BIRDS OF ZERMATT

A COUPLE OF YEARS BACK, we posted an entry that showed a chainsaw carver working on a wooden eagle at the Furi station just above town.  In more recent walks, we've found additional birds that could be the work of the same carver.

FOR EXAMPLE, an old farm building in Furi is home to a pair of carved birds – an owl and a falcon or some other raptor – perched on a ledge near the door. Presumably they help to keep the barn safe from rodents.

AND MORE RECENTLY, we have spotted a couple of carved statues along mountain trails depicting two oversize "species" of Mittlespecht  –  woodpeckers, although I tend to think of them as cuckoo birds  –  actively attacking forest trees.

IN FACT, on a recent birding trek in this land of the clouds, we were alarmed to spy a menacing creature approaching one of the native carvings.

More research is clearly needed to identify this latest interloper. It's possible this is the rare "funny hatted, red-sweatered, mountain marauder" that has been sighted in late summer in Zermatt for many decades. Caution is advised.