Swiss bits (2 Viewers)

[colonelboris]

Well, had a few days at Villars-sur-Ollon on a conference/workshop thing. Saw short-toed eagle, water pipits, nutcrackers, willow tits, Alpine choughs, ravens, citiril finch and a few other more comon bits. Very nice.
Still no Alpine accentor...

 

[wintibird]

Nice, especially the Short-toed Eagle. You should report this one with a description to the Swiss rarity comittee. You can find the form in the attached pdf. More infos about them on http://www.vogelwarte.ch/home.php?lang=d&cap=projekte&subcap=ueberwachung&subsubcap=sak&titel=Schweizerische%20Avifaunistische%20Kommission

For the Alpine Accentor: Do you like skiing? They are easily to see in winter around restaurants in the ski resorts.

André

 

[colonelboris]

Oh damn - another 'didn't take notes because I'd seen pone before' case... One day, I will get out of that.
Might stumble as far as Fanel today.

Skiing is something I've not done, but can't see myself doing either. Just makes me think that if I wanted to fall down a slope and break my legs (as would happen), it'd be cheaper to do by throwing myself down the stairs instead of buying all the gear...

 

[colonelboris]

Quiet few days as we're all down with colds, but did see on Friday a really nice pair of coal tits outside the chemistry department in one of the planters. Saturday was a trip to Papilorama (which I thought was that disease the recently made a vaccine for) and we managed to hear and see two singing chiffchaffs outside the place as well as a few yellowhammers. On the way back, we saw about 150 swallows, all flying roughly south in loose flock, with only one or two turning round to catch something, but then rejoining on the way south. Could well have been bigger as we were passing through it on a train, we could only see a few second's worth. Best of all was a large raptor right next to the train. At first we thought buzzard from the size, but I couldn't see any dark outline to the wings, no dark patch at the front of the underside of the wings either, along with mottled grey and light brown plumage above the wings and a bright white rump with yellow legs. The dear Mrs also noticed a yellow base to the beak and some pale markings on the face. A quick look in the guide book and it really looked like a juvenile goshawk. The flight was low and level with not too deep wingbeats. I don't know how likely they are in the area, but it's certainly what it looked like. Any comments welcome!
Today at the zoo at Dählhölzli we saw four Northern pintails on the pelican lake, all unringed and unclipped and which weren't there last week. One female and three immatures, one possibly starting to show a little male plumage.

 

[colonelboris]

Greater flamingo at Fanel/Chablis de Cudrefin today. Bit of a b***er as i was hoping it'd be quiet tomorrow for a visit... How big's the swiss twitching scene?

 

[bittern]

Yes, I also saw that there was one again, it did not mention whether it was ringed or not. There is a well known Camargue ringed bird that comes up from the Camargue from time to time, mostly at this time of year. I saw it once or twice. I doubt many people will twitch it as a flamingo at Fanel is no longer so unusual. One year there were 5 or 6 juveniles, (from the Camargue and not escapes).

Mike

 

[colonelboris]

Aha, thought it wasn't that busy today. Did see a lot of stuff. Also a bit confused. Saw several reports of a grey plover on the VD side of the canal, which I also saw near the end of the day, but I'm damn' sure I also saw a golden plover and the two guys who were talking with me at the time agreed. It cleared off while I wasn't looking, so I didn't get to see the axillaries, which was a shame. I'll post the notes in a bit, but I'm almost certain there was a winter-plumaged golden as well as the grey.
Well, I also got two lifers, ruff and little stint and a few more for the Swiss list: bearded tit, water rail, pochard, siskin, common teal, shoveler, meadow pipit (two, no less) and wigeon.
Lots of other birds as well (48 species) and some rough photos. And a long walk...

 

[colonelboris]

OK, here's the notes. I've added the little stint notes as well (head's a bit big in the picture...).
With the GP notes, I overestimated the distance, but I usually compare sizes with other birds instead of giving an absolute size...

 

[colonelboris]

Thought I'd warm this thread up again.
Good weekend - Red-footed Falcon over Kerzers on Saturday. Male flew over before disappearing into some gardens.
Yesterday's trip to Fanel gave some nice birds. Just outside the station at Ins, I saw a Squacco Heron in a ditch, so another lifer. Further down the road, a family of three Pine Martens bounding along between a farmhouse and a small nature reserve, and as I was turning to carry on walking, a pair of Turtle Doves flew past. At Fanel itself, it was fairly quiet. A few Reed Warblers near the hide and a couple of Bearded Reedlings before a noisy party turned up. On the other side at the Chablis de Cudrefin, another lifer in the form of a Greenshank appeared on the canal wall. I even managed to get some notes and a very poor photo through the scope. A few minutes later the Reed Warblers next to me were drowned out by the sound of a Great Reed Warbler on the other side of the canal. Luckily, I saw it hopping between a few stems and caught a look while it was singing, so a third lifer. Some Garden Warblers, Spotted Flycatchers, Tree Sparrows and some Reed Buntings finished off that part of the trip nicely. On the way back to the station (only four miles...), I was thinking this would be nice Corn Bunting territory if they weren't so rare in Switzerland and at that exact moment, one started singing from the top of a bush.

 

[colonelboris]

A lifer on the way home from work - an adult male Pied Flycatcher near the hospital. Just as well I didn't have change for the bus and walked...

 

[colonelboris]

Ornitho.ch says there's a Squacco Heron at La Sauge - could well be the same bird as I saw the other day.

 

[wintibird]

Or another one. There are pretty much of them around this year. Look up for Griffons now! Several sightings near Berne in the last few days....B
And now back to soccer, Hup Holland!

 

[colonelboris]

Or another one. There are pretty much of them around this year. Look up for Griffons now! Several sightings near Berne in the last few days....B
And now back to soccer, Hup Holland!

Ahh, I thought they were moderately uncommon. I'll get there with Swiss birds just in time to move away...
Speaking of 'Hup Holland', I could only stare with incredulity at my workmates heading off for the fanzone this evening. There were 60,000 Dutch supporters in the city for the last game...
I really hope Holland win it - they've really brightened the town up a lot. I saw an Aargau policeman jumping up and down with a load of Dutch, arms round their shoulders and singing his head off. I've never seen such a happy policeman here.

 

[Xenospiza]

I'm sure some Dutchmen might have imported something to induce happiness. Probably stroopwafels.

Good birds, Colonel!

 

[colonelboris]

Quite a day today.
Went for another trip to Fanel/Chablis de Cudrefin and within a few seconds of stepping off of the train, there was a Wheatear in a field. Looked like an autumn male, but not one of the Alpine-type ones as the underside was a warm buff-colour. A few minutes later and there was a female Teal in an irrigation ditch. Saw nearly 100 Carrion Crows on a pylon, a few Skylarks, several buzzards and a Sparrowhawk. It's a four-mile walk to the reserve from the nearest station, but there's some nice birds there and a fair chunk of my Swiss lifers have been on that walk. At the Fanel side of the reserve, I saw the first Marsh Harrier for a few years, swooping on the ducks and putting nearly everything up in the air. A few Little Egrets were about as were Great Egrets. All very nice, even if there were some amzingly heavy-footed (and mulleted) people there shaking my scope about as they walked.
On the Cudrefin side, I saw a Little Bittern: a lovely chocolate-brown and cream thing, showing his markings off perfectly as he came in to land in the reed beds. A short while later, three Turnstones came in and settled on the canal walls. Apparently, they're not too common here, so I got some rough (very rough) digiscoped shots. Two Canada Geese swam nearby and took off with another six revealing themselves to join in. Another week without rain and some more of the sand banks should show and then hopefully some good waders will follow.
On the way back, I caught a look at a family of Common Redstarts, was overflown by a feral Barnacle Goose and possibly even saw a Red-throated Pipit. I got some notes and I guess I'll wait to see what they say about it. Can't really think of too may thing I could confuse it with, though.
I think I'll bunk the day off tomorrow as there's a lot of White Storks and Honey Buzzards flying over the Gurten (the big hill on the outskirts of Bern) at the moment and I wouldn't mind a look.
Now to go and sleep without resting on all the sunburn...

 

[colonelboris]

A bit of an easy day on the Gurten. As soon as we got there, Mrs Boris pointed out a stream of raptors overhead, all flying in a line heading south west. Closer inspection revealed Honey Buzzards, which had been seen in some numbers the day before there. Another single bird came later, as did a Red Kite, then group of seven Honey Buzzards. There was also a Common Buzzard and two Ravens buzzing a hawk (which I didn't see long enough to ID as either Sparrowhawk or Goshawk as it flashed past). Also a constant stream of Swallows moving through during the day. Onlt down side was that there were no White Storks...

 

[bittern]

I was at Fort l'Ecluse today, plenty of Honey Buzzards coming through here too, I checked the LPO site and the final total for the 26th was 914, a good number but on the 24th there were over 1400!

Other migrants included Black Storks, White Storks, Marsh Harriers, Sparrowhawks, Red Kites and Black Kites.

You can follow the migration at this site at http://haute-savoie.lpo.fr under "Synthese de la migration".

Mike

 

[colonelboris]

I'd love to see that.

Anyone know what's the status of the Ruddy Shelducks that seem to abound here? There's always a few at Fanel and I saw a report of more than one hundred in the Aargau. Quite some feral population...?

 

[colonelboris]

A visit to a reserve new to me at Krummi turned up a few nice birds, the first of which was a Great Grey Shrike. I'd been hoping to see one there as they seem to be hanging around. Two adult males in the end, hovering like Kestrels at times.
Before I'd seen the Shrike, I'd seen a flash of a large bird, raptor-ish in shape, but with a conspicous white rump, but I couldn't find it again, which was mildly irritating as it landed in the middle of a field and I hadn't seen it fly off. No matter, it showed up again as I was about to leave and I spent half an hour just watching it flying around at very low level, two-tone brown on the back, buff-brown underneath with streaking, white around the eye and a barred tail. A female Hen Harrier. Two lifers in under an hour. I missed the Golden Plover by a few minutes as they flew around and moved off over the other side of the railway line, but I was hapy enough. A Meadow Pipit flew over as well, which is the first oe I've seen in Switzerland this year and then as I was geting near the station, a Fieldfare - first one for me this year.
After that, I went to the Zihlkanal, which connects Lakes Biel and Neuchatel. Not a massive amount about, except for a flock of maybe a few thousand Red-crested Pochard, Pochard and Tufted Duck, along with a few Wigeon and Gadwall.
Also saw a few Great Egrets on the way back, so not a bad day.

 

[wintibird]

Nice. We missed us by one day. I was there yesterday, hoping to see the Short-eared Owl which was there since last Sunday and still reported on Friday. But no luck, it was gone. Waiting for it I had 3 Hen Harriers, the two Great Grey Shrikes, a Merlin and two Golden Plover. If you're interested I could PM you the location of the Little Owl which is very close to Krümmi (but still somewhat confidental)

Greetings (and thanks for the book)

André