A Brit abroad

Alps trip day 2: east Vanoise

After spending the night just outside of Geneva with the daughter of my ex-boss from California (small world!), we drove south for two hours to start the high alpine birding in the Vanoise National Park. A last-minute tip-off caused us to alter our plans and drive to the town of Rosiere, close to the Italian border. We decided to explore a promising-looking side road (signed les Eucherts), and shortly after parking the car we had great views of my lifer Ptarmigan (Lagopede alpin) in flight! There was still plenty of snow at this elevation (1900m).

We soon heard Rock Partridge (Perdrix bartavelle) calling from a rocky outcrop - however, patient scanning revealed nothing but our first Alpine Marmots of the trip. In glorious sunshine, a Golden Eagle (Aigle royal) and Northern Goshawk (Autour des palombes) both put on a good show. We had a couple of false alarms for Snow Finch (Niverolle alpine) which turned out to be White Wagtail (Bergeronnette grise) and Northern Wheatear (Traquet motteux).

With the exception of Water Pipit (Pipit spioncelle, seen here in extreme heat haze!)...

... many of the birds found here are typical of much lower elevations in Britain, including Whinchat (Tarier des pres), Tree Pipit (Pipit des arbres), Yellowhammer (Bruant jaune), Linnet (Linotte melodieuse), Redpoll (Sizerin flamme) and Lesser Whitethroat (Fauvette babillarde, trying its best to hide in the bare willow branches).

Winding up an adjacent road to La Sassiere produced few new birds, but more stunning Alpine scenery...

... and a Red Fox hunting in the snow.

In the afternoon we drove along the Val d'Isere, hoping to bird at the Col de L'Iseran, only to find it was still blocked with snow! However, a stop at the end of the valley got Marcel his lifer Alpine Choughs (Chocard a bec jaune) and a skulking Alpine Accentor (Accenteur alpin) sheltering from the wind. Meanwhile I took some photos of this obliging Yellowhammer

and an Alpine Marmot.

With the way ahead blocked we had no choice but to turn back, and we decided to return to La Rosiere. Stopping off on the route up produced singing Bonelli's Warbler (Pouillot de Bonelli) and another pretty orchid (ID anyone?).

Back at the top Marcel's bionic eyes produced a fly-by Snow Finch, a Chamois and this black blob in a tree, which turned out to be a male Black Grouse (Tetras lyre) - another great bird to end the day with.

Posted by rjhall at May 30, 2006 2:28 PM