from Dungeness which meant I was able to do my first seawatch for about 15 years. Thanks to a sharp-eyed Jacob Spinks from Yorkshire and an old Selsey regular seawatcher Martin Casemore ( see his: Ploddingbirder.blogspot.com ) I reacquainted myself with such exotic species (well, if seen in the Alps ) as Common Scoter, Razorbill, Guillemot, Gannet, Kittiwake and Fulmar, the highlight was seeing flock after flock of Brent Geese moving up channel.
Back home I was surprised to note no change in the birds present around the plot, more song than at the start of March but it was a few days before anything seemed to be on the move, a Skylark flyover was a rarity for Manigod at least and Black Redstart and Blackcap finally reappeared after their winter holidays on 20th and 23rd respectively. A pair of Bullfinch have been adding some colour to the garden too.

Reports from the south of France of newly arriving migrants encouraged me to go over to the Rhône at Seyssel again on 22nd to see what I might find, 8 Penduline Tit had been seen the previous day but I wanted to look for more skulking targets. I was on site before 8am and found 4 Little Ringed Plover and a Green Sandpiper on a sand bank where the Fier joins the Rhône. Parking up just downstream as on my last visit I immediately heard my first Blackcap and Chiffchaff songs of the spring here and the Cetti’s Warbler were in fine voice. Walking slowly alongside the reed lined channel and stopping to scan the base of the reeds where there was fortunately some exposed mud I quickly found one, and soon after a second Water Rail and to my delight I could see a couple of Garganey further upriver. Setting up the ‘scope opposite the Garganey I eventually worked out that there were five, a pair doing a bit of head bobbing display, plus three more males. The telescope proved invaluable as I found an immobile Common Snipe and then, bingo, a cracking male Little Crake on the reed edge well across the now much wider expanse of water. I looked away for a moment as I heard footsteps passing behind me on the footpath, a chap with an enormous camera lens and tiny binoculars had just passed without stopping to talk so I called him back to share the Little Crake with him. As I tried to refind it a Spotted Crake appeared just to the right of the Little Crake’s previous position! Despite me getting the Spotted and then the Little in the ‘scope for him, the poor guy seemed to struggle using it never managed to see either of them, the rising water level didn’t help as the muddy margins were now submerged meaning the crakes and rails were much harder to pick out. We walked around the more wooded part of the site plus the reed mace area but the Penduline Tits were not there, when I’ve seen them in spring at this location they have more often been feeding on willow buds rather than in the reeds. After parting company with my unlucky new friend I went back to the ‘Crake spot’ and started scanning again. The Little Crake reappeared, climbed onto a beached tree trunk and flew a good 25m across to another part of the reedbed (see action shot!). Hearing footsteps behind me I saw my photographer pal heading back up the track, once again without stopping to chat (“there’s nowt so rum as folk” as my Great Uncle Harry from Barnsley used to say). My ‘manageable’ sized camera and lens was a bit out of its depth with the distances so apologies for the crake pics attached, but you can use your imagination. I finished off with my first Black Kite of the year, skirmishing with a local Common Buzzard.

 

[rosbifs]

22 March A Crake’s Progress, or going off the Rails

We finally made it to England on 3 March for an 11 day tour around, seeing the family over there for the first time since 2019. My sister has had the good sense to move to the Kent coast, just 5 minutes’ drive from Dungeness which meant I was able to do my first seawatch for about 15 years. Thanks to a sharp-eyed Jacob Spinks from Yorkshire and an old Selsey regular seawatcher Martin Casemore ( see his: Ploddingbirder.blogspot.com ) I reacquainted myself with such exotic species (well, if seen in the Alps ) as Common Scoter, Razorbill, Guillemot, Gannet, Kittiwake and Fulmar, the highlight was seeing flock after flock of Brent Geese moving up channel.
Back home I was surprised to note no change in the birds present around the plot, more song than at the start of March but it was a few days before anything seemed to be on the move, a Skylark flyover was a rarity for Manigod at least and Black Redstart and Blackcap finally reappeared after their winter holidays on 20th and 23rd respectively. A pair of Bullfinch have been adding some colour to the garden too.

Reports from the south of France of newly arriving migrants encouraged me to go over to the Rhône at Seyssel again on 22nd to see what I might find, 8 Penduline Tit had been seen the previous day but I wanted to look for more skulking targets. I was on site before 8am and found 4 Little Ringed Plover and a Green Sandpiper on a sand bank where the Fier joins the Rhône. Parking up just downstream as on my last visit I immediately heard my first Blackcap and Chiffchaff songs of the spring here and the Cetti’s Warbler were in fine voice. Walking slowly alongside the reed lined channel and stopping to scan the base of the reeds where there was fortunately some exposed mud I quickly found one, and soon after a second Water Rail and to my delight I could see a couple of Garganey further upriver. Setting up the ‘scope opposite the Garganey I eventually worked out that there were five, a pair doing a bit of head bobbing display, plus three more males. The telescope proved invaluable as I found an immobile Common Snipe and then, bingo, a cracking male Little Crake on the reed edge well across the now much wider expanse of water. I looked away for a moment as I heard footsteps passing behind me on the footpath, a chap with an enormous camera lens and tiny binoculars had just passed without stopping to talk so I called him back to share the Little Crake with him. As I tried to refind it a Spotted Crake appeared just to the right of the Little Crake’s previous position! Despite me getting the Spotted and then the Little in the ‘scope for him, the poor guy seemed to struggle using it never managed to see either of them, the rising water level didn’t help as the muddy margins were now submerged meaning the crakes and rails were much harder to pick out. We walked around the more wooded part of the site plus the reed mace area but the Penduline Tits were not there, when I’ve seen them in spring at this location they have more often been feeding on willow buds rather than in the reeds. After parting company with my unlucky new friend I went back to the ‘Crake spot’ and started scanning again. The Little Crake reappeared, climbed onto a beached tree trunk and flew a good 25m across to another part of the reedbed (see action shot!). Hearing footsteps behind me I saw my photographer pal heading back up the track, once again without stopping to chat (“there’s nowt so rum as folk” as my Great Uncle Harry from Barnsley used to say). My ‘manageable’ sized camera and lens was a bit out of its depth with the distances so apologies for the crake pics attached, but you can use your imagination. I finished off with my first Black Kite of the year, skirmishing with a local Common Buzzard.

Awesome, cra(c)king birds!

 

[Richard Prior]

Cheers, I am relieved to see that both the crakes have been seen on the two following days by Savoie birders,as another Haute Savoie chap who contacted me asking for distance details for his photography failed to find them. Good luck with the owls, we are hopefully going to have a try for Pygmy ( and Tengmalm’s 🤞) up in the forest the house in the next few days !

 

[Richard Prior]

A combination of 'man 'flu' and an April coming in like a lion (shouldn't that be March??) means the owl search has been postponed for now and, like Rosbifs in the Pyrenees, the arrival of snow and cold temperatures has turned the Spring migration on its head, the Black Redstart have vanished at our altitude, the White Wagtail have ceased their frisky behaviour and retreated to the local farms where it's warmer around the barns and dung heaps and the first singing Chiffchaff has been silent. As often happens, high altitude returning migrants have turned up around our place (1000m asl), 31st March saw three Citril Finch feeding with the increased numbers of Yellowhammer, unfortunately I was on the 'phone when I spotted them and typically were already flying away (down the valley, can't blame them!) by the time I'd got my camera in hand. Today, 2nd April turned up other birds looking for food here instead of around the snowed in alpine pastures, a female Ring Ousel, two Alpine Accentor, and the wide-ranging 2nd year female Golden Eagle, flew low over the house instead of being its usual distant self.
In the midst of all this wintry weather the first Black Kite I've seen up here turned up, buffeted by the bitterly cold wind!

 

[Richard Prior]

Well, the first frost on the car windscreen last week and the first snow visible from the house yesterday remind me that summer’s definitely over so a bit of a catch up on birding activity (or lack of) is needed.

An overall summary : I never did get to go up into the forest for owling in Spring and my vigils for Eagle Owl down in Thônes also drew a blank this year, plenty of garden and field maintenance meant most of my birding took place from home or at my Mother in Law’s pasture instead of exploring further afield in the wonderful Alps, plus I rarely took my camera on the walks we did undertake so apologies for the lack of gripping photographs..

Looking at birds of prey it seems that settled weather during the breeding season resulted in a good year for many species hereabouts though the ‘trio’ of Lammergeier near the Col de la Colombière failed to produce a young, interestingly last week (19 September) they were seen already bringing sticks etc to the new nest site they’ve chosen, quick off the mark or what! Excellent results from the Alps overall for the species though I hear. Our nearest Golden Eagle pair also failed this year but seemed in fine form when I saw them last week, the male displaying as they often do in autumn. More positive news is that the local Short-toed Eagle couple fledged a young this year. Really close to home around Manigod I saw locally fledged young Red and Black Kite, Honey and Common Buzzard, Sparrowhawk, Goshawk (photo 4 July through the kitchen window!) and Kestrel in better numbers than average over the past 6 years. As usual, Hobby only appeared at the end of June (when the first juv. Hirundines fledge!) so I don’t believe they breed that close. Peregrine breeds somewhere on the mountains about 5kms away so occasionally an adult male flashed overhead from late spring onwards. That just leaves Griffon Vulture, immatures that come up here for their summer holidays but no breeding records in Haute Savoie yet, funnily enough they turn up exactly when the sheep go up to the mountain pasture and they’ve had a good summer thanks to several Wolf kills. Each year sees a few Cinerous Vulture up here in the Northern Frenc/Swiss Alps but I didn’t connect with any myself.

For the second year in succession a stray Collared Dove ventured up to us at our 1000m altitude, it called twice then promptly flew back down the valley (must be the thinner air up here that put it off).With the climate continuing to heat up I wouldn’t be surprised to see the species spreading to higher altitude. Which is exactly what has happened with Middle Spotted Woodpecker and Short-toed Treecreeper in this neck of the woods, The Woodie was around all through May and June so I see that as just a ‘probable breeder’, but I found a nest of the ‘creeper and watched the adults bringing food to their chosen home in the split trunk of our neighbours’ plum tree. Higher altitude passerine breeders did well, if the number of juveniles around on my August and September hikes between 1400 and 1800m are any guide, young of Tree and Water Pipit, Northern Wheatear, Ring Ousel, Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush (photo by our visitor and ex-colleague from our Lebanon days Colin Conroy), Linnet and Citril Finch all in evidence. The annual trip with Bittern up to the Col de la Colombière achieved all the usual suspects to be expected (see previous years’ postings) without however yomping up to 2000m where Snowfinch, Alpine Accentor and Wallcreeper can also be found) though Dunnock was strangely absent on the three visits I made. We did check out a boggy area near the farm at 1650m and were delighted to hear and the see a Marsh Warbler singing away (it was like being back in Armenia!).

As I feared after the widespread nest failures in 2021 this year saw a noticeable decline in Red-backed Shrike pairs, although I understand numbers were normal at lower altitude. The couples that did nest in the vicinity had good results, so perhaps 2023 will see a return to the previous breeding density for the species. So no mega rares to report, the most unusual sighting I’ve had (so far) this year was a flyover Yellow Wagtail recently, a welcome addition to the Garden List up here. One of the more unusual records was part of the bigger and more northerly than usual post breeding dispersal of Rollers - a young bird which spent over a week up at the Col de Jaman near Montreux (1520m asl!!) instead of staying down in the lower lying areas as its congeners did.

I also visited my most conveniently accessed raptor migration spot twice in September at Défilé de l’Ecluse (see post 31 further back) and got lucky both times, on my first visit we logged five Osprey, including the unusual sight of three migrating together. Yesterday 30 September was the first dry day after a week of rain so Red Kite in particular were on the move again, over 400 went through in the day! Other numbers were Common Buzzard 220, Kestrel 69, Sparrowhawk 48, Marsh Harrier 11, Osprey 3, Black Kite 2, Honey Buzzard 1 and the icing on the cake, a male Pallid Harrier glistening in the welcome afternoon sunlight as it headed south (a French tick for me!!). Add in 7 Black Stork, 870 Stock Dove and 334 Cormorant and you can see it wasn’t one of those boring days for once. Feeding up on their migration were hirundines and an Alpine Swift, Northern Wheatear, Common Redstart, Spotted Flycatcher and Blackcap for example. I will probably return in late October when the site can be good for passing Woodlark and with a bit of luck, Common Crane. The daily totals for the site are now on trektellen.org instead of on the Haute Savoie LPO site.

Photos Black Kite, Goshawk and Rock Thrush juvs

 

[Richard Prior]

2023 summary.
Here at Chateau Prior it’s been a decent if unspectacular year, some good sightings from the house/garden (often thanks to the telescope!) and a few new places visited in our immediate vicinity.

January 14th saw the nearly annual New Year visit to the Lake Neuchatel area in Switzerland with Bittern of this parish, this gives me an increasingly needed refresher on wildfowl each year as I’m still waiting to see any duck, gull or wader species at home after 7 years here now so get a bit out of practice with watery avifauna! Highlights were a White - tailed Eagle (a 2nd year from the French reintroduction project near Geneva), Goshawk, Bittern, Tree Sparrow and Great Grey Shrike at Fanel. We also found a ringtail Hen Harrier at Krummi (where a Peregrine was devouring a Black-headed Gull on a pylon) and a lonely White Stork nearby that was braving the Swiss winter instead of migrating to warmer climes as all its mates had done. We did some filthy twitching on the shores of Lac Léman on the way back to Geneva, seeing the wintering Bar-tailed Godwit at Morges but failing to find the returning Ring-necked Duck with the Common and Red-crested Pochard and Tufted Ducks at nearby Gland.

At home, Middle Spotted Woodpecker was regular at the feeders all winter meaning I had now seen it in every month of the year since the first appearance in Autumn 2018. Alpine Accentor visited as well, as usual their arrival coinciding with heavy snowstorms. The trail camera captured images of Badger, Fox, Wild Cat, Roe Deer and Pine Marten in the garden over the winter period

Directly across the valley from us is the Mt.Sulens, not one of your classic Alpine ‘pointy’ mountains, but a smooth contoured, grass-topped job, with forest on the steeper north facing slope to within about 100m of the summit looking from our house. I scan it quite a lot from March to October as birds of prey are often to be seen, often seeing my first Short-toed Eagle of the year thereabouts, and since 2016 I’ve jammed in on migrating goodies like Merlin, Hobby, Red-footed Falcon, Black Stork, Marsh and Montagu’s Harrier. However I had tended to rarely look over there in winter when the snow has covered it, just the occasional scan to try and spot Chamois. That habit changed for good this year, when at dawn on 17 Feb I spotted a black blob on the snow just above the tree line, a male Black Grouse! As it got properly light it flew down into the trees and seemed to nibble at the end of some branches (we’re talking about 3kms away mind you!). More on Sulens mountain later…..

 

[Richard Prior]

A different Caucasus interlude

2022 saw me achieve 70 years on this earth and the big treat planned for that year was for us to go on a bird tour in Finland and Varanger, 25 years after my one and only previous organised commercial birding trip (to Israel with Sunbird with leaders Killian Mullarney and Haddoram Shirihai no less ). I’m not a World Lister, in fact all my birding has been in the WP apart from birds seen on family visits to Oz and NZ (with a few hours of stop over birding in Singapore). I keep a WP list though and Finland would have given me the chance to see several new species, particularly owls. As luck would have it the tour was cancelled a few months before it was scheduled and on reflection it would have been hard going for us, dawn to dusk birding, long distances to cover and no time to discover local history/culture. So we decided that this year we would carry on up into Georgia after our (almost annual!) visit to the project we support in Armenia at end February, the idea being to experience that neighbouring country and sandwich a week’s birding in the middle of our stay. One of my personal bugbears is ‘target species lists’ as I feel uncomfortable with the expression, conjuring up a hunting attitude to birding rather than taking time experiencing nature in all its glory. BUT, I have for a long time dreamed of seeing the Great Rosefinch and the Great Caucasus range so I have to admit the strawberry pink passerine was one of the major reasons for adding the guided birding tour to our Georgia discovery plans.

It was fascinating to see the similarities and differences between Armenia and Georgia in terms of culture, politics, architecture, landscape and birds etc. but unfortunately a few things went wrong for us which I won’t bore folks with. Bird wise I saw 4 new species and after a final couple of days in Tbilisi we took the Midnight Train from Georgia (as the song nearly says!) back down to Yerevan for our mid - morning flight back to France.

The 4 WP additions were White-winged (Güldenstadt’s) Redstart, Caucasian Black Grouse, White-backed Woodpecker and Kruper’s Nuthatch – spot the missing birdies……………………… I finally got to hear Siberian Chiffchaff calls too after only ever having seen a silent one years ago in Taunton, England. Seeing over 1500 Little Bustard in one flock was quite an experience, as was getting up (fairly) close and personal with Steppe, Imperial and Great Spotted Eagle. It was still very much winter in the north of the country, but in the south and south east it felt like spring was about to er, spring with for example, a group of White-winged Tern over a reservoir and a Black Stork chugging north. But, showing winter still hadn't ended, Northern Lapwing, was the only wader species seen anywhere! Once again, we had such a lot of children’s clothes to carry to Armenia that the big lens stayed at home, so sorry, fairly mediocre pictures of birds to show you.

 

[Richard Prior]

A few 'holiday snaps': Mt Kazbek (5054m or 16500ft in old money), Greater Caucusus range seen from down in the south-east corner of Georgia, ancient and modern in Tbilisi and the night sleeper from Georgia to Armenia on arrival before dawn in Yerevan.

 

[Scridifer]

Congratulations on the 'milestone' and some great birds in Georgia Richard!

Chris

 

[ClarkWGriswold]

And an extremely belated happy birthday Rich.

 

[Richard Prior]

Thanks young ‘uns! I had toyed with copying your 60th birding bash in the Canaries Chris but being Alpine subspecies we can’t cope with temperatures over 20C
The train was very comfortable, one quirky thing though, about 90 minutes after
leaving Tbilisi it stops at an apparently deserted (apart from friendly feral dogs) station on the border and all passengers have to get off and stand shivering in a queue to have the Georgian officials check passports. Ten minutes down the line it stops again but the Armenian border officers get on board and use some sort of electronic device to scan papers, Armenia 1 Georgia 0 !

 

[Richard Prior]

Spring

The first returning migrants trickle in to our area during March, some are altitudinal rather than long distance, species that are present year round as close as Annecy (Red Kite, Kestrel Black Redstart, White Wagtail, Firecrest, Chiffchaff and Crag Martin for example, others that have wintered further south in France (Song Thrush, Starling, Serin, Citril Finch) and a few that have crossed the Mediterranean (Black Kite, Ring Ousel). All will stay to breed locally, this year the only passage migrant I saw going through our valley in March was Merlin.

My only visit (on 30th March) to the ‘Crake Spot’ at Seyssel on the Rhône drew a blank this year, the course of the river through France is regulated by multiple hydroelectric installations, this means that all the lovely exposed mud at the base of the reeds can be underwater just an hour after looking perfect for those skulkers so it’s totally unpredictable. Unfortunately on the morning I chose, the water level was way too high to give me a chance of seeing any rails or crakes. However I found a few good birds including a pair of Garganey, a stonking male ‘Italian’ Yellow Wagtail, a passing Marsh Harrier and hirundines a’plenty, always nice to see them in March. Passage Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff were in song as were the noisy resident Cetti’s Warblers. One of the pair of Long-tailed Tit I saw there had a nice, almost pure white head, but not good enough overall to be a Northern job. A very sedentary spring continued in April, most of my birding taking place around the village, but a rare visit to Annecy’s bright lights on 7th brought me my earliest ever French Common Swift sighting, I was half expecting an interrogation from the local LPO head honcho because of the ridiculous date but I saw later that there had already been a few other sightings not far away, plus 20 at one site in nearby Switzerland the next day. A northbound Montagu’s Harrier was also a nice surprise as it gained height after crossing the lake. Scanning the still snow covered peaks and forest from home produced several more Black Grouse sightings on Sulens, the first returning Short-toed Eagle and displaying Golden Eagle, not to mention a pair of adult Lammergeier at a potential new breeding site. The Black Grouse male started displaying out in the open on the snow, seemingly on its own on the first four occasions but on 26th I was delighted to see three birds, two male and one female spectator as the two males started jousting! I feel really privileged to be able to watch such a spectacle from the house, the birds never disturbed by any human interlopers. The lekking continued until at least 18 May, thereafter I saw only a solitary male the last sighting on 24 June. There was a bit of disturbance from an unexpected quarter though….

Photos. A very long shot of the two males (if you can spot them!), garden White Wagtail, Citril and Serin and an overflying male Peregrine (I think I’ve only ever seen one female near the house in 7 years, and that was a juvenile!)

 

[Richard Prior]

Rest of 2023 catch up (warning, a long read so get a coffee ready before reading)

Encouraged by my first sighting of Black Grouse lekking since a Scottish trip in the last century(!) I had the telescope trained on the mountain before dawn the next morning, three Chamois were scratching at the snow on the left (east facing) ridge and I scanned to the right hoping to see the Grouse out on the snow just above the tree line as on the previous day. A movement up on the skyline caught my eye, two Grey Wolf strolled into full view! They separated and moved behind the ridge. About a minute later the Chamois came careering down the slope into the forest at speed, and the wolves reappeared ten seconds later, they’d been rumbled! After standing looking around they ambled into the forest, providing me with an unforgettable wildlife experience as they flushed a male Black Grouse as they went. Despite the distance I tried to take a couple of photos of them as they exited stage right and crossed the snow back to where I’d first spotted them, you can just about see them. A week later I saw at least one in the same area and on 12 May while walking below the mountain early morning I had the slightly chilling experience of feeling I was being watched – sure enough there was one of these top predators gazing down at me from the highest point! It was a good morning up there as I came across at least 3 different male Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush males, one pursuing a cheeky Cuckoo and another one going after a pair of Red-billed Chough! It was funny to see how one of the Chough got fed up and did a u-turn and started to chase the Rock Thrush. It was only my second sighting of the thrush up there and the first time I’d seen the Red-billed Chough on Sulens (though they breed less than 5kms away to the east). Cleaning the nest boxes in mid June provided a nice surprise, on lifting the lid of the box I installed in the forest I was chuffed to see an Edible Dormouse looking up at me!

Soon after the road over the Col de La Colombière opened at the beginning of June I went up to have my umpteenth try to see Rock Partridge, no luck as usual but just to remind me of how birding can sometimes kick you in the teeth I have this amusing (perhaps for you but not for me) tale from around the same period. I was contacted by a German birder via a Birdforum PM, she was coming to the French Alps with some birding friends and had a list of Alpine bird targets, I recommended the Col to her for Lammergeier, R t Rock Thrush, Citril Finch, Alpine Chough etc., and mentioned that Rock Partridge was known in that area but rarely seen (and never by me in c40 -50 visits over the years!). You can guess what happened when they visited the spot, they were very grateful (three Rock Partridge, not just one), aaarrrrgh (well the Good Book does say it’s better to give than to receive ). On a subsequent visit I actually heard one call, so I suppose I’m getting closer to my goal… We did a few walks before the tourist season kicked in, climbing up in the mornings to two different mountain refuges, sampling their local produce cooking before continuing the walks in the afternoons. Both were new places for my wife and me despite being less than 10kms from home in each case, on the first walk the bird highlights were several pairs of Bonelli’s Warbler (some feeding recently fledged young) and a pair of Short-toed Snake Eagle whistling to each other overhead. The second all day hike was on the Tournette mountain that overlooks Lake Annecy, this produced Bonelli’s Warbler again and Ring Ousel in the more wooded sector. Higher up we had Alpine and Red-billed Chough, Griffon Vulture, Kestrel, Crag Martin, Water Pipit, Northern Wheatear and some exciting entertainment as two juvenile Peregrine did some play fighting before the female juv swooped down to some rocks and narrowly missed catching a smart male R t Rock Thrush that was bringing food to a nest hidden under a rock. Descending back through some forest we flushed a Hazel Grouse, they have a distinctive whirring noise as they take off, just as well because I didn’t even see it, my wife just glimpsed a blur, so a heard only for me this year. Citril Finch and Linnet were feeding young as well on the more open slopes with bushes. Another walk up a nearby dry valley in mid August gave us a surprise Wallcreeper already descended from a higher breeding site, inevitably when I returned the next day with the camera it had gone, though an inquisitive Chamois checked me out and some juvenile Rock Bunting were a good id. tester as they came to drink from a stream.

The Middle Spotted Woodpecker successfully bred near the house, this species is increasing its population in our region as it moves higher with the warming climate. However there was no repeat of last year’s Short-toed Treecreeper nesting, in fact I only heard and saw one this year up here at 1000m and that was in Autumn. There was lots of vulture action on the nearby mountains once the sheep flocks went up to pasture in June, this year I finally got to see Black Vulture with the many over summering immature Griffon and resident Lammergeier. Even the local Red Kite occasionally were at carcasses way up at 2000m altitude and in September a group of Griffon and Raven congregating by a distant waterfall in a clearing helped me get another Grey Wolf sighting as the canine arrived to investigate and tug at whatever had come to grief in the stream. For the second successive year, it seemed that Red-backed Shrike pairs were lower than average in number than normal on our mountains and valleys but generally passerines had a good breeding year, including Wryneck near the village. No big surprises as autumn and now winter progress, due to family commitments I managed to miss out on the spectacular adult male Surf Scoter down in Geneva, finally being free to go for it the day after it had left, so I just missed a fifth lifer in the year. I did see the wintering Spotted Sandpiper and Great Northern Divers down there so did manage a taste of Transatlantic birds. I have finally replaced my heavy Canon 40D with Sigma telephoto set up with a (much kinder for my old shoulders!) Nikon Coolpix camera, so hopefully I can keep this little thread going next year with a few better quality illustrations.

Photos: distant Grey Wolf couple, Edible Dormouse, Chamois, Rock Bunting juv., local Honey Buzzard

 

[Richard Prior]

2024 dawned with a crisp, sunny day during which I birded in and from the garden (apart from when walking our temporary lodger’s two big dogs). Both Golden Eagle and Lammergeier (a pair) were up and about before 09h and at least one Black Grouse male was visible on the distant Sulens mountain early on as well. All four local Woodpecker species (Black, Green, Middle and Great Spotted) were seen or heard and at the feeders only Willow Tit’s absence prevented me getting a full house of that group. Good numbers of Siskin, Goldfinch, Brambling, Chaffinch and Yellowhammer plus three regular Hawfinch were present and have been good entertainment on several murky days in the first two weeks of January, I managed to see and hear 33 species from home on this bumper first day of the year!

When the ground and stream edges are frozen the resident Grey Wagtail resort to visiting nice hot, steaming dung heaps, only one is clearly visible from the house so I regularly scan in that direction with the ‘scope hoping to find one. On doing so on New Year’s Day I got a surprise, a male Black Redstart was feeding on the muck and straw, my first ever January one from home (a few do winter lower down in Annecy and Geneva though). As if to mock me, a Grey Wag flew past me behind the house on its way to the nearest farm to see if their dung heap was more interesting!

While walking our guest’s dogs a few days later my wife and I came across four (!) Alpine Accentor around the other farm about 1km away but despite some decent snow falls since they still haven’t graced us with their presence around the house yet. Needless to say I didn’t have the camera with me (the dogs are well behaved but I need to concentrate on them when out walking ). It continues to be a good winter for Red Crossbill and males are occasionally singing, the only other songsters in mid winter here are the odd Mistle Thrush males.

The New Zealand branch of the family are over, so I was ‘volunteered’ to take them for a touristy day out in Geneva on 3rd and would you believe it, a Black Redstart was in song on the Cathedral, even better, a Red Kite flew slowly over the spire as we visited! I wondered about including a stroll along the lake shore which could have involved ‘accidentally’ coming across the wintering Turnstone and Spotted Sandpiper but time didn’t allow, so I had to be content with Goosander and Mute Swan and the two commonest gull species (B-h G and Y-l G) for my first dose of ‘watery’ birds for 2024…

Just to remind me that discoveries can still be made very locally after 7 years here, the 10th and 11th produced two new species inside the 1km radius of home. On 10th I was driving our guest to nearby Thônes for a 10am. appointment in the misty freezing morning, two passerines flushed from the roadside next to a (you guessed it) dung heap. As I was concentrating on keeping on the road🤞 I didn't see much on them, but they seemed to have a lot of white on the outer tail. Four hours later when we returned there seemed to be nothing at the spot as we slowly passed, but after depositing my passenger at the house, I grabbed my camera and bins and went back. A Grey Wag flushed from the heap but nothing else seemed present at first, I went around the back of the pile and there, creeping about in some exposed weeds were two White-winged Snowfinch! Result! I’ve seen them on Mt Ararat in Armenia, Fuenté Dé in Spain, above Grimentz in the Swiss Alps and up on the Bargy range in France, but never below 2000m asl. So I ’filled me’ boots’ with the camera you might say.

Then, yesterday 11 Jan we came across Hazel Hen footprints in the snow, first tracks were less than 400m from the house at around 1125m, then a second lot much higher up after a stiff climb along a forest rack at 1260m, I think I’ll install my trail camera somewhere up there for a couple of days and see if I get a visual record of one. The camera has captured regular Pine Marten and Roe Deer visits to the garden but our doggy lodgers have perhaps put off other mammals from coming close.

Photos: Hazel Hen tracks, Geneva (spot the Goosander!) Hawfinch and friends, Snowfinch, Red (well, green ) Crossbill

 

[Richard Prior]

I take it all back! Yes the dogs will have deterred some of our nocturnal mammal visitors but they got into my good books on the 23rd Jan when on our middle of the afternoon walk they (despite staying on the track I might add!) spooked a Hazel Hen just 5m off the footpath. When I took two steps towards the area it had flushed, a second one took flight!

Three days later I did a sneaky post-shopping check on the cliff face in Thones and found a Wallcreeper enjoying the sunshine as it searched for spiders in the crevices. Having spied one there last February and in the same month in 2021 I think I can safely say it’s a regular wintering spot for the species. I couldn’t find a sleeping Eagle Owl (they breed on the cliffs) and no sign of Rock Bunting this time either but seeing Alpine Accentor, Snowfinch and Wallcreeper all before the end of January is a first for me (and all seen below 1100m which isn’t bad!). For my birthday treat at the end of the month we walked from home up to the Merdassier ski station, some runs closed due to lack of snow, others just thin strips of white with grass or mud on either side, an increasingly common sight these winters. Bird wise we saw the year’s first Goldcrest and Nutcracker, the former seem to me to have declined a lot in our forests these past three years.

Apart from one night of snow at our 1000m altitude and a few slightly frosty nights February has been almost springlike, plenty of Small Tortoiseshell on the wing even up at 1500m and a lot of ‘Chase me round the gasworks baby’ action from Blue and Marsh Tit in particular. Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Siskin and Goldfinch all singing before mid - month so I have already made two efforts to locate Pygmy Owl higher up in the forest from us, just a Tawny Owl one dusk so perhaps I’m a bit early.

On 13th Feb I did a few hours’ birding around Lac du Bourget, the southern end of which is about an hour’s drive from home (so not very ‘green’ of me), it’s the biggest natural lake entirely in France (Léman is bigger but is 60% situated in Switzerland) and also the deepest. There are some nice reedbeds and ponds at the southern end and I saw a good selection of wildfowl plus Marsh Harrier and Goshawk from the tower hide at Domaine de Buttet. Unfortunately a lot of essential reedbed and tree maintenance was going on at the nearby Zone des Mottets though a Chiffchaff doing some acrobatic flycatching was an entertaining sight and there was a huge group of Red Crested Pochard just offshore, around 400. The overwintering Pygmy Cormorant was not visible as the promontory viewpoint was closed off so I cut my losses and drove up the east shore of the lake. I went around the northern end (two Great Egret seen) and down the western side to the Abbaye de Hautecombe. On this sun-drenched side a Chiffchaff and a (surprisingly early) Blackcap were both in song. In a little bay just north of the Abbaye there were plenty of Common and Red C Pochard loafing offshore but I couldn’t see my target species for this site at first. After a few sweaty moments I realised I should’ve been looking closer, for there, sleeping under the nearby overhanging trees were at least 15 Ferruginous Duck! From just three in January numbers have built up to 20 lately, by far the biggest gathering in France this winter it would appear. Some of them kindly went for a little voyage into the lake whilst others continued to doze, a good sighting (only my second of the species in France) in a pretty setting.

Another local walk on 15th from near our village to the family’s old summer pasture farmhouse produced the usual species for forest at 1300m including Willow Tit and Black Woodpecker but a big surprise as we walked back down the track early afternoon when an adult Lammergeier lumbered into the air, presumably from the top of a pine tree. It took a while to gain height, circling several times over our heads, for which I’m grateful as only one of the twelve photos I took captured the bird in focus (I’m still getting used to my new toy…).

Attached are a few photos from my Lac du Bourget jaunt plus the cooperative Lammy.

 

[Richard Prior]

Mammal sightings this winter are as usual a mixture of real life and camera trap captures, after setting up the trail camera right next to the house before Christmas, there was little action during, or even after the presence of our two doggy lodgers. So I moved the camera in mid January to the woodland on the edge of our field and put down bits and pieces of food (cheese rind, chicken fat, apple cores/peel and even salmon skin). Considering we’d had some sightings of Red Deer very near and regular Roe Deer visits I was surprised not a single one had passed by (until a dusk visit by four on 17 Feb), but plenty of Pine Marten (every night), probably three individuals minimum, Red Fox occasionally, Badger less often and a magnificent Wild Cat just once. Leaving the camera on night and day has strangely produced no avian action, but a Red Squirrel whizzed past by just once. One of the Marten has an area of its tail with no hair, similar to what Fox can sometimes show (mange?).
Red Deer and Wild Boar tracks a'plenty around and about and Chamois visible from the house most days, just waiting for that Wolf....