My first day of legitimate birding
in Europe took place in France Switzerland
The second we stepped out of the car, bird songs surrounded us! It was beautiful to listen to, but it was also bittersweet. Although they songs were music to my ears, I hadn't the slightest clue what the birds singing were! The way my brain works is that I can only retain bird songs and calls with experience in the field. Some people can just listen to recordings and memorize them, but that doesn't work for me unfortunately. But this was also a motivation to push myself even further to cajole them out of their hideouts. I learned later that this proved to be a daunting task. Anyways, we stepped out and birds were singing from everywhere. However, this white shape caught my eye, and it turned out I found a family of Mute Swans. I had seen this bird for the first time during my layover in Amsterdam, but it was just one ratty individual on a sloppy dock, so it wasn't quite the way I had imagined my lifer Mute Swan. But now, I was looking at two debonair adults with their two wary chicks. Though this species has been released throughout much of the United States, where there are now self-sustaining feral populations, this species naturally occurs in Europe and Asia, so this was a wild family. This also meant that we had to keep our distance, because despite their seemingly harmless demeanor, these birds can be very aggressive, especially during the breeding season when their chicks have hatched.
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| Mute Swan family (notice the orange bill and the black knob) |
After admiring this photogenic family, we made our way down the trail. we noticed some of the more common birds immediately such as Eurasian Blackbirds, Great Tits and a family of Blackcaps. It was easy to tell that this way a family of them because the juvenile Blackcaps are actually "browncaps". Where the adults have their black head, the juveniles have brown. There were two of these young birds along with an older bird, which offered a wonderful opportunity to compare the different ages.
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| Juvenile Blackcap (notice the brown cap, and gray body) |
Suddenly, I heard this almost jay-like rattling coming behind me. I turned around and saw two yellow and black birds chasing each other. This tell-tale colors allowed me to immediately identify these birds as Eurasian Golden Oriole, my first lifer of the day! Although these golden and ebony birds are named orioles, they aren't related to our orioles in North America, of the family Icteridae. They belong to the family aptly named Oriolidae, consisting in colorful passerines found throughout the Old World. Unfortunately, because the one bird was so determined to chase the other bird out of its territory, I wasn't able to snap a shot of this wonderful sight.
Once the commotion quieted down, we continued walking all while listening to the various tit species and my recently-retained Eurasian Blackbird song. My next lifer came in the form of a Tufted Duck, a overdue bird for me. They occur annually in the Bay Area, and sometimes in numbers, and it's surprising I hadn't seen before. There was a male, proudly adorned with its tuft, and its partner, a more muted version of the male, with a less prominent tuft.
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| Female Tufted Duck (notice the brownish flanks, and the less prominent tuft) |
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| Male Tufted Duck (notice the white flanks, the black back, and the prominent tuft) |
My next lifer was a Eurasian Moorhen, a species once lumped with America's Common Gallunile. But studies and extensive research proved that there were sufficient genealogical differences between the former subspecies for them to be split. We found a surprisingly high number of these birds, including many younger ones.
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| Eurasian Moorhen (notice the red-and-yellow bill, the brown back, and the white stripe above flanks) |
As I admired these red-faced rails, I noticed the nearby reeds fidgeting. I looked and found my fourth lifer of the day: Eurasian Reed-Warbler. This very drab and cryptically plumaged bird resides principally in thick reed beds near water, where they feed on insects and other invertebrates, which is exactly what this active little bird was doing. Cavorting in the reeds, it didn't cooperate in the least, so getting shots was difficult. This shot is merely for identification, and certainly not for aesthetic purposes.
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| Eurasian Reed-Warbler (notice elongated shape and entirely brown body) |
After the reed-warbler, the birding began to slow down. The only highlights were a Eurasian Tree Sparrow, not a lifer because they were abundant in Japan, when I visited, and a Eurasian Jay that popped up. We walked back on the other side of the canal, because there were two parallel trails that went along that canal). We saw some of the same birds, but some new ones as well, like Eurasian Magpie and my lifer Common Chiffchaff of the notorious Pylloscopus genus! Fortunately it called, and it matched the recording I had on my phone. It was rather high up in the tree which didn't offer optimal views of the key field marks: dark legs, subtle supercilium, short primary projection and a dark cheek. But after reviewing the photos, I was just able to see these field marks.
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| Common Chiffchaff (notice the dark legs, slight supercilium, and the short primary projection) |
I also got to see my lifer European Greenfinch along with a European Goldfinch, not a lifer, but a handsome little bird that was quite pleasant to see.
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| Male European Goldfinch (notice the red face and yellowish breast markings) |
Once we arrived at the parking lot, the bird activity resumed. Many were calling from all over. I began more easily recognizing the calls of Eurasian Blackbirds, Blackcaps and even Great Spotted Woodpecker. (I forgot to mention that lifer)
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| Great Spotted Woodpecker (notice the black back, the red crown, the white cheek and the black malar stripe) |
Then, this drab-colored bird flew onto a branch jutting from a tree. This bird ended up being a Spotted Flycatcher! Despite its name, it isn't related our Tyrant-Flycatchers of the family Tyrannidae. It is an Old World Flycatcher related to redstarts and bluetails, of the family Muscicapidae. This was a fun lifer to get because it reminded me of some American birds that behaved the same way such as Black Phoebes or Ash-throated Flycatchers.
The flycatcher flew and I was about to leave this spot, when this minuscule little bird flew onto the same branch where the flycatcher was. As I was putting my binoculars up, the bird jumped away, and I ended up spending several minutes chasing it. But this chase was well worth it because this bird ended up being my lifer Marsh Tit! A plain little bird, it frequents a variety of different habitats, and feeds on a variety of insects and seeds, making it omnivorous like most tits and chickadees. Unfortunately, I spent a so much time of scrutinizing it, that it left before I take a shot of it.
Before we left, we found this wonderful observation platform that gave view over the extensive shrub habitats with several ponds with reeds scattered here and there. This platform yielded Red-backed Shrike, Eurasian Golden-Oriole, a Ring-necked Pheasant and even my lifer Common Buzzard!
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| Ring-necked Pheasant |
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| This habitat yielded birds such as Ring-necked Pheasants, Eurasian Golden Orioles, Red-backed Shrikes and Common Buzzards |
This concludes my first day of true birding in Europe. I was able to get 10 lifers, and great views of most of them, so I certainly was a happy camper! After this great day of birding, it only brought my hopes up for the rest of the trip.
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