BIRD THE WORLD ê CORN BUNTING Look for these chunky buntings near Zurich Airport
BirdLife Nature Center
THE URBAN BIRDER VISITS
Q Zurich Airport
é BLACK REDSTART One of the archetypal urban birds of Europe
THANKS TO... ➤ Mathias Ritschard and his wife, Juanita Olano Marín, for a couple of fun-filled days and for that gorgeous organic ice cream! binoculars4charity.org More information on birding in Zurich:
Nearby is another unlikely birding site: the terrace at Zurich University’s UZH Campus. The view from this terrace is superb; a magnificent postcard vista that includes some the incredible historical architecture that this city has to offer. You could spend ages just standing there watching the swifts and listening to Black Redstarts. The campus terrace could also be a good place for watching diurnal migration owing to its elevation and the panoramic view it affords across the city that is framed by the background setting of the Uetiberg Mountains. In reality, Zurich is not on any major migration route so it would be a case of spending inordinate amounts of time looking up in hope. That said,
Hoopoe
➤ Ornitho ornitho.ch ➤ Birding Switzerland chclub300.ch Reference guides: ➤ Collins Bird Guide – Lars Svensson, Killian Mullarney & Dan Zetterström. ➤ Photographic Guide to Birds of Europe, North Africa & the Middle East – Frédéric Jiguet & Aurélien Audevard.
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rarities: a few Short-toed Larks, Citrine Wagtail, Moustached Warbler and Red-breasted Flycatcher to name a few. If you fancy journeying outside of the city then the area in the vicinity of Zurich Airport, about 25km to the north, would be worth a visit. It is a mixture of marshland and farmland and is perhaps the only place where breeding Corn Buntings can be found, with maybe five pairs present along with Whitethroat, which is a Zurich city rarity. Sky Larks are still plentiful there despite their massive decline elsewhere in the country. The marshes are also well worth an investigation. In the BirdLife Nature Centre area there are several Little Bittern, plentiful Reed Bunting, Grasshopper and Savi’s Warbler, Lapwing and even several breeding Spotted Crakes. Although Switzerland affords brochure shots at every turn if you are a photographer, the landscape is largely a disaster for wildlife. The country simply has not got a lot of ground-nesting birds, because the grasslands are kept like sterile bowling greens.
DAVID SAYS Be careful not to be caught by speed cameras when driving to birding sites in the city. The fines are seriously hefty!
KE Y SPECI ES
Little Bittern komkrit tonusin/Alamy
Premium Stock Photography GmbH/Alamy
Z
URICH IS AN AFFLUENT global city. Despite its relatively low population, the largest city of Switzerland is among the world’s best-known financial centres. It is also apparently a very nice place to live, albeit a tad expensive. Picturesque, it's set at the northern end of Lake Zurich, itself a site of interest for birders. Walking around the historic city centre is a joy, especially on a hot summer’s day. Multitudes of Swifts fill the skies and, if you search through the swirling flocks, you may pick up a few Alpine Swifts. Try a summertime stroll downtown to the internationally-famous Grossmünster Cathedral, one of the four major churches in the city. Aside from admiring the amazing architecture, you can also witness the daily activities of the Swifts that use the spires to breed in close proximity with Jackdaws. Prolonged observation would reveal that a few Alpine Swifts also nest in the church, dramatically entering and leaving through the same gap in some wooden slats above the lower windows. They are not as noticeable, so you have to wait until there is a spate of activity. In Zurich, breeding pairs of Swifts vastly outnumber the bigger Alpine Swifts, although, there are still approximately 100 colonies of the latter species dotted throughout the city.
University of Zurich
BLACKCAP The Blackcap is one of Britain’s most familiar summer songsters. Indeed, its rich warbling is often cited as one of the best of any bird in the land, leading it to be referred to as the Northern Nightingale and the King of Warblers in Gilbert White’s days. With perhaps 1.2 million breeding pairs, this handsome warbler has steadily spread across the UK. Elsewhere, Blackcaps breed over much of Europe, western Asia and north-western Africa, favouring mature deciduous woodland. Nearly all winter around the Mediterranean and tropical Africa. However, it is well known that a steadily increasing number of eastern European and, in particular, German birds are migrating west to winter in Britain. They are even evolving thicker bills to deal with the bird table food that we provide.
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Fedor Selivanov/Alamy
WORDS: DAVID LINDO
Grossmünster Cathedral
David Lindo
Not only is Zurich a global centre for banking and finance, it’s also a pretty city packed with a variety of birds
ZURICH
David Lindo
SWITZERLAND
Chatzensee
Rubén Cebrián
ZURICH
Cranes can sometimes be seen on migration, plus random sightings of migrating raptors such as Osprey have been made. The key urban birding site within Zurich is Chatzensee, in the northern end of the city. The literal English translation for Chatzensee is ‘Cat Lake’ and in days of old it was used for ice production for use during the summer months. Perhaps this is an indication of how cold it gets there during the winter. It is a fairly large, although workable area, consisting of two reed-fringed lakes, marsh, farmland and an area of woodland. The lakes are best observed from the slope of a nearby hill, although the views are partially obscured by trees. Access to both is largely restricted especially to the smaller northern lake – the one of most ornithological interest. The other lake is more accessible and, as a result, less interesting for birding, and its shores tend to get heavily crowded, especially at the weekends. So, early morning visits are a must. Chatzensee is singularly Zurich’s best urban birding spot for good reason. It holds some very special birds for the Zurich area, including breeding Savi’s and Grasshopper Warblers plus, occasionally, Little Bittern, which is quite rare in the city. During the winter a maximum of 12 Bitterns can frequent the reedbeds, sharing them in the evenings with flocks of roosting Starlings. Swifts and Alpine Swifts swoop near the water’s surface for insects alongside Swallows and House Martins while Cuckoo, Hoopoe, Black and Red Kites breed, although the Golden Oriole has now diminished in number, quite considerably. During the summer of 2017, three pairs of Long-eared Owls bred. In the adjoining woodland, expect to see and hear Short-toed Treecreeper, Nightingale, Black, Great Spotted and Green Woodpeckers; with the latter species experiencing an exponential population growth over the past 25 years. There is also a long list of rarities for the site, including Great Spotted Eagle, Calandra Lark in the nearby vegetable fields, which is a prime autumnal spot for