Yesterday I went out to Lake Constance in search for anything good. Last Wednesday a Great Skua and a Sabine's Gull were seen, but since then the weather was to good and I hadn't much hope.
The ferry from Romanshorn to Friedrichshafen and back was absolutely unproductive, nothing than some Yellow-legged Gulls. A walk along the shore from Kesswil to Güttingen produced a nice male Eider and a juvenile Mediterranean Gull. A final lookout at Triboltingen was a bit better, with a Marsh Harrier, a Great White Egret and twenty Little Gulls. It was then when I received a text message about a Pectoral Sandpiper at the Flachsee Unterlunkhofen. I calculated my travel time and came to the conclusion that I would arrive in darkness.
So I got up early this morning and took the train and the bus to the Flachsee, which is near Zürich. I arrived in thick fog with some other birders and we started the search. A juvenile Ruff brought some confusion but as the fog lifted everyone was convinced that it wasn't the Pectoral Sandpiper. We went on, passing nice Kingfishers, some Ruddy Shelducks, some Red-crested Pochards and I was thinking about dipping again when another birder shouted "I got him!". Right he was indeed and I could observe my first Pectoral Sandpiper in Switzerland. It was a young bird, with all ID features clearly visible.
So my Swiss list is on 291 and there are only 9 more to go until I reach the magic 300:t:
The ferry from Romanshorn to Friedrichshafen and back was absolutely unproductive, nothing than some Yellow-legged Gulls. A walk along the shore from Kesswil to Güttingen produced a nice male Eider and a juvenile Mediterranean Gull. A final lookout at Triboltingen was a bit better, with a Marsh Harrier, a Great White Egret and twenty Little Gulls. It was then when I received a text message about a Pectoral Sandpiper at the Flachsee Unterlunkhofen. I calculated my travel time and came to the conclusion that I would arrive in darkness.
So I got up early this morning and took the train and the bus to the Flachsee, which is near Zürich. I arrived in thick fog with some other birders and we started the search. A juvenile Ruff brought some confusion but as the fog lifted everyone was convinced that it wasn't the Pectoral Sandpiper. We went on, passing nice Kingfishers, some Ruddy Shelducks, some Red-crested Pochards and I was thinking about dipping again when another birder shouted "I got him!". Right he was indeed and I could observe my first Pectoral Sandpiper in Switzerland. It was a young bird, with all ID features clearly visible.
So my Swiss list is on 291 and there are only 9 more to go until I reach the magic 300:t: