Birders wandering the streets of Innsbruck on a rainy night. 










Recently, I was in Austria with a bunch of other birders from around the world to check out Swarovski's amazing BTX. One of the things that I love about these trips is that it's a fun birder camp and I get to hang out with colleagues from publications, conservation organizations and tour companies. This trip was a real treat because I got to go birding with Jesse Barrie who is the Program Manager for the Macaulay Library and the Merlin Project Leader as well as Chris Wood Assistant Director at Cornell Lab of Ornithology.















One of my favorite reasons to visit Austria: Speckknödelsuppe (bacon dumpling soup). Amazing plans were hatched over this soup and some stone pine schnapps. 










The group consisted of birders all over the world and because the way the prices for flights worked out, all of us who came from the United States for the event got to stay an extra day. For many of us that meant getting a chance to catch up on missed European lifers like black woodpecker and for me--wallcreeper. But Chris Wood planted a delightful idea on our first night in Austria when we were settling into some schnapps:"You know, there are only a few checklists in eBird in Liechtenstein. If we went in there, we could be the top eBirders there..."As we know, I'm not much of a lister. There really aren't any birds I could get in Liechtenstein that I haven't already seen in Austria. However, the idea of visiting the tiny principality was too irresistible for me. It's equal parts birding and adventure. And given my tax bracket, I don't see myself living or vacationing in Liechtenstein in the foreseeable future. Our plan in the morning was to visit a castle in Austria where we had a good shot at wallcreeper and then driving into Liechtenstein after lunch. Yes, we got wallcreeper (another post for another day).















Our driver whisks us through Schaan, largest municipality of Liechtenstein. 










Liechtenstein is a 62 square mile principality right between Austria and Switzerland. It's a popular winter sports destination. Our driver checked in at the border and we were sent through without having to show our passports.Many in our tiny group needed alpine accentor, snowfinch and alpine chough. 















As we headed up to a ski resort we passed Vaduz Castle, the official residence of the Prince of Liechtenstein.
























A beautiful drive up overlooking almost all 62 square miles.
























Blackbird or what we here in the US would think of as a melanistic robin. 










The birders in the vehicle included not only staff from Cornell, but our guide Leander Khil and friends like Jeff Gordon who is the president of the American Birding Association, Clay Taylor from Swarovski, Corey Finger from 10,000 Birds and Bill Thompson from Bird Watcher's Digest. All of us were scanning out the windows to pick up common birds for our lists like European blackbird and