More from 50 years ago
Back in 1969, what was in those days a considerable adventure continued as we left Austria behind and headed into what was then Yugoslavia (Slovenia nowadays), and immediately had serious car trouble, my Dad’s old Cortina rescued by none other than a village blacksmith, who actually made a new part.
A lake nearby was swarming with White-winged Black Terns, and we identified what were for us new birds – singing Olivaceous Warblers.
Another new song came from roadside wires, that of Black-headed Buntings, locally quite numerous as we approached the coast of what is now Croatia. We camped by the Adriatic, Scops, Long-eared and Tawny Owls serenading us, but there was little else to be seen, so off we went, over the Italian border, spending the night at Forni di Sopra, then over the spectacular Dolomites, seeing our very first Nutcrackers and Snow Finches just as we passed into Switzerland. We made for the famous Aareschlucht (the gorge of the river Aar) and managed to get distant views of two Wallcreepers on the high cliffs.
A detour took us to the famous rack-and-pinion railway up to the Kleine Scheidegg, then a walk up the Lauberhorn resulted in Alpine Accentors and a solitary Ptarmigan added to our growing list, as well as the sight of a Golden Eagle, carrying off an unfortunate Marmot.
We drove back through France to the channel port of Calais, noting Hawfinch and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker along the way.
It had been a considerable journey – not the sort of thing that birders do now, in the age of package-deal tours, and trips to exotic locations, but plenty of good birding!