Ridiculously beautiful - Switzerland

Here's a whole bunch of photos from the last five days, when I visited various parts of Switzerland

Starting in the city of Geneva:

A kite - mostly likely a black kite.. taken above Lake Geneva.

here's some snaps of the Lake and its surrounding landscape -

a Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus)

a Mute swan (Cygnus olor)

saw this along one of the river front walks... illustrating all the commonly found waterbirds of this lake

A hybrid of a Rosybill Pochard (Netta peposaca) possibly with a Pochard

In both (the above and below) photos check how the fish are swimming away from the ducks

A male Red-crested Pochard (Netta rufina)

An unided Moth

This Panorama was clicked near the Château de Chillon (which is the small castle seen on the right) near the city of Montreux, this is still the same lake - lake Geneva.

A Large white (Pieris brassicae) butterfly

Some fast flying Swifts.. above the streets of Montreux

a smart Carrion Crow (Corvus corone)

A House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)

a graceful Common Tern (Sterna hirundo)

and a few snaps as we left Montreux heading to Interlaken on the golden pass panoramic train...

It was from this view while winding up and down the valleys

appreciating the great valleys, the many lakes, the odd bird flying by

and the Alps that it really sank in - 'this really is a ridiculously beautiful country'.

Here's a few birds I saw on this route either from the train or just at the railway stations

A lonely Serin (Serinus serinus)

An unided Martin most probably a House Martin....

A Black Redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros)

A Common Swift (Apus apus)

Our next stop was to Lauterbrunnen - a small village situated at the entrance of an amazing valley

This is where I saw the unique Trummelbach Falls

- it thunders down in 10 magnificent leaps

inside the mountain and made accessible by an impossible

network of man made tunnels running parallel to the falls.

From the falls I headed to Jungfraujoch - a place popularly known as Top of Europe.

To get up there you have to take Europe's highest train journey through some amazingly unspoilt settings and breathtakingly beautiful vistas.

and once you get to the last stop you can step out on to the Great Aletsch Glacier -which is the largest glacier in the Alps.

And at the very top of Jungfraujoch is the Sphinx observation terrace where I saw a whole bunch of extremely friendly Alpine or Yellow-billed Chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus)

they were eating stuff off people's hands

These extremely smart birds are closely related to crows

Moving on... to the next city

a few Mute swans near the Luzern's famous Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke)

And to end this posting - a few butterflies from Basel

a Painted Lady (Cynthia cardui)

a Wood White (Leptidea sinapis)

a Short-tailed Blue (Cupido argiades)

An unided skipper mostly likely a Small skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris)

(It is essentially identical to the Essex Skipper, T. lineola, which is equally widespread and common. The key difference is the colour of the underside of the antennal club. In sylvestris it is orange (like the rest of the butterfly!) and in lineola it is black.)