Monday, May 5, 2008 - Halland - Here, there and back again.
Saturday, May 3rd. We left at 4 in the morning and went all the way to Mellbystrand in southern Halland. Arrived a bit past six. The people already there told us we were a bit late and that migration activity had already peaked. A bit discouraged...
Not before long, however, someone called out Red-throated Divers. Accustomed to Hönö conditions, I began scanning the horizon. But the divers came in hundreds, several hundred feet above us in a large cloud. After a while a White-billed Diver/ Yellow-billed Loon was spotted among them, being obviously larger and with proportionally larger feet. First life-tick of the day. A little while later a passerine flew by heading north. At first I thought it was just a wagtail, but with help of the more seasoned twitchers we could identify it as a Tawny Pipit. Life tick two was a fact.
Some time passed, a good number of year ticks ticked in (hur hur). Then reports of Pomarine Skua heading south began to come in (by BMS, Bird Message Service, a mobile phone service thingy administered by Club 300). After a while it was apparent the skua would eventually get to our location. An exciting half hour later it was spotted, firmly heading south at reasonable range. Very nice third life tick of the day!
 Reed bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus)
After Mellbystrand we went to Trönninge ängar, a classic spot for nesting Penduline Tit, but we didn't find any. Lots of ducks and geese though and some more year ticks.
 Spotted Redshank (Tringa erythropus)
The most unusual year tick there was a very early lone Swift. The climate changes becomes apparent if one turns to phenology records...
 Swift (Apus apus)
We missed some good stuff such as Short-toed Lark somewhere along the way, but at least the year ticks and nice observations kept coming in.
 Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo)
We also stopped by Getterön to have a well earned muffin and more than 1500 Barnacle Geese. Just as last year (see May 19 2007 I think) we had a posing Sedge Warbler and the Barn Swallows nesting in the hide.
 Sedge Warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus)
 Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
After a last stop at Båtafjorden we could count to a total of around 95 species seen in a day. Had we felt more twitchy or started out earlier (fat chance) the tally could have been higher, but still a damn good result in my opinion. And some rather nice pictures too.
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About Me
27 year old birder from Gothenburg, Sweden.
Last year we twitched for year ticks. I ended up with 250 which is more than I had lifers when the year started. This year I'll go fairly easy on the year ticks (Though anything under 200 is shameful) but will instead aim for 300 life ticks in Sweden. A task and a half probably...
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Last ticks
• 280: Two-barred Crossbill
• 279: Atlantic Puffin
• 278: Little Egret
• 277: Rosy Starling
• 276: Ring-necked Duck
• 275: Red-footed Falcon
• 274: Black Grouse
• 273: Steller's Eider
• 272: Water pipit
• 271: Eurasian Pygmy Owl
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