Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis) is one of those birds that just get me salivating but, unfortunately (or maybe as a consequence of) it is a rarity in Austria and I had only seen it once, just down the road from work last year where a local birder and friend (Paul) found one in a mixed flock of birds in the snow.
Morning mists on a side-pond of Lake Constance. Those are nesting platforms for terns.
A couple of weekends ago, Paul, Sergej and I had headed out to Bodensee / Lake Constance – a wonderful prealpine lake shared by Switzerland, Germany and Austria – to see what waterfowl and other birds were about. Waterfowl were in their thousands (mainly Tufted Duck, Mallard and Pochard) with a few Ferruginous Ducks (aka Fudge Ducks, Aythya nyroca), Red-crested Pochards (Netta rufina), and Whooper Swans (Cygnus cygnus), amongst others, to keep things interesting.
The looong arm of the Rhein channel that projects out in to Lake Constance
But the highlight was – yup you guessed it – a Snow Bunting:
What a beauty!
Snow Buntings have a lovely yellow bill in winter.
The lovely clear chestnut facial markings and bib suggest this is a male, but the relative lack of white on the coverts and the sharp pointed tail feathers suggested a young bird (1st winter). If anyone has more experience with Snow Buntings and can deduce more about it, I would be interested to hear from you.
looking a little scraggly after bathing just 5m from us!
The Snow Bunting happily approached us and fed between us without any concerns. He got spent a fair amount of time about 5m from us - incredible.
Sunset on the lake
X marks the spot
The sheer beauty of this bird, and how approachable he was, made this one of my top 3 bird experiences this year. Moving. Wonderful.
Happy birding,
Dale
Random Posts:
Rich Hoyer: A Lesson on Digiscoping Techniques – the Zeiss Diascope: I recently conducted some tests in my back yard to determine which digiscoping techniques work best
Category:Birding North America
dAwN FiNe: Featured Bird Blogger of the Week: Howdee all, Hope you are all staying warm…its been pretty darn cold in my neck of the woods of Nor
Category:Birding North America
Alex Vargas: Laem Pak Bia, another Bird-Photo Hotspot in Thailand!: Several hotspots in the Laem Pak Bia area, are worth to mention, as these produce great birding and
Category:Birding Asia
Similar Posts:
DaleForbes:Snow Buntings in a suit: Tirol is a pretty much a winter wonderland – great big pointy Alps, covered in fluffy white snow. Pi
Category:Birding Western Palearctic
DaleForbes:Notable mentions: Digiscoper of the Year 2010: What a stunning photo of a Madagascan Helmet Vanga (Euryceros prevostii) by Pete Morris – just one o
Category:Digiscoping & Bird Photography
DaleForbes:Reed Cormorant in Spain: Spain’s only record of the Pygmy Cormorant (Microcarbo pygmaeus) is from a single cormorant collecte
Category:Birding AfricaBirding Western Palearctic
DaleForbes:Long-legged Buzzard twitching mega rarity: “Is this really a Long-legged Buzzard?” was the question from Reinhard Hölzl, a friend and local pho
Category:Birding Western Palearctic
DaleForbes:Good start to Digiscoper of the Year 2011: The Digiscoper of the Year 2011 competition started on 1 June, and being still early days, there hav
Category:Digiscoping & Bird Photography
Grrlscientist: 
Gunnar: 
GlennBartley: 
Gunnar: 
Gunnar: 
Grrlscientist: 
Gunnar: 
Grrlscientist: 
GlennBartley: 
Grrlscientist: 
Grrlscientist: 
Alex Vargas: 
YoavPerlman: 
dAwN FiNe: 
Grrlscientist: 
Grrlscientist: 
Rebecca Nason: 
Grrlscientist: 
SusanMyers: 
Rebecca Nason: 
Grrlscientist: 
Rebecca Nason: 
Rebecca Nason: 
Alex Vargas: 
SusanMyers: 
Rebecca Nason: 
Rebecca Nason: 
Gunnar: 
