Having spent a number of days on a birding and mountaineering journey within the Alps, my two buddies and I had two extra days remaining. The final section of our mountaineering journey (and correspondingly the final put up of this mini-series) took us to the Soierngruppe, a comparatively free-standing group of mountains forming a round barrier arround two small picturesque lakes.
On the best way up, a big household of Willow Tits was noisily shifting by way of the vegetation, a lot of not too long ago fledged chicks begging their mother and father for meals. That is the “Alpine Tit” (Poecile montanus montanus), a subspecies of the Willow Tit that may solely be distinguished from the standard central European kind by their music.
The upper reaches of the peaks held a number of Water Pipits. Some people have very engaging pink breasts, however all the time appeared to show sideways or away from you. This jogged my memory of the extraordinarily lovely Narina Trogons in South Africa, which all the time face away from you with their inexperienced again to cover their beautiful crimson underparts (though this was much less of an enormous take care of the pipits as they don’t examine to trogons in any respect visually).
A spotlight across the lakes for me was a Citril Finch, one other particular of the Alps. We hadn’t seen this species earlier than on the journey, so I used to be glad to see this cute goal chicken. In one other comparability to South African birds (having lived there half my life exhibits by way of on this put up…), this species seems to be extraordinarily just like the Cape Canary, some phenotypic convergent evolution enjoying out right here.
We noticed a number of Western Bonelli’s Warblers on the journey earlier than, however I had my greatest sighting of a calling chicken whereas descending from the Soierngruppe. That is truly a fairly engaging warbler and has a smart-looking plumage. Within the foggy conditions we regularly noticed it earlier than, it appeared like a far more bland chiffchaff look-alike.
As a strategy to welcome us again into the lowlands, a Backyard Warbler was very confiding because it collected meals for its offspring. Whereas I mentioned that chiffchaffs are bland, Backyard Warblers have in all probability even fewer plumage options other than their silvery cheek patch. Nonetheless, I all the time get pleasure from taking a look at this chicken as a result of its feathers have a really silky look to them.
This journey was extraordinarily fulfilling and I had the prospect to fill some obvious gaps in my life record as we noticed a great variety of the traditional species of the Alps. Being unsuccessful with a number of species of grouse, I do know I’ll be again within the area sooner or later although.
