Switzerland Trip Report - sort of long

Switzerland – June 2009

With brief stops in Italy, Liechtenstein, and Germany


The recent postings about birding in Provence and Tuscany encouraged  
me to make a short post about a recent trip that my wife and I made  
to Switzerland and nearby.  The trip was planned to look for  
Wallcreeper and to visit two baroque churches as well as to view the  
fabulous Byzantine mosaics in several churches in Ravenna, Italy.  In  
addition, we wanted to do some walking and birding/wildflower viewing  
in the alps.
             We had originally hoped to make the trip last year, but  
it proved so difficult to find good birding info about Switzerland  
that we had to put the trip off to allow time for gathering more  
info.  Although I had a copy of  “Where to Watch Birds in  
Switzerland”. I found the book not very helpful unless one already  
had a pretty clear idea of where one wanted to go.  It lacks a decent  
map (no labels of cities or other features on the map, for example)  
and it had no index of locations, so you couldn’t look up Zermatt in  
the index to find what might be looked for there.  Web searching also  
failed at that time to turn up much useful, but that changed when I  
finally found two very helpful webpages on birdwatching near Leuk in  
the Rhone Valley, not too far from Zermatt.
www.birdforum.net/opus/Leukerbad and www.birdforum.net/opus/Leukerfeld

I also found a number of trip reports of tours to the Evolene/Arolla  
area very helpful.  These led me to Mike Bowman, who lives in Geneva  
and who made many very helpful suggestions.

             We made all travel arrangements with SwissSafari, who  
provided a driver who spoke French, Gerrman, and Italian, as well as  
English (He knew nothing of the birds, but was very tolerant of  
requests to "Could we stop here?  It looks good for birds, however).  
My own freshman level German and French got us through meals on our  
own.  Most everyone we encountered spoke a little English and since  
Switzerland has four official languages, I sometimes found myself  
asking for drinks in broken German and main courses in rickety  
French.  Anyhow, everyone we met was very helpful and tolerant of our  
poor language skills.
             I found birding very tough.  Birds were hard to see  
except in gardens.  Many seemed to have a “flit and sit” behavior.  
I’d hear the bird singing in a tree top, but it wouldn’t move about.  
Then it would flit to a different tree and sing again.  Despite this,  
we managed to see or hear many of the classic European birds, such as  
Cuckoo (easily identifiable by its song which sounds, naturally, like  
a cuckoo-clock), Hoopoe, Green Woodpecker, Blue Tit, etc.  A full  
list of our sightings is given below.



SWISS BIRD LIST


Great Crested Grebe
Great Cormorant
Grey Heron
White Stork (Italy)
Spoonbill (Italy)
Mute Swan
Graylag Goose
Mallard
Common Pochard
Black Kite
Red Kite
Honey Buzzard
Golden Eagle
Common Kestrel
Common Coot
Black-headed Gull
Yellow-legged Gull
Common Tern
Collared Dove
Common Swift
Alpine Swift
Green Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Middle Spotted Woodpecker
Kingfisher
Hoopoe (Italy)
Crag Martin
Cuckoo
Barn Swallow
House Martin
Tree Pipit
White Wagtail
Wren
White-throated Dipper
Dunnock
Alpine Accentor
Redstart
Black Redstart
Northern Wheatear
Blackbird
Song Thrush
Mistle Thrush
Fieldfare
Ring Ouzel
Reed Warbler
Marsh Warbler
Lesser Whitethroat
Willow Tit
Crested Tit
Coal Tit
Blue Tit
Great Tit
European Nuthatch
Wallcreeper
Eurasian Treecreeper
Eurasian Jay
Magpie
Nutcracker
Alpine Chough
Carrion Crow
Common Raven
Common Starling
House Sparrow
Tree Sparrow
Common Chaffinch
Greenfinch
Linnet
Yellowhammer
Snowfinch

In addition to the above birds, we saw an Ibex at Nufenden pass, many  
Marmots on the hillsides near Arolla, and numerous lovely butterflies  
and wildflowers.  In fact, the many alpine and roadside wildflowers  
(red poppies, pasqueflowers, primula, larkspur, and a variety of  
gentians), were a high point of the trip.  Scenery was, of course,  
gorgeous: glaciers, snow-capped peaks, deep beech forest, etc.
             Weather was excellent the whole trip, apart from light  
sprinkles part of one day at Arolla.  Ravenna was warm, but not  
stifling.  Arolla was cool but not frigid.

Below is our itinerary.

June 8 – Few Tucson to Dallas, Dallas on to London
June 9 – Flew London to Milan
June 10 – Visited Churches in Ravenna to view Byzantine mosaics –  
spent a few hours at Punta Alberte a nature reserve north of Ravenna
June 11 – Drove Ravenna to Zermatt via Lake Como and Nufenden pass.
June 12 – Cog-rail to Gornergrat.  Worked way back down mountain on  
foot and by the cog-rail.
June 13 – Drove to Leukerbad
June 14 – Spent most of day at Feschel Gorge near Leuk, looking for  
Wallcreeper
June 15 – Put in another 2 hours at gorge, successfully this time,  
then drove to Arolla
June  16 – Hiked trails above Arolla
June 17 – Drove Lucerne to Fussen, via Lake Neuchatel and  
Liechtenstein.  Spent a few hours at Fanel Reserve on Lake  
Neuchatel .  Spent about an hour in AM at Jesuit Church in Lucerne.  
Spent an hour plus looking for birds in a reserve by Prince’s Palace  
in Liechtenstein.
June 18 – Drove Fussen, Germany to Munich , via Farchant. Germany  
Birded trail to Kuhflucht Falls and made short visit to Wieskirche in  
mid-afternoon.
June 19 – Flew from Munich back to US.

Birding was done on
             June 10 - few hours at Punta Alberte reserve
             June 12 – most of day at Gornergrat and trails down.
             June 14 – most of day looking for Wallcreeper
             June 15 – few hours AM looking for Wallcreeper and few  
hours in Arolla
             June 16 – Hiking at Arolla and brief drive to look for  
dipper near Evolene
             June 17 - a few hours at Fanel Reserve and an hour at a  
reserve in Liechtenstein
             June 18 – a few hours along Kuhsflucht Falls trail


Tom Arny
tarny@...
Box 545, Patagonia, AZ
USA
85624




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