Mürren - Spiez - Verbier

Switzerland

Friday 7 July 2023 74 °F

After our final breakfast in Mürren, my dad and I packed our bags and started our journey to Verbier by train. We enjoyed the final views from Mürren and Winteregg:

As well as river views on our second train of the day:

One of our rail layovers today would be Spiez, a beautiful town on Lake Thurnesee which we had passed on our way into Mürren. Seeing that we would stop there today, too, I planned a walking tour of Spiez to be our “activity” for the day: stopping by the Schloß castle, a walk along Lake Thurnesee for birds, and lunch before continuing our train journey to Verbier. The walk through town was gorgeous:

And birds were seen along the way, like this EURASIAN KESTREL:

Getting mobbed by a COMMON SWIFT:

EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE; great to see in its native range:

As well as HOUSE SPARROW — I never take photos of these back home, but in their native range, sure!

Grapes!

BLUE TIT:

A brief stop on the grounds of Castle Schloß was gorgeous.

And I spotted a view birds in the lake such as this immature GREAT CRESTED GREBE, a bird I have seen very few times before!

MALLARD duckling:

And this BLACK KITE, my first of the trip:

The walk along the lake was decent for birds, too, with EURASIAN SERIN:

EURASIAN COOT:

Family of WHITE WAGTAIL:

CARRION CROW:

YELLOW-LEGGED GULLS:

The views did NOT disappoint!

“Classic” view of a BLACKCAP, these guys are loud but near impossible to spot:

BLACK-HEADED GULL was nice to see in it’s “more-expected” range; I have seen these as vagrants in North America before.

Nice family of COMMON MERGANSERS:

RED KITES:

Then, I found this small, drab-colored passerine which turned out to be my first COMMON NIGHTINGALE of the trip, and I think possibly my photographic life bird!

Nice to see some COMMON HOUSE-MARTINS at a nesting site:

BLACK REDSTART:

Bye-bye, EURASIAN MAGPIE:

And more beautiful Spiez views before getting back on the trains to Visp, Martigny, Le Châble, and eventually, Verbier!

Finally, by 16:30 in the afternoon, we made it to Verbier, my home for the next three weeks as a Verbier Festival young artist! I have one full day off tomorrow, I move in with my host family sunday, and then the festival commences on monday! (at which point I will stop posting unless I stumble upon something really unexpected or new)