One of the advantages of frequent jet-lag, as well as advancing years, is that I often wake up at 5 o'clock in the morning feeling wide awake. It happened this morning, so I tip-toed about and got suited up for the snow. Spent an enjoyable hour in the dark at nearby Glimminge listening for owls. First up was a single call from a tawny owl - year-tick! I then spent a great 15 minutes with a pair of long-eared owls - the male calling and wing-clapping right above my head. Magic.
At first light (at least an hour before dawn) I moved down the road and checked out another site. The skerries were still white with snow but instead of the expected roosting white-tailed eagle, the islands were covered in roosting corvids. The eagle flew in later and displaced the last of the crows. The rocks here also produced an unseasonal turnstone - year-tick! Working the coast I found a flock of birds feeding on a bank of exposed seaweed. The regular wintering woodlark was present in amongst the meadow pipits and rock pipits. The comical calls of eider and the mechanical buzzy double note of displaying goldeneyes filled the air.
At the end of the walk I got really excited. An aquatic mammal showed briefly before diving into some jumbled rocks. Could it be an otter? Sadly examination of the tracks and photographs (see above) suggests that it was an American mink (my first in Sweden). Otter is monumentally rare in Sweden, mostly due to continuing high levels of PCBs in the aquatic ecosystem. It is only the second time I have seen American mink in saltwater. On the way home a buzzard feeding on a dead badger (my first for the patch too) demonstrated just how little I know about the wildlife near my house even after nearly two years.
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