As I checked todays (June 6th) observations at about 11:45 in the morning I realised there was a Blyth's Reed Warbler less than thirty minutes drive from home. I soon got a text message about just that and five past 12 we were in the car.
At the location were already quite a lot of cars and people and the warbler could be heard from well over 50 meters away. Soon we found him in a row of bushes in the field by the road. Managed to record some sound but all the files were quite full of the sounds of heavy traffic and birders in conversation.
The Blyth's Reed Warbler is not an extremely rare guest in Sweden but the first one here was found in 1958 and this bird was the fourth or fifth in the Gothenburg area ever. Very nice!
Singing Blyth's Reed Warbler
In the evening I paid another visit with a friend. This time there were birders in the middle of the field, on the other side of the bushes. Even though they were very careful, they stood a bit too close in my opinion. As I ended up standing there too, I should perhaps not complain too much. This time, only one or two seconds of song were heard in about an hour. We got nice Common Kestrel and Stock Pigeon observations though.
This was my eighth life tick in six days and a good one too. Of the 22 warbler species seen fairly often in Sweden, I only have five to go. Two breed semi-rarely in southern Sweden, one strictly in northern Sweden and the other two are rare visitors from east just like the Blyth's.
I also checked the pond on campus today. The Mallard family is gone. Not sure if they have had time to get fully fledged or if they were eaten. The resident Moorhens took their young for a walk on the water-lilies.
26 year old birder from Gothenburg, Sweden.
My goal for 2007 was get above 200 life-ticks. I managed 215 and will attempt to get to 250 in 2008. A lot harder!
Moorhen, less than two weeks old.