Another visit to the southern end of Greifensee today. Clear blue skies, sunny and around 5 degrees. Not a great deal to add to the birds I saw last time. Amongst others - Red Kite (3), Buzzard (5), Sparrowhawk (1), GS Woodpecker (3), Green Woodpecker (1), Kingfisher (1), Black Stork (1), White Stork (11), Yellow Legged Gull (6) , GC Grebe, Tufted, Pochard, Goldeneye, Nuthatch, Marsh Tit, Goosander, Brambling and Firecrest.

Spent three hours today at Klingnauer Stausee - first visit here - basically they have dammed the River Aare, just before it flows into the Rhein, creating a very large lake. There is a tarmac walkway which goes the whole way round. Vegetation down one side of the lake and there are also sizeable reedbeds towards the southern end. One large/tall watch tower. Excellent numbers of duck, highlights being :-

Great Crested Grebe (35+)
Cormorant (30+)
Heron (10+)
Mute Swan (50+)
Greylag Goose (13)
Ruddy Shelduck (c.50)
Shelduck (1)
Wigeon (1)
Gadwall (100+)
Teal (150+)
Pintail (c.25)
Shoveler (c.40)
Pochard (150+)
Tufted Duck (300+)
Red Kite (3)
Sparrowhawk (1)
Coot (350+)
Curlew (35+)
Common Gull (14)
Yellow Legged Gull (c.15)
Stock Dove (2)
Great Spotted Woodpecker (1)
Water Pipit (3)
Grey Wagtail (2)
Long Tailed Tit (c.6)
Nuthatch
Tree Sparrow (c.12)

Train to Einsiedeln, Postbus to Brunni, then walk up to Furggelen (1526m) and back. Lovely Alpine setting, steep track through the coniferous forest to the summit ridge.

Red Crested Pochard (2) seen from train en route, once on the walk, Raven (3), Crossbill (c.6), Crested Tit (3-4), Siskin (c.6), Fieldfare (1), Firecrest (3-4) added, together with other commoner stuff.

Overall, a bit quiet bird wise but a superb day, clear blue skies and quite warm.

Four hour visit to Kaltbrunner Riet Reserve today, highlights being :-

Teal (3)
Pintail (3)
Sparrowhawk (1f)
Buzzard (3)
Red Kite (1)
Kestrel (1)
Snipe (1)
Green Woodpecker (2)
GS Woodpecker (1)
Water Pipit (2)
Great Grey Shrike (1)
Treecreeper (3)
Nuthatch (2)
Tree Sparrow (1)
Raven (1)

Little bit on the quiet side, although a fox, lingering by one of the main pools, could have had a bearing on things.



-- Edited by Mark Jarrett on Tuesday 17th of November 2009 05:28:04 PM

I know what you mean now about the Planet Trail - no I didn't walk its full length, just a couple of km past Uetliberg and back. No staying power!

Building the list up a bit now after a visit to Greifensee which is 10 miles or so south east of Zurich. There have been a few White Stork around in ones and twos, so it was great to see 20, plus a single Black Stork in with them. Apparently they have started over wintering feeding on fish waste left by the local fishermen.

Same day had 6 Serin, 40 Siskin, 2 Green Woodpecker, 25+ Tree Sparrow, 150+ GC Grebe, Dabchick, Gadwall, Chiffchaff and Kingfisher amongst other stuff.

A local rarity at the quayside here in Zurich - Lesser Black backed Gull (!!) - an adult and a juvenile. Added them yesterday afternoon along with a few Yellow Legged Gulls which themselves are uncommon. Black headed Gulls are the norm.

Thanks for the info John - yes, one of the walks I have done is up to Uetliberg. Walked, not by train, haha.

---

If you carried on and walked the trail to Pluto and back, then also walked back to Zurich I'm impressed.

Cheers, John

John Rayner wrote:

---

... The 'Planets Walk' is worth doing (take the train to Uetilberg)....

Cheers, John

---

Thanks for the info John - yes, one of the walks I have done is up to Uetliberg. Walked, not by train, haha.

Was in this area in August but didn't do a lot of birding. Zurichzee had 22 Red-crested Pochard mainly round the western banks and the Botanic Gardens were worth a look. The 'Planets Walk' is worth doing (take the train to Uetilberg). We had Firecrest, Marsh Tits, Black Redstarts and Honey Buzzard here in August.

Of interest Zurichzee was the site for the only other Western Palearctic record of Long-billed Murrelet so the short answer is - anything's possible and look at everything twice.

Cheers, John

Been here for a week or so now and done a couple of birdwatching walks. Nothing spectacular but decent stuff like Buzzard, Red Kite, Crested Tit, Nuthatch, Short toed Treecreeper, Marsh Tit, Lesser Redpoll and Ruddy Shelduck.

Last weekend went up Mount Pilatus, near Luzern, via cog railway (7000 ft) and had 30+ Alpine Chough, a couple of which stood on my shoulder whilst I fed them scraps.

Was walking back from Zurich city centre the other day when I looked up after hearing crows calling loudly. They were mobbing a raptor but before I could get a fix they were all out of sight. Initial thought from profile was Sparrowhawk but size wise the raptor was equal to, if not slightly bigger than the crows, which had to make it a Goshawk. There are several Goshawk nest sites in the area.

Will be living in Zurich for six months wef the end of October. It's been interesting to read this topic for one or two sites and some of the stuff that can be seen. Really looking forward to our stay in Switzerland and hope to do some good birding.

Just got back from a few days away visiting family. Great Swiss list, mines around 100 mark (haven't done any winter birding yet), very envious of your Grey Headed Woodpecker, hoping for that at some point this summer. Like you, myself and brother haven't had Black Woodpecker - not through trying though. In fact its one bird I have bad luck with not seen in several visits to France, Germany and Switzerland, visiting places where the locals say their there. In fact have seen Lesser Peckers and Middle Spots but not the 'Big One'. The joys of birding.

Hi again Phil,
I just checked on Tickem (www.tickem.com - best accessed via Mozilla Firefox), and saw that Paul caught up with Wallcreeper last November, at a known wintering site; - Burgdorf, near Berne, if this is of potential interest to you.
You can see our Swiss lists detailed on tickem (no charge). Paul has only been birding for about 5 1/2 years and there are many species for both of us to catch up with in Switzerland; (for example neither of us have ever seen an owl of any species there), and he still needs to see Black Woodpecker, and has dipped on this at several sites, though we both have been lucky with Middle-spotted.
Cheers,
Mike

My visits have been solo so far, aimed purely at bird watching, this August is the first time my wife and kids will be with us. Likely bird watching to be early mornings and any other times I can ask, beg, etc.

We're actually on a camper van holiday - starting in Germany and working our way through the Black Forest to Bodensee and then to Brunnen where we are staying - should be great fun and hopefully will pick up some good stuff on the way.

Our friends work for military education in a place called Gutersloh, Germany - the easiest place to see Goshawk, almost daily garden flyovers, whatever the season.

Will keep my ears open for the Blackcaps but to be honest other birds have been my targets whilst I've been to Switzerland (still struggling for wallcreeper - any sites most welcome). But you are right, out in the sticks they are the most obvious warbler.
Cheers Phil

Hi Phil,
What a small world it is! Nice to hear from you.
John Rayner and his wife Ann are going over with us to Zurich, also in August.
As it is their first visit, we're very pleased to have them with us. How much birding we do will be very much down to the wives though; (it might not be sensible to send them off shopping while we go off birding; the exchange rate isn't conducive to that).
My son Paul has birded with John in quite a few far flung places, so it will be a great get together.
I forgot to mention a particular thing I noticed in Zurich last week. That was the Blackcap song, which was to be heard all over the city parks and gardens, and it seemed to be by far the commonest/ most obvious warbler during my visit.
It consistently struck me that while the voice was the same as that of the familiar bird we hear in Britain, the stress and delivery were both rather different from the rendering of our birds, without quite the usual emphatic "double flourish" at the end of each song burst.
I noticed it initially while lying in bed on the first morning, just after dawn, and decided it WAS a Blackcap singing, but only after hanging out of the window for a minute and thinking how weird it sounded.
I wonder therefore if this indicates that there is very little (or no) overlap in the wintering areas of Swiss and British summering Blackcaps, and divergence in their vocals has come about as a natural consequence of relative isolation? It would seem to be a logical deduction.

Hi Mike

The reserve you refer to is called Kaltbrunner Riet near Uznach and is a stunning small reserve. My brother lives about twenty minutes away in Sattel.

We've spent a good few hours there and what you can get is great, we had Savi's, Grasshopper, Reed, Great Reed and Marsh warblers there last year at this time.
Also Little Bittern, Red Crested Pochard, White Stork and so on, also good if you wonder further are the farmland birds tree sparrow, Red Backed Shrike, Kites everywhere.

My Brother in April has had very close views of white and red spot - Bluethroats, at the base of the tower you write about. Lots of passage egrets.

Switzerland as you say is a great destination birding wise - Alpine species are stunning I suggest a trip to Flims for Alpine Choughs, Alpine Accentor, Snow Finch, Golden Eagles, Alpine Swift, etc

Also a place called Voralpsee nr Wildhaus for Woodpeckers, Owls and Hazel Grouse - although you've got to be lucky with the weather - we where there on 1st June last year in waist deep snow, sleet, clouds ...... and got nothing!!! Citril finch was a bonus though.

My brother lives above Sattel at 1100m and the mountain behind the house a great 'local patch' high lights being Three Toed Woodpecker, Nutcracker, Raven, Crossbill, Ring Ouzel. Garden birds on his feeders have included Hawfinch, Serin, Crested Tit, Brambling. He also garden ticked 12 water pipits and has a breeding Black Redstart - some people don't know their born!!

We're off in August not the best time for the good warblers but still should have some good stuff.
Cheers Phil

I just spent a week visiting my older son who has lived here for 19 or so years. I generally do a little low key "year listing" round the city parks, and like to compare the differences in the seasons. I realized that in 20 or so visits, I had never actually been here in May before. Black Kites are a relatively common summer visitor and at one point I had 4 overhead together, and indeed, as remarked upon by Ian on a different thread, one of these was in primary moult; (is it an "age" related thing with some of them at this time of the year, - I really don't know)? On a run out from the city on Saturday, we pulled into a filling station and I noted three largish raptors overhead, a Common Buzzard, a Black Kite and and a rangier larger more impressive Red Kite, all making a rather nice trio for comparison. Early evenings high over the garden, 2 or 3 Alpine Swifts were regularly on show with the many Common Swifts, and a Black Redstart hung about near the garden furniture, though rather shyly, under the shade of the trees. Last Thursday, I found a new park, (Belvoir Park) on the south side of Zurichsee (where I noted the Red-crested Pochards had young), and crept in along a quiet path beneath some conifers. I gave a few gentle squeaks to see what, if anything, might respond. The usual Great Tits shot out from nowhere, and to my delight several Crested Tits, which all but landed on me. perching quite boldly within 4 feet. Never satisfied, I deftly picked up a dead twig and held it out hopefully, but they thought better of landing on it. About 30 feet along the same path I squeaked again, and out popped another "year tick" a rather tatty tired looking Firecrest, carrying food, obviously raising a family, so I left it in peace and moved on. Down on the ornamental pools Broad- bodied Chasers were cavorting, males chasing around, a pair in tandem flight, and then a female ovipositing right in front of me. - brilliant! -one of my favourite species, and good enough to be a bird! The bird highlight of my week was my first Marsh Warbler for some 8/9 years, and indeed a "Swiss tick," singing and showing quite well in some marginal vegetation bordering a reserve approach near Usnacht, just east of Zurich, where White Storks are nesting on many of the roofs and towers. (My Swiss list, I hasten to add, is even more modest than my Manchester list, so I have plenty of scope for new discoveries). Switzerland is probably not generally thought of as a destination for a focused birding holiday, there are so many other attractions about the place, but I have generally found good birds there whilst doing other things, like skiing ( stopping to ogle at Nutcrackers and Citril Finches half way down a run), or enjoying Goulashsuppe and a beer at a high level ski station restaurant, with an Alpine Accentor grubbing around under the table, and as often as not several Snow Finches foraging for crumbs on an adjacent table, and an audience of Alpine Choughs perched on a balcony rail perhaps 6 feet away. Add in the view and it doesn't get much better!