I meant to post a summary of this week’s birding today, but I didn’t get around to it and now I have to go to bed because we’re starting out for Halland at 4:30. I will post a proper post when I get home tomorrow. Have a Blue Tit on the house while you wait 
Blue Tit (Parus caeruleus)
As I’ve mentioned before, I spent May 22-25 on Öland taking part in a course about how to recruit and work with volunteers for the purpose of promoting bird conservation and getting more members for the Swedish Ornithological Society. With me were society members from all over the country and also two gentlemen from the RSPB. Of course there was also plenty of time for birdwatching.
I started out early, spending four hours on the train to Kalmar and then another two hours in Kalmar waiting for people arriving with the next train before going onward to Öland and the birds If we had gotten there earlier and hitched a ride down to the observatory I could have life ticked a Nightjar, sleeping in a tree in the lighthouse garden.
A walk in the woods south of the hostel generated only one year tick, but one quite hard to find at home, Collared Flycatcher. By the coast east of the forest we also got Sanderling. Supposedly there were Broad-billed Sandpipers there as well, but we couldn’t distinguish them properly from the Dunlins.
Fallow Deer (Dama dama) Feral herd, introduced in the 16th century.
Back at the hostel I got another year tick, and well deserved it was. My first Bluethroat since 1997!
Bluethroat (Luscinia svecia)
The next morning almost all of the participants were set on Golden Oriole. After a while I decided to go down to the observatory area to meet up with an old birding friend. Twenty minutes of brisk walk later I found two men with parabolic microphones who pointed and whispered ‘Oriole’. I walked on more cautiously and managed to hear the distinct song a bit down the road. First life tick of the trip! (As mentioned elsewhere in the blog, according to swedish rules, identifying a bird by the sounds it makes also counts as a tick, even for example the sound of a fleeing Capercaillie). My sound recording below actually has the song of two Golden Orioles, but they are perching rather close to each other.
Golden Oriole (Oriolus oriolus)
Further south I year ticked Red-breasted Flycatcher and Brent Goose and down by the observatory Red-necked Phalarope. During lunch break I also year ticked Common Rosefinch and Little Stint. Later in the evening I year ticked Marsh Warbler near the hostel. Reasonable catch for a single day nowadays.
Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata) They were all over the place! Swarms!
Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella)
The third day started very early with going to the observatory and lighthouse area in search for the Kentish Plover resident since late April, but instead of heat shimmer being the problem like the day before, this time he was seen further north east and only at a great distance, but when we arrived to the tower by the reported spot he had just flown away again. Year ticks that morning: Grey Plover and Red Knot and also ssp. tick of Light-bellied Brent Goose. After an outdoors assignment during the morning I also life ticked Grey Partridge on the way back south and later in the afternoon life ticked a newly ringed Serin in the observatory garden.
Serin (Serinus serinus)
Little Tern (Sternula albifrons)
The last morning of the trip we also went down to the southern point of the island (after dipping a River Warbler near the hostel), except those who still hadn’t seen or heard Golden Oriole. This resulted in the fourth life tick of the trip, Black Kite. It was spotted going southwest at good height but reconsidered and started working it’s way against the wind to the northeast and therefore could be seen very nicely from where I stood for almost two minutes. No course activities this day, so the focus was on birdwatching until lunch. Managed to year tick Caspian Tern, but not a very good observation. Spent an hour or so photographing the resident Jackdaws. At the time of departure a Black-winged Stilt was reported further north along the eastern coast, but we didn’t have time to go look for it.
Jackdaw (Corvus monedula)
A good trip and very interesting course, but there were quite a few irritating dips such as Red-footed Falcon, Great Reed Warbler, Common Guillemot, Spotted Crake, Turtle Dove and probably a few more.
I will post about Öland as soon as I can. I’m currently in the midst of editing photos.
In the meantime why not join the RSPB? I just did.
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) Help protect birds worldwide! Join RSPB!
On Monday the 19th I initially suggested a short afternoon trip targeting Marsh Warbler, but we ended up with a trip to Halland to life tick Terek Sandpiper. While there, we decided to go a few kilometers further south to look at a Dotterel which showed itself very nicely. As a bonus, a Short-eared Owl turned up and put on a very good show, first idly patrolling over the fields and then suddenly decided to have a snack. Another life tick! Now properly warmed up we decided to go another couple of kilometers south to Båtafjorden, where an Egyptian Goose had been reported. While we were there it got too dark to distinguish one goose species from another, so we went home again, happy even without the goose.
Terek Sandpiper (Xenus cinereus) DSLR-digiscoped, hence quality.
Note the brightly coloured legs.
Tomorrow morning I’m leaving for Öland, so hopefully a good bunch of ticks and a lengthy and interesting post to look forward to
Since I seem to have caught a cold I haven’t been able to keep up with events lately, but here goes.
Sunday, May 18 was the day of this year’s spring ‘square hunt’. Me and E weren’t participating but went on a competition of our own, to compare two locations – Torslandaviken in western Sweden and Roxen in the east. We were supposed to start at 5 and stop at 17, but our competitor at Roxen overslept and couldn’t start until 5:15. As the day went, we agreed to quit at noon.
The dredge pond, normally a paradise for stints galore at this time of year had dried up quite a bit and there were only Redshanks and Ringed Plovers to be seen, and not many at that. We also saw the first Red-backed Shrike of the year.
Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio)
We searched thoroughly around all of Torslandaviken but found nothing really specatular, except maybe that we had in all 23 singing Common Whitethroats. The Sand Martins had increased from about six last time to several hundred this day along with lots of House Martins, Barn Swallow and an ever increasing number of Swifts.
House Martin (Delichon urbicum)
Blue-headed Wagtail (Motacilla flava flava)
As we doubled back and then went up the western shore we stopped by where a square hunt-team stood, and catched a brief glimpse of a Long-eared Owl before it got back into hiding in the treetops below us. Very unexpected life tick for Torslandaviken.
Further north on the west side we had the second shrike of the day, an adult this time, and also a nice Sedge Warbler. As we had a lunch break in the tower there, we observed a perching Cuckoo and another adult Red-backed Shrike.
Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio)
Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus)
In the end, we lost the competition, 67 to 70, but we were distinctly in the lead for most of the day, save the last few hours… We’ll have to do it again sometime.
A Great Snipe was seen in Välen this morning. The observers suggested in their report commentaries that there might be lekking tonight, which resulted in a lot of birders going there this evening. We went to the tower, mainly because that’s easiest. Reed Warblers, Lapwings and Water Rail (year tick) were heard amongst others, but no Snipe. Rounded off with a couple of minutes by the nearby river, which resulted in at least three Grasshopper Warblers and a Thrush Nightingale.
I put up a nest box about two hours ago at convenient viewing distance from my balcony. Not twenty minutes later, a Pied Flycatcher arrived to inspect the estate
Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca)
Since Pied Flycatchers like nest boxes to the point that they sometimes evict other birds from them, it’s not very surprising, but I expected a day’s time or so to pass before any birds at all showed interest. Now I’ll just have to wait and see if he liked what he saw.
I put a shoutbox in the menu to the right, just above the counter. Feel free to use it! I like feedback and the post comment thingy is rather cumbersome in my opinion.
The Little Egret at Båtafjorden had apparently moved on or found a good hiding place before we got there, so we didn’t see it. Year ticked Corn Crake though and had for example Shoveler, Garganey, Ruff, Spotted Redshank, Marsh Harrier and Sedge Warbler, so the time there was well spent at least.
Edit: right now, 21:43, the damn bird was reported some distance west of where we were. Silly 
Took a trip to Hårssjön this morning. We had for example Reed Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler, Jay, Coal Tit, Little Grebe and a possible Goldfinch. Hoped half-heartedly for Marsh Warbler, Water Rail or Hobby, but they refused to show up.
Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus scirpaecus)
Afterwards we stopped by Brudarebacken and saw a Common Buzzard at very nice distance flying pretty close to the hilltop (would have been even nicer if we had actually been on the hill and not in the parking lot below). We also had Raven, Whinchat and Goldcrest.
In an hour from now, we’re leaving for Båtafjorden to check on a reported Little Egret. As some of the readers might recall, we missed a Little Egret in the very same spot by a few hours in May last year. Excitement! The proper birding season is here
Instead of a trip for Dotterel we took an afternoon walk along river Lärjeån (the Lärje river). As the river valley is just behind my house I went out a bit before we were supposed to meet and tried to get pics of Wood Warbler. Also found a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.
Wood Warbler (Phylloscopus sibilatrix)
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos minor)
When we got down to the river, the first birds we observed were the resident Mandarin Ducks, which I had known about for a long time but never seen before. No tick though, since they’ve obviously escaped from a park or suchlike.
Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata) Feral couple (part of the female is visible top center)
We had hoped to year tick Spotted Flycatcher but failed, so no year ticks (except Mandarin Duck) but some month- and year-month ticks. The strangest observation was a Yellowhammer, quite out of it’s element, perching on a branch near the water surface.