Just spent a few days in Austria with work and got the chance to see some birds (it's a tough life!). We stayed at the Hotel Bogner in Absam, home of Swarovski Optic. Very pleasant hotel and the balcony views were superb.
Part of the trip involved a look round the Swarovski Factory. I have to say it was excellent and I was impressed with the level of commitment to their employees (such as an apprenticeship programme that would be the envy of any company) and to the environment (huge savings in water consumption recently and some clever recycling of things like oil and the alloys that they use to make the products).
Watching the prisms and lenses being made was very interesting - some of the tolerance levels that they work to to make the prisms exact are mind-boggling!
Absam held a good number of species over the few days – six waxwings outside the Swarovski Factory, a hunting peregrine, black redstart and brambling outside the hotel, house and tree sparrows in abundance and loads of blackbirds and greenfinches. One morning fieldfares seemed to be on the move accompanied by other associated thrushes and on another, wagtails, crossbills and yellowhammer were moving though (though not seen by me). Sadly, I never got to grips with Short Toed Treecreeper, which would have been a lifer. Three different birds that I saw in the Absam area were, I was told, 90% certain to be short toed. But I never heard them call and you can talk yourself one way or the other when it comes to buffy underparts and wing panels! A walk on the final morning produced some good woodland species like Jay, Nuthatch and Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers.
Best of all was a trip into the mountains with a local birder called Dale Forbes. Dale had gone to great lengths to prepare a full days birding tailored to producing some of the Alpine Specialities and it didn’t disappoint.
First stop was a ski resort, 2,000 metres above sea level called Kütai. Here we immediately picked up on Alpine Accentor, singing from the eaves of one of the buildings. It was very quickly followed by a flock of Alpine Chough which stuck around and perched on the buildings. Snowfinch took a little longer but there was soon a flock of about 30 feeding on some sunflower seeds that had been scattered and completely oblivious to the people walking past. All three were new species so a great start to the day.
Retracing the route down the mountain we turned right and climbed back up to just below the treeline at Lüsens. Here the target was Nutcracker. However, despite hearing them call, we couldn’t actually get a view. Several snowball fights and a couple of stops later we were further down the road at Juifenau, and parked up in a large laybye. First bird was a huge female Goshawk that soared across the Valley and gave superb views in the Alpine light. Then a Golden Eagle soared over the ridges and circled for about five minutes, allowing very good scope views. The real reason for stopping though was to check the bird feeders on the house by the laybye and we soon had an assortment of birds including excellent views of Nutcracker (another new bird). Other stuff included Blue, Great, Coal and Willow Tit, Greenfinch, Yellowhammer and Nuthatch.
The afternoon was to be spent north of the River Inn near a town called Zirl. On the way however, we made a quick unscheduled stop after Dale spotted some Chamois on the lower slopes of a quarry near Martinswald. Bonus bird of the trip followed in the form of a roosting Eagle Owl – my fifth lifer of the day and a complete surprise. At this point most of the group went off to Ehnbachklamm to look for Wallcreeper whilst Dale and I nipped into Innsbruck to drop one of our colleagues off at the station. My main reason for going was to take in the River Inn where Dale had seen Crag Martin earlier in the week. Dale dropped me off for a few minutes and I got fantastic views of 30 or more birds hawking over the river, yet another new bird for me.
On arrival back at the Wallcreeper site we found we had missed nothing of note. If I’m honest it was a slight relief as I’m sure Crag Martin is a hell of a lot easier to find than Wallcreeper in the grand scheme of things! However, the next hour brought us no closer to a Wallcreeper than the mass panic caused by one of the group when he played the call on his phone!
The rest of the day was spent walking the woods in the area looking for woodpeckers. Alas no joy and whilst the views were stunning, the birds were very scarce save for a few Crested Tit and the odd Buzzard and Raven.
A free day at the end of the trip was spent revisiting some of the above sites and we managed to see many of the species again – especially Nutcracker at Juifenau and Snowfinch at Kütai (arriving late in the day meant we missed the Chough and Accentor). Sitting with a mug of tea and slice of apple tart at the café at Lüsens, watching skiers come down the Lüsener Fern Glacier was just heaven!
I guess March could be a shoulder period for birds in the Alps but with an abundance of snow this year, the main species – Alpine Chough, Alpine Accentor, Snowfinch and Nutcracker all proved to be relatively easy to find with a bit of local knowledge. At this stage, I must thank Dale for his time and company – well above and beyond the call of duty and hugely appreciated. Check out his blog http://alpinebirds.blogspot.com for up to date info on the birds of the Innsbruck area if you are ever planning a trip that way. And I am more than happy to elaborate on site details above if anyone needs them.
Matthew
i have been to Austria three times now and each time passed through innsbruck to get to a ski resort but i never looked for birds,i really regret it now..........Anyway great report