Michael‘s Seventh Year

[Galana]

The Wallcreeper in flight deserves special mention. Superb.

[offshorebirder]

This entire page of posts is cracking stuff!    Treecreper, Wallcreeper, Snow Finch nest, Dipper feeding young - amazing!

 

Have you ever considered guiding @michael-ibk?    Austrian alpine birding looks excellent.

[xelas]

10 hours ago, offshorebirder said:

Have you ever considered guiding @michael-ibk?

 Yes he did! And he is an awesome guide!

[pedro maia]

Precious, the dipper sequence.

[PeterHG]

A beautiful set of the Dipper feeding its young followed by yet another excellent bird. And even some very good flight shots!

[TonyQ]

A wonderful set of alpine birds, the dipper is well worth the sequence.

The scenery is stunning 

[Kitsafari]

luuurvve the dippers (chicks are such tyrants), and the wallcreeper sequence!

[Zim Girl]

Fantastic birds from your walks in the mountains.  Beautiful Dipper and Wallcreeper sequences.

[Soukous]

On 6/26/2022 at 9:34 PM, offshorebirder said:

This entire page of posts is cracking stuff!    Treecreper, Wallcreeper, Snow Finch nest, Dipper feeding young - amazing!

 

Have you ever considered guiding @michael-ibk?    Austrian alpine birding looks excellent.

 

whoa! hold the presses, Nate's looking at Big Year.  Come on Nate, you gotta join the fun.c

[Dave Williams]

Getting a flight shot of the Wallcreeper is no easy task. Nice one! 

Is "White-fronted" the new "Black-bellied" Dipper? Europe only has one it seems.

[offshorebirder]

On 7/5/2022 at 10:40 AM, Soukous said:

whoa! hold the presses, Nate's looking at Big Year.  Come on Nate, you gotta join the fun.

 

I was looking at new posts in the past 24 hours and saw someone mentioning some really cool birds - so I dipped in and took a look.

 

I wish I had abundant free time to participate in the big year thread, but it would be much too time-consuming.

[Soukous]

9 hours ago, offshorebirder said:

I wish I had abundant free time to participate in the big year thread, but it would be much too time-consuming.

 

the door is always open. 

you bring different species that many of us never see.

[Peter Connan]

Magnificent effort and lovely photos Michael!

[michael-ibk]

Thanks everybody!

 

On 6/26/2022 at 10:34 PM, offshorebirder said:

Have you ever considered guiding @michael-ibk?    Austrian alpine birding looks excellent.

 

A very appealing thought Nathan but unfortunately I do have a job so probably not in the cards for me anytime soon. In twenty years if I´m lucky.

 

But of course always happy to welcome fellow Safaritalkers here and help a bit with local birding!

 

Some catch-up stuff:

 

523/E184) Eurasian Siskin (Spinus spinus) / Erlenzeisig

 

Lüsen/Tirol, Austria, 28/6/22. Normally a very common bird but I don´t know where they have all gone this year. The only one seen so far - a while ago when I had the pleasure of showing @Soukousaround.

 

 

Also quite delighted to see this Stoat - one or two sightings a year is all they grant me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 5, 2022 by michael-ibk

[michael-ibk]

524/E185) Coal Tit (Periparus ater) / Tannenmeise

 

Geraer Hütte/Tirol/Austria, 9/7/2022. Our most common breeding bird. Not particularly shy but a forest bird that tends to stay higher up.

 

 

And a bonus Nutcracker:

 

 

To further promote our mountains:

 

 

 

This is one of my favourite hikes. Food up here is surprisingly good. :-)

 

 

[michael-ibk]

525/E186) Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) / Bartgeier

 

Pforzheimer Hütte/Tirol/Austria, 16/7/22. An ebc but was super delighted to see this magnificent raptor. They went extinct in the 19th century and have been reestablished. We now have a handful of breeding pairs in the Alps. I was lucky enough to see them occassionally high up in the sky in Carinthia. This was my first sighting closer to home - together with a few Griffons, another first for my home province.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

526/E187) Red Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) / Fichtenkreuzschnabel

 

Dobratsch/Carinthia/Ecuador, 23/7/22. One of my local favourites. Seen during a very enjoyable weekend spent with @xelasand Zvezda.

 

 

And some bonus Butterflies - I´m starting to get into them, God help me.

 

 

Small Tortoiseshell

 

 

Cabbage Butterfly

 

 

Silver-Washed Fritillary

 

 

European Peacock

 

 

Hummingbird Hawk-Moth

[Towlersonsafari]

@michael-ibksaid

Quote

And some bonus Butterflies - I´m starting to get into them, God help me.

 

 

you fool, you mad fool..... I do like your hummingbird hawkmoth photo!

[TonyQ]

+1 for the Hawkmoth (is it taken with your 100-400?)

[michael-ibk]

12 minutes ago, TonyQ said:

+1 for the Hawkmoth (is it taken with your 100-400?)

Thanks both. Yes it is! 

[PeterHG]

Beautiful photos again, Michael, of scenery, birds and butterflies. I can just imagine the thrill of seeing a Bearded Vulture so close to home.

[Peter Connan]

Excellent shot of the moth, and wonderful sighting of the vultures.

Lovely views of your beautiful mountains.

[Galana]

Excellent stuff. I share @Towlersonsafariview on your new 'career path'. Very dangerous but welcome diversions.

Thanks for the reminders of the Austrian scenery too. I have been away too long.

Great capture of the Hummingbird Hawk Moth. Something I have spent hours with on the balcony window boxes of the Gasthaus rooms I have lodged in.

[michael-ibk]

Just returned from a very enoyable and very birdy Ecuador trip. Will take a while until I´ll be able to sort through my photos - but a little teaser here:

 

 

Plate-Billed Mountain Toucan

[TonyQ]

Welcome back - that will certainly make us jealous!