FollowIt’s another gloomy, wet day. On days like this we can tell the weather’s awful up at Scheidegg, because the birds that live up there fly down to Wengen in search of food. Here they are on the meadow opposite our terrace.
These birds are Alpine Choughs, and they have just two goals in life. They like to eat as much as they possibly can, and they want to make lots of little Choughs. Their natural diet is very varied. In summer they’ll find things like beetles, snails, caterpillars and other critters. In winter they rely on fruit, seeds and berries. They’re clever birds, and if there’s a plentiful supply of food they’ll hide some in crevices in the rocks, and conceal it with pebbles.
In ski resorts however, the Choughs have it easy. The many mountain restaurants provide them with an endless supply of chips, bread, cake, pasta and other high-calorie leftovers. The reason they come down to Wengen on bad weather days is that they know nobody’s going to be eating outside the restaurants, so there won’t be a free lunch.
EDIT: BREAKING NEWS!
Late this afternoon the wind turned northerly, and the rain became snow. I wouldn’t normally post a video of snow from a ski resort, but it’s been so long since we had any I think it’s newsworthy.
Those Choughs are going to have a hard time tomorrow.