I appreciate your help on this one: are these all Sanderlings? Photos were taken from May 7th to 16th on Sanibel Island, Florida. You can click on them to enlarge.
I am neither sure of the white-ish nor the brown-reddish ones. Thanks for your help!
Black-bellied Plover in the background.
My world life bird #477 is also my Switzerland life bird #157, and already my 3rd new bird in Switzerland this year.
The new one looks a lot like a House Sparrow (not on the close look of course) and I’m somehow sure that I’ve seen it before but not noticed for what it is. It’s the Dunnock or the Hedge Accentor (prunella modularis; German: Heckenbraunelle)
It even posed for just enough time to get a decent photo:
That one sunny day ten days ago (yes, it has been snowing again since…) it was also the first day this year that I saw a Black Kite (milvus migrans – Schwarzmilan). The details of the head are a bit better in the enlarged photos.
Soaring above the Lake of Lucerne…
attacking …
trying to get a fish…
And a Jackdaw (Corvus monedula – Dohle) with a nice contrast of its eye and the orange feet of a male Mallard.
For the first time this winter, to be exact since October 2012, there was a female Pintail sitting down town Lucerne with all the Mallards, Mute Swans, Black-headed Gulls, Coots etc. Down town is where the lake ends and the river starts and I pass every day when I go to work.
The female Pintail looks very similar to the female Mallard. But she is a bit smaller, has a slimmer beak and a hint of a pin tail. She was there almost every day, lately trying to flirt with one of the male Mallards – but it didn’t work out.
Last Friday was a beautiful sunny spring day and therefor I decided to bring my camera to take a photo of her. I have no nice photo of a female Pintail yet. She wasn’t there! Probably decided to spend that beautiful day somewhere else…
So here are some photos of the other ones hanging around.
This Sunday was cold but sunny and this European Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis – Distelfink / Stieglitz) was getting food at this natural bird feeder.
Those Great-crested Grebes (Podiceps cristatus – Haubentaucher) were already showing off and displayed their very nice courtship. It was yesterday on January 31st and this is very early in the year.
It was early in the morning and I was happy catching it – even though it’s only an iPhone video.
My life bird #154 for Switzerland is the Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis; German: Wiesenpieper)
And indeed, it was sitting in the grass:
This bird blends in so well – it’s very hard to see. I am certain I have seen it before thinking it was a House Sparrow…
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