Digiscoping Wallcreepers - finally!

many will know that for a long time I have equated the finding [discovery] of a wallcreeper (Tichodroma muraria) equivalent to the claim that a dodo just flew past one's office window. either that or the creative result of spending way too much time on photoshop.

that up until this afternoon.

I was out for a bit of a wander in one of the spots where stringers had laid claim to seeing one of these [previously] mythical creatures - the hopeful optimist in me is alive and strong after all ;-)

just a few meters in to the little gorge and a GORGEOUS little wallcreeper pops out of a hole and starts to flutter up the wall away from me. Having taken out a different digiscoping setup today - one that I had not used in a good month (straight scope and DCA adapter) - I missed the crucial shots when the bird was just a few meters away (that will teach me for taking "unfamiliar" equipment with in to a potentially critical situation. Dale Forbes, you are a digiscoping/birding fool).

But Lady Luck was firmly at my side this afternoon, because she came back a few minutes later and posed for me. Picture this, there I am with a female wallcreeper right in front of me, just a few meters away, and I am trying my best not to shake/shudder with excitement. in a dark canyon. on a swing bridge. none of which is conducive to taking great digiscoping shots. but I did get some nice hey-ma-look-at-the-pretty-birdie-I-saw-today shots.

wallcreeper female showing off her flashy red wings. there is some vignetting to the images. I'll blame it on the bunny.

It turns out, they have a nest right there, and after a good hour, the much darker male came by with some food for the female (looks like a cricket - that is the bug photo for Joan ;-)

the darker male wallcreeper with a cricket for the female. i presume she is incubating or still has very small [altricial] young

The wallcreepers were very very flitty birds. They did not, however, seem to be bothered at all by my presence (their behaviour was exactly the same 100m away as when they approached me to about 10m away). But the longest the wallcreepers ever sat still was no longer than one billionth of a second. but then again, I have been known to exagerate. The red windows in the wings, continually flicking the wings and their flitty nature are all adaptations to flushing insects on the cliffs. The thing is that their prey is very well camoflaged and hard to see, but as soon as they move, they give themselves away. Lots of insectivores use this strategy (ever wondered why wagtails wag their tails?) and it seems to work quite well, but still these wallcreepers have absolutely huge territories in order to find enough sustenance on these rather barren alpine cliffs.

I will have to come back another day (when there is better light) to get some good shots of the alpine wallcreepers.

Happy [alpine] birding
Dale Forbes