For the third time ever, we saw a black-tailed godwit in Switzerland today. Reporting it, I was surprised to see that a black-tailed godwit in Switzerland ranks as a “rare” migrant, but seen regularly, while a bar-tailed godwit would be “very rare”. For 2019, ornitho.ch lists 489 sightings for black-tailed godwit, versus 186 sightings of bar-tailed godwit. (tbh, I find that difference not terribly significant, but I clearly won’t argue with ornitho rarity grades).
Black-tailed godwit
The black-tailed godwits spend the winter all over the place, from Australia to the Indian subcontinent and on to western Africa and even some areas in Europe. The Tagus estuary in Portugal is an important site for black-tailed godwit, currently threatened by plans to expand the nearby airport. It should be noted that subspecies tend to favor specific wintering grounds, islandica black-tailed godwits generally stay in Europe, anywhere between Scotland and Spain.
The “blackwits” feed in grassland and muddy estuaries. Their breeding habitat is fens, flood areas at the edge of large lakes, bogs and moorland. While they absolutely do visit coastal areas, they’re also comfortable on inland wetlands.
Black-tailed godwit in Argyll (Scotland), September 2018
The black-tailed godwit is the one with the white wing-bars, and long legs protruding beyond the tail.
Bar-tailed godwit
There are five subspecies of bar-tailed godwits, and their wintering grounds differ. In Europe, we get the lapponica subspecies, which spends the winter along the west coast of Europe and Africa, all the way to South Africa.
The “barwits” are rather specific with their diet, and feed mainly on bristle-worms, with a side-dish of bivalves and crustaceans. Bristle-worms are generally marine, and thus bar-tailed godwits are very much bound to coastal areas due to their diet.
Bar-tailed godwit in Aberdeenshire (Scotland) , January 2019
The bar-tailed godwit is the one without wing-bars, but with a longer, more prominent supercilium; the overall impression is similar to that of a curlew.
It’s the food, stupid
Sometimes it’s the migration route (scoters), sometimes the a species tends to migrate in one go rather than taking a break on neutral ground (black storks). In the case of the godwits, the bar-tailed godwit’s diet makes it a much more coastal bird, and thus much rarer in Switzerland than the more farmland-oriented black-tailed godwit.
I’ve started dabbling in digiscoping, and thought I’d share some of the experience.
Huawei P30 camera(s)
The Huawei P30 – like many phones nowadays – has multiple cameras.
The specs of the Leica Triple Camera:
8 MP (80mm, f/2.4) / 3x
16 MP (17mm, f/2.2) / wide
40 MP (27mm, f/1.8) / 1x
The top-most lens is the 3x zoom, the middle one the “wide” lens, and the bottom one the standard 1x lens.
Below the lenses is the dual-LED dual-tone flash. The camera software supports optical “wide”, 1x and 3x, as well as hybrid 5x, and digital zoom up to 30x.
Doing a simple series with a wide, 1x, 3x and 5x of a towel rack shows that the 3x zoom is not necessarily put to use the way you’d expect:
Notice how all but the “wide” image show a f/1.8 5.58mm exif? Thus 1x, 3x and 5x were all taken with the standard lens. It’s quite common that a camera will use the standard lens in low-light conditions.
Cropping
Consider an image taken with the standard 1x lens, yielding a 40MP image. Cropping this image by a factor of three would reduce the size to 4.5MP, while the 3x optical lens would generate an 8MP image.
Swarovski Variable Phone Adapter (VPA)
The Swarovski VPA is pretty cool as it fits on pretty much any modern smartphone (I’m sure there’s a compatibility list somewhere). So far adapters were often only available for iPhones and a few select Androids, and getting a new phone meant the adapter was obsolete.
However, the Swarovski VPA is rather flimsy. Especially given the rather generous price, I expected something more solid. There are three adjustment levers, and two of those three regularly come loose, meaning I constantly need to re-adjust the adapter to my phone. The third lever is usually solid, but is terribly inaccessible once the scope adapter has been screwed on.
From swarovskioptik.com
The bottom adjuster comes lose frequently, the middle right one ever now and then, and the top left one is solid.
Forcing optical zoom
An issue I’ve had was to get my phone to use the 3x optical zoom when on the VPA. I’m guessing the light sensor is (partially) blocked by the VPA, and thus assumed a low-light situation. In these conditions, Huawei will favor the 1x optical lens and use digital zoom (see above). I found that zooming in all the way (digitally, to 30x) forced the phone to switch to the 3x lens. I could then go back to 3x zoom and remain on that lens. It’s a bit tedious to have to do this every time I switch back to the phone camera, but for now this seems the only way. Maybe eventually there will be a camera app which allows for manually locking in on a given lens. (I expect Open Camera to be there soon)
The image on the left was taken with a Canon DSLR, 400mm with 1.4x extender. The one on the right is digiscoped using the 3x optical lens on my Huawei P30. The saturation is strikingly different, the left more closely resembles the actual conditions (early overcast morning). But overall, the digiscoped image is pretty good. I’ll keep at it …
For millennia, the powerful have sought to get rich, and the rich to get powerful. Often, those power struggles affected only a few. The only guy interested in who has the biggest yacht is the guy who has the biggest yacht, and the guy who used to have the biggest yacht. If things got out of hand, there was a revolution and the king’s head got chopped off.
In current times, our politicians continue to strive for power, and often also for wealth. Sometimes, their plans don’t just affect a few. Sometimes, their plans are to destroy our natural environment, for the benefit of a few.
The Vjosa river is one of the last free-flowing rivers in Europe. Albanian’s government wants to grant permissions to build hydroelectric power plants, which would destroy the natural wildlife, but surely financially benefit a few.
Shinzo Abe not only supports slaughtering whales of endangered species, but his original district is Shimonoseki, where the factory ship for scientific whaling was based. Benefit of a few.
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar is the local government council for the Outer Hebrides. The area is a jewel of natural beauty, where many endangered species are still regularly observed. Now the council proposes building a spaceport:
This is a critical strategic investment for the Comhairle and the North Uist community. The economic benefits that would flow from this project are immense and we are delighted to offer it our full backing.
When it comes to fruition the proposal will create between 50 and 70 jobs and a range of wider and longer term economic benefits.
While we’ve visited the West of Scotland several times, we’ve hardly seen the East, and have never been to Edinburgh. Middle of May, we went to Edinburgh with plans to stay just outside of the city at Musselburgh, and visit the Isle of May.
The Musselburgh Lagoons are at the outskirts of the town. While it’s a Ramsar Site, SSSI and SPA, it does get its share of dog walkers, with all the usual conflicts. There are – as the name indicates – a few ponds around, some with the apparent purpose of swimming your dog, some more protected and even with a hide nearby. For us, though, the best part was the views towards the sea.
Velvet scoter
Surf scoter
Spot the odd one
There was an abundance of common and velvet scoter, a handful of surf scoter, and apparently even an American white-winged scoter somewhere (maybe we saw it, maybe not, our scoter-skills aren’t sufficient to tell). And every now and then an eider or shelduck flies past, or a sandwich tern, or a flock of oystercatchers. Well, mainly oystercatchers.
One of the “must visits” of this trip was the Isle of May
The island is free from predators such as foxes and rats, and thus provides a safe breeding site compared to the mainland. At the height of the breeding season the Isle of May can host around 200,000 seabirds
And the trip to the island can be a memorable experience in its own right.
On the way back from the Isle of May, a common place to slow down the boat is Bass Rock, an uninhabited rock giving name to the “Basstölpel”, German for gannet. What at first glance seems a slightly uneven, pale landscape, turns out be thousands and thousands of gannets.
It was a short stay in Scotland, but especially visiting the Isle of May is a trip we’ll always remember.
In April, my son and I spent 10 days traveling to Botswana for a unique wildlife experience.
Okavango Delta
The Okavango Delta is part of an endorheic basin region. Straight from Wikipedia:
The Okavango River drains the summer (January–February) rainfall from the Angola highlands and the surge flows 1,200 km (750 mi) in around one month. The waters then spread over the 250 by 150 km (155 by 93 mi) area of the delta over the next four months (March–June). The high temperature of the delta causes rapid transpiration and evaporation, resulting in a cycle of rising and falling water level that was not fully understood until the early 20th century. The flood peaks between June and August, during Botswana’s dry winter months, when the delta swells to three times its permanent size, attracting animals from kilometres around and creating one of Africa’s greatest concentrations of wildlife.
Botswana has a mix of national parks and private concessions in the area. The latter boomed during the time of trophy hunting. In 2014, the government banned all trophy hunting, pushing the concession owners into taking a more wildlife-friendly approach. The current “low volume, high revenue” policy might be highly capitalistic, but it does tremendously help conservation of the area. However:
Shortly after coming into office in April 2018, President Mokgweetsi Masisi asked ministers to review the hunting ban which was implemented by his predecessor Ian Khama in 2014.
End of May 2019, the government has decided to allow sports hunting of elephants.
Shinde Reserve (NG21)
The Shinde Reserve is a private concession, and thus the camps in the reserve can offer some activities which are not available in the national parks, such as wildlife walks or night drives.
Our camp was situated right by a lagoon, and the camp area was so rich with wildlife that I spent quite a few happy hours just strolling around the camp grounds. White-fronted bee-eaters were abundant, often perching just a few meters from the balcony. Other residents included black-collared barbet, dark-capped bulbub, swamp boubou and Holub’s golden weaver (among many, many others).
White-fronted bee-eater
Black-collared barbet
Dark-capped bulbul
Swamp boubou
Holub’s golden weaver
We spent our first afternoon on a mokoro, admiring the landscape and the bird life (don’t expect mammals on a mokoro trip). Malachite kingfisher and pied kingfisher are commonly seen in the reeds.
The next morning we went on a wildlife walk (something typically not possible in government reserves). Walking among red lechwe, baboons and a plethora of birds was an incredible experience, topped by a brief and rather close encounter with a lion (sleeping, peaceful, completely safe). The walk also gave us a good overview of the common herbivores of the area.
If you’re wondering about the rifle: this is a last-resort protection. If a guide is forced to shoot an animal, something went terribly wrong beforehand (for getting too close), and there is usually a thorough inquiry if the kill was really necessary.
We spent the rest of our stay in the Shinde Reserve with boat trips and game drives. Both were great for water-bound birds, simply giving different perspectives. On the game drives we saw plenty of herbivores, with elephant, warthog, giraffe, zebra, red lechwe, reedbuck and buffalo being fairly common, while tsessebe, roan antelope, sable antelope, sitatunga, bushbuck and steenbok were rare.
Kori bustard
Wattled cranes
Buffalo with yellow-billed oxpeckers
White-browed robin-chat
Sitatunga
Steenbok
The notable absentees in the Shinde Reserve were the carnivores. They were present, though. Apart from seeing the one lion and a side-striped jackal, we heard hyenas several times (eg. while eating dinner out in the bush), and once a leopard in the distance. In private reserves, no self-driving tourists are allowed to enter, and there are only few camps. Thus, if your guide can’t track an animal, you won’t see it. In our next camp, things were a bit different.
Moremi Game Reserve
The Moremi Game Reserve is a hot-spot for safaris in Botswana (and, for that matter, Africa). It is a government reserve, and as such there are very strict guidelines as to the activities that can take place (no wildlife walks here). It is also one of the few areas where self-driving is allowed. The comparatively large number of camps in the reserve, along with the self-drivers means there’s quite a few parties on the lookout. And they’re connected via radio. Thus, if your guide can’t track an animal, he just needs to listen to the radio (and drive fast). We had a fast-driving guide.
On the very first game-drive (after arriving around lunchtime) we got close-up views of two lazy lions, some roaming African wild dogs and a very brief glimpse of a leopard.
Waterbuck
The lions would remain an integral part of almost every drive, and we also came across the African wild dogs two more times. The next morning was the most impressive of those encounters, as the pack had killed an impala earlier and were feeding.
Impala and waterbuck were commonly seen herbivores, replacing the red lechwe and reedbuck of the more swampy Shinde Reserve. For a more experienced safari tourist, the sighting of a pangolin would most likely have been the highlight of the entire trip. We were actually more hoping to get another look at a leopard or cheetah (but still thrilled to see such a rare animal).
The following day we visited Third Bridge, an open area where there’s a better chance to see cheetah. While we didn’t get lucky on the cheetah, there were plenty of wonderful experiences, among them watching a large group of vultures (white-back, hooded and lappet-faced) feeding on a carcass, with a supporting cast of two huge marabou stork and a black-backed jackal.
Yellow-billed hornbill
Red-crested korhaan
Kudu
Black-backed jackal
Finally it was time for our last game drive before leaving for the airport. Well, maybe you can guess what happened.
The last image is of a second leopard, spotted just minutes after leaving the site of where the first one was stalking among the reeds.
Any animals not yet mentioned
Gnu, ostrich, crocodile, African fish eagle, bataleur, swallow-tailed bee-eater, green bee-eater, little bee-eater, baboon, vervet monkey, monitor lizard, slaty egret, squacco heron, goliath heron, African spoonbill, openbill stork, hammerkop, grez hornbill, red-billed hornbill, green wood hoopoe, African hoopoe, black-headed oriole, nightjar, long-billed crombec, whiskered tern, African darter, reed cormorant, purple heron, African jacana, black-crowned night heron, green-backed heron, sacred ibis, glossy ibis, four kinds of woodpeckers, all kinds of kingfishers, plovers, lapwings …
It was an amazing, overwhelming, memorable experience.
And what about the footprint?
We flew about 9’000 km, from Zurich via Johannesburg to Maun (and then another 9’000 km back). That’s 7.2 tons of CO2, just for the two us, (according to https://co2.myclimate.org ), surpassing our household footprint for the entire year (according to https://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx). Game drives and inter-camp flights added to the sizable footprint of this trip. There is an argument that visiting places like the Okavango Delta help preserve it. There’s also a pretty good argument that flying should be avoided whenever possible. I’m not sure what to think of it, but the environmental impact isn’t lost on me.
We spent January 2019 in the small town of Pennan in the north of Aberdeenshire. Not necessarily a “mark your calendar”-month for birding, but January still offers some interesting encounters.
Places
Pretty much anywhere along the coast can be great to see sea ducks such as eider or scoters, and the inland fields are often good for wintering geese. There are a few areas, though, which stood out:
Rosehearty beach was our favorite place to watch waders. The beach there was regulary full of dunlin, redshank, turnstone, ringed plovers, purple sandpipers, and once also a lonely bar-tailed godwit.
The RSPB site Loch of Strathbeg is simply a place of tranquility. There’s plenty of water fowl, but also a good place to see hen harrier or whooper swans.
The RSPB site Troup Head has a name for hosting the largest gannetry on the British mainland (the largest overall being Bass Rock). Fulmar start occupying cliff sites in January, and gannets start returning to the cliffs towards end of January. We visited a few times, and while the area was beautiful to visit and very peaceful, in terms of birding it was rather uneventful. (The RSPB website states for autumn: Enjoy the peace as the birds depart for the winter. And for winter: Look out for the first gannets and fulmars returning in mid-January. Now you know when to visit.)
Some further areas which could be interesting, but which we found to be pretty quiet in January:
Findhorn Bay (has a big name, but having visited twice, we only ever saw very distant waders, and a few commoners like redshank or wigeon)
Spey Bay (again, well-known, and yet we found it to be rather quiet)
Commoners
Visiting another country always brings with it the nice experience of re-visiting the notion of what is common and what is rare. Some birds we were very happy to see and have rarely or never seen in Switzerland:
And yet all of these are common birds in Aberdeenshire. Godwits spend the winter in the UK, with highest numbers between November and February. Long-tailed ducks are commonly seen off the coast, arriving at UK coast after October, and leaving around March. Pink-footed geese spend about the same time-frame in the UK and can be seen in flocks of thousands grazing the fields.
Noteworthy
Among the rather common of the noteworthy were the red-throated divers, occasionally seen off the coast. Around March or April they’ll start moving inland a bit to look for suitable breeding areas at freshwater lochs.
A species which used to be abundant in the UK, but now brings a smile to most birders is the corn bunting. One of those plentiful victims of habitat loss, they are still fairly often seen at the RSPB site Loch of Strathbeg.
Having seen pink-footed geese for the first time during this trip, we would have never been able to distinguish the taiga bean goose from its similar-looking relative. This individual stayed at RSPB Loch of Strathbeg for a few days and was most likely the main attraction.
Finally, the bird which is only recorded a handful of times per year. The bird which the local recorded found most noteworthy in our observation list. The black redstart. A beautiful example that what is locally seen as “common” might be rare somewhere else, and that really each bird and each species deserves appreciation.
We’ve visited Scotland several times, and one of the most impressive birds we’ve seen there quite regularly is the white-tailed eagle.
White-tailed eagle at Loch Laich, Scotland
The story of the Scottish sea eagles is a uplifting one. Pretty much all sea eagles were persecuted around the turn of the 20th century, and in Scotland the last known surviving eagle was shot in Shetland.
Reintroduction was started in 1975 on the Isle of Rum, with birds from Norway. 10 years later, the first chick hatched on the Isle of Mull. In 2015, the number of breeding pairs in Scotland reached 100.
Apart from Scotland, sea eagle breed along the coast of Scandinavia, but also Denmark, German (North and East), Austria (recolonized recently), Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The breeding area closest to Switzerland might be northern Croatia.
So why would a sea eagle ever show up in Switzerland?
The first few years, sea eagles move around quite a bit. Furthermore, some sea eagles move to wintering grounds, with some small pockets eg. at Etang de Lindre (France), near Strasbourg or west-central Italy. Birds seen in Switzerland occur typically between October and March, with only a handful of sightings outside of that time frame.
White-tailed eagle (with red kite) at Flachsee, Switzerland
So, typically birds seen in Switzerland are immature, and either moving towards one of the few wintering sites South of Switzerland, or simply roaming around (as teenagers like to do). But with typically one or two birds seen annually, every sighting is truly special.
We just spent two weeks in Mid-Argyll, based on the remote Craignish peninsula. While this wasn’t a dedicated birding vacation, we did have our binoculars with us at all times. But it’s worth noting, the proximity to historical areas such as the Kilmartin Glen was very nice. At Loch Laich, for example, one can spot plenty of waders with the iconic Castle Stalker looming in the background.
There is indeed a greenshank just about visible in the foreground
It took us a bit to gather local information pertinent to birding, so I’ve compiled that here.
Quantity and quality
First, it’s important to realize that Argyll, as is common for mainland Scotland, typically doesn’t boast the bird numbers which can be expected from the islands. There can be incidents where westerly winds might push hundreds of waders towards the mainland, but normally it’ll be two godwits here, three greenshank there. In terms of species diversity, however, Argyll can easily stand its ground, especially with plenty of woodland species rarely seen on the islands.
Areas
The Moine Mhor is an NNR, with most of the birds around the Add estuary. There are some good view points from Bellanoch bridge or the hide nearby, as well as from Crinan Ferry. There’s also a walk along the canal which offers good views of the estuary. Typically, though, birds will be distant. Thanks to the surrounding moorland, there’s a chance for seeing not just water birds (stonechats, bullfinch, goldfinch, reed bunting, peregrine, osprey, harriers etc)
Loch Gilp is another large estuary, this one pretty much restricted to water birds (due to settlements all around the loch). As for the Add estuary, birds are often distant (but it’s still worth to approach carefully)
Black-tailed godwit just behind the wall next to the Kilmory Guest House
We found Loch Laich (a bit further North) to be excellent, with a path leading around the area allowing for good views while not disturbing the birds. Beware that this is not a nature reserve, and so at any time the ignorant dog walker might let his/her pet flush whatever you were just observing.
The Taynish peninsula is renowned for warblers and other woodland birds. I must confess that during our visit, it was frustratingly quiet (probably telling that a treecreeper was the highlight).
For sea birds, driving down Kintyre peninsula seems the best bet, with stops at
Port Tarbert might give closest views ever for redshank, which wade around just below the pier.
Confiding redshank
the Kennacraig ferry terminal
Sound of Gigha
Hides
I’m sure there are plenty more in the area, but we’ve found bird hides:
About 300m West of Bellanoch, between Crinan Canal and the Add estuary. Birds are often distant (take your scope), and the afternoon has better light
View from hide at Bellanoch
At the North-East end of Loch Barnluasgan is a hide which – according to the panel there – offers a good chance to see beavers (visit after 7pm or early morning)
Every morning I walk 20 minutes to the train station. Part of that walk takes me along a diverse hedgerow, which is always rich with bird song. The wrens I usually only hear, blackcaps mark their territory, fieldfares complain about my presence. The sparrows flit back and forth, same for the robins, tits and blackbirds. Sometimes there’s a small group of goldfinches taking a rest.
On June 4th, the “Werkdienst” (public maintenance services) of the community decided it’s a good time to cut back the hedges along the streets. It looked and felt as if a wrecking ball had taken off the top third of your house. I was furious.
It took a while for the Werkdienst to reply to my inquiry, but their response was (using my own words here):
We decidedly take fauna into consideration, as nature is very important to us. (verbatim: Bestimmt nehmen wir Rücksicht auf die Fauna, da uns die Natur am Herzen liegt.)
Alas, there are other factors which are also important. If branches, possibly even thorny ones, stick out onto the sidewalk, the Werkdienst will receive complaints. There are regulations. But, nothing to worry about, because
We make sure the first brood has fledged. Also, all nests are located deep within the hedges, and we only cut on the one side. Finally, the department for woods and meadows confirms that not more than 10% of all nests will still be occupied in June.
Interestingly, the local newspaper Zuger Woche had picked up the story (I cc’d them).
They checked with the Werkdienst, heard that all was in order (regulations, department for woods and whatnot, not more than 10%), and that was that.
After checking with BirdLife and vogelwarte.ch (thank you to both for replying so quickly), the facts are quite plain:
Hedgerows should not be cut between March and November. Yes, that does mean that when you cut in winter, you’ll have to account for that growth spurt. I’m sure the Werkdienst has the experience and qualification to do that.
Birds are definitely breeding in early June. They might be on their second brood, they might be later after having failed at a first attempt, or they might be late due to the Beast from the East. The statement from that department is ludicrous.
Swiss law actually protects nesting birds. Regulation 922.0 (Jagdgesetz) Abs. 7, Art. 17b states that it is illegal to disturb breeding birds deliberately and without cause.
I’m not a lawyer, and I’m sure the Werkdienst can easily argue that some other regulation gave them due cause. But it does mean that they prioritize pre-emptive cutting to prevent any sidewalk disturbance over the needs of our wildlife.
So much for “nature is very important to us“.
As I couldn’t let this go, I kept nagging and will now discuss the issue with the Werkdienst this fall. I’m really curios to see how far that commitment to nature and fauna goes.
The bigger picture is, as so often, way more important. On social media we keep pointing our finger at the government, our farmers, the multi-nationals, and complain. Demand action.
It’s not wrong to complain, demand, and point. But then, get off the couch and do something about it.
While it was a very short stay, we did enjoy spending 3 days on the Isle of Mull last weekend (not travelling primarily for birding, though). The ferry at Oban was already busy, we hadn’t expected such a crowd end of May (I admit we never checked the UK school schedule). Nevertheless, we managed to get a spot on the ferry, and enjoyed our first few Common Guillemots, Black Guillemots, along with Herring Gulls and an occasional Cormorant.
Having arrived on Mull, literally the first two birds which grabbed our attention were two White-Tailed Eagles soaring overhead. We were aware that Mull has the highest density of nesting White-Tails in the UK, but didn’t expect to see any so quickly. Along the shore there were a few Grey Herons, the ubiquitous Oystercatchers, more Herring Gulls, Common Gulls, plus a few Greater Black-Backed Gulls (and maybe Lesser Black-Backed, we’re not too good at telling those apart). This Common Sandpiper was presenting itself nicely.
While driving to the hotel we also spotted Hooded Crows, Collared Dove, Feral Pigeon (or Rock Pigeon).
We stayed at the Bellachroy Hotel, the oldest inn on Mull, situated in the cute little village Dervaig. Around the hotel were the typical Song Thrush, Dunnock, Greenfinch, Tree Sparrow, Great Tit, Barn Swallow, Blackbirds ..
.. while down at the shore of the loch we found Redshank, Greenshank, more Common Sandpipers, Canada Geese, Greylag Geese, Meadow Pipit, Goosanders, and a very distant Lesser Redpoll.
The day after arriving on Mull, we ran some errands and drove around the island. In addition to previously mentioned species, we saw Robin, Wren, Goldfinches, Mistle Thrush, Northern Wheathear, what might have been a Sedge Warbler (only a fleeting glimpse), Red-Breasted Merganser, Eider, Mallard, Little Grebe, Curlew, and another White-Tailed Eagle (I know, already mentioned it, but these are special).
A personal highlight was seeing my first white-winged gull, this one most likely being an Icelandic Gull.
Driving home with a setting sun, we saw a Common Buzzard hovering like a kestrel, something I’ve never seen before.
The next day it was already time to head home. We definitely hope to return to the island soon to do some proper birding.
Birds and wildlife in Switzerland 