Willow Warbler

Another bird I saw at BirdLife near La Sauge, Switzerland back in April. I've puzzled over this bird, originally thinking it was a Willow Warbler, then changed my mind to a Wood Warbler since that species is listed on one of the signs I photographed on the grounds. Upon looking at the pictures again and doing more research, I've decided to stick to my original decision. I base this on the paler yellow on the head and throat, browner rather than greenish back coloring and longer tail.

I first saw the bird reasonably close in among some branches along a trail. It then flew off, but I re-found it in a young tree in a relatively clear area. I heard it sing, but I am terrible at remembering bird songs. I find that a bit odd as I am good at remembering music melodies. I plan to eventually purchase a portable digital recording device that I can take into the field. That should help on some of these difficult ID situations.

Gray Heron

I watched this Gray Heron from one of the blinds at BirdLife in Switzerland. It was wading across the pond a fair distance away, then took to the air and landed about half as far from me from where it had started. Only a couple of moments went by when it pulled two large frogs out of the water.

It appears as if the smaller of the two frogs was holding onto to the larger with its front legs. When the Heron pulled the smaller from from the water, the larger came with. I suspect that the frogs were in the middle of mating.
The Heron fought with the two frogs for a bit, setting them down and holding them under water as they do with prey, until it ended up with just one frog.

As I remember (it's been over a month already), the Heron eventually flew off with the frog and I did not get to see it swallow it down.
The Grey Heron looks very similar to our Great Blue Heron. If you look closely you will see the the striping down the neck is less than the Great Blue and it lacks the rusty coloring on the leading edge of its wings.

Marsh Tit

Another bird from Switzerland. This was the first bird I took a picture of at BirdLife as I was walking to one of the blinds. It looks a lot like our Black-capped Chickadee and as one might suspect belongs to the same genus, Poecile.

In addition to posting sketches of birds in the bird blinds, there were also signs posted in various places. Check that bird out next to it on the sign. I would have loved to have seen that.
All-in-all a very nice place to bird.

Spotted Redshank

I never did post pictures of all the birds I took during my trip to Switzerland back in late April. Not all are good enough to post, but I still have some interesting ones.
While I was at the BirdLife facility, I spent a lot of time in the three excellent bird blinds they provided. Each blind could accommodate several people and the birding was reasonably good. The biggest problem I had was that the sun was not at an ideal angle. Not only did it cause harsh foreshadows, but the glare also seemed to mess with my camera's sensor as the pictures turned out somewhat soft.
None-the-less, these images of a Spotted Redshank turned out pretty well. I followed the shore bird as it worked its way around the pond, eventually ending up right below the blind.
The facility provided pictures and some information on the back wall of the blind of many of the frequent birds one might see. A fellow bird photographer pointed out this one for me.

I tried to take pictures of all the images of birds that I saw to help me determine their identity. Only trouble is that none of the text was in English. The Swiss speak three languages; German, French and Italian. I think there was a little of each sprinkled throughout the images. Luckily it turned out to be easy to decipher as all I had to do is do a Google search on the name. Inevitably, the scientific name would be included in the text and I could search on that to find out the English name for the bird. I guess those weird Latin scientific names are good for something and this may be the reason why they are used.

Tufted Duck

So far, the birds I've posted from Switzerland were all from the late afternoon and early evening on the day that I arrived. I spent the next day, before beginning business meetings, across the lake, at a facility called Birdlife near La Sauge and the surrounding area.
Just outside the facility is a channel that connects Lac de Neuchatel with Murtensee, another nearby lake. This channel has many water fowl, including these Tufted Ducks. There have been sightings Tufted Ducks in Oregon this past Winter, but I was never lucky enough to get a chance to see one. Here in Switzerland they are much more common and I was able to get relatively close. They look a lot like a Lesser Scaup expect for the tuft on the back of their heads.