If you have read the first few birding posts you have probably realised that what I call my patch, is rather large. I live and bird in Båstad kommun (appropriate I hear some of you mutter, but you do not pronounce it that way), a small municipality of seven parishes that encompasses the Bjärehalvon peninsula. Båstad kommun (BK) consists of over 50 km of coastline (sandy beaches, rocky shores, one stretch of low cliffs and a few harbours), the west coast of the peninsula is largely designated as a coastal nature reserve. Inland is mostly farmland but to the east on the high ground we have bog, forestry plantations and some decent juniper moorland. The patch is bisected east-west by the Hallandåsen ridge, this used to be the logical boundary between the two provinces of Halland and Skåne. I live at the top of a valley that cuts into this ridge and get a lot of raptor and crane migration overhead as a result. One of the bizarre things about BK is that whilst most of it is in Skåne part of it falls in the neighbouring province of Halland - an artefact (I guess) of the turbulent history of Skåne, which has passed between the Swedes and the Danish several times in relatively recent times.
All this variety has allowed me to build a reasonable patch list with plenty of scope for additions. There is always the chance of the odd stray rarity, and luckily BK is the place to seawatch in Sweden when condition are right and also there are still a few niggling species that elude me (ring ouzel, black grouse and short-eared owl spring to mind).
The best bit though, is that for a lot of the year I have the place pretty much to myself, which for a former Norfolk birder is rather pleasant.
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