Sunday, June 26, 2016, Leuk, Switzerland

Today we hunted for our two most-wanted birds — Lammergeier and Wallcreeper..

We went to where a local Swiss birder referred us — Leuk.

We followed the directions to a chasm of shear rock faces over a roaring stream cascading down the mountainside. We stared at the canyon walls for almost two hours, hoping to see a Wallcreeper fly. They are almost impossible to pick out on the rock face.

No luck!

We did see some other new birds — Alpine Chough and Alpine Swift — and got some photos of other birds.

We then took the cable car from Leukenbad up to Gemmi — which had been recommended to us as THE place in Switzerland to see Lammergeier.

As we entered the cable car and looked up at the cables, they disappeared into the clouds — as did we.

It was totally socked in up top, and we only had a few minutes at a time of breaks in the cloud cover below for us to scan. So we dipped out on that one too!

However, we did pick up Alpine Accentor and Snowfinch for the trip.

We are now heading to the eastern tip of Switzerland to finish up before heading back towards Zurich.

The trip list is 91 with 71 lifers.

Here are more photos.

Juvenal Black Redstart, Leuk, Switzerland, June 26, 2016

Juvenal Black Redstart, Leuk, Switzerland, June 26, 2016

Eurasian Jay, Leuk, Switzerland, June 26, 2016

Eurasian Jay, Leuk, Switzerland, June 26, 2016

Eurasian Jay, Leuk, Switzerland, June 26, 2016

Eurasian Jay, Leuk, Switzerland, June 26, 2016

Crag Martin, Leuk, Switzerland, June 26, 2016

Crag Martin, Leuk, Switzerland, June 26, 2016

Alpine Chough, Leuk, Switzerland, June 26, 2016 (Barb took this one with her cell phone!)

Alpine Chough, Leuk, Switzerland, June 26, 2016 (Barb took this one with her cell phone!)

Alpine Chough, Leuk, Switzerland, June 26, 2016

Alpine Chough, Leuk, Switzerland, June 26, 2016

Alpine Accentor, Leuk, Switzerland, June 26, 2016

Alpine Accentor, Leuk, Switzerland, June 26, 2016

 

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