Small cow-wheat Melampyrum sylvaticum at Haga todayWell today I soiled my patch-list with an Egyptian goose tick. I had predicted it would not take long for Klarningen to tempt one in and I was right. There has been one hovering on the edge of the patch all spring, reported occasionally from Skottorp and no doubt occasionally sneaking into BK unseen.
Anyway lets start at the beginning shall we. Took the kids out for the day and we kicked off with two hours of blueberry-eating in the woodland around Haga. I had hoped to confirm wryneck as a breeding bird (heard a male in May) but the blueberries took precedence. Did see two male red-backed shrikes and had a female feeding young nearby. The season moves on at an alarming pace.
After lunch we headed for the shops for the weekly bag of sweets and then whilst they ate them I had a quick fifteen minutes scanning at Klarningen. The afore-mentioned Egyptian was resting together with four male wigeon (the flock grows...) and four greylag geese. Egyptian geese are a much bigger deal here than in the UK and I think this might be the first for NW Skåne this year. I really hope no-one twitches it though, it is a scummy addition to any list (outside it's range of course!).
Hi Phil, The worst thing is they are ugly! I found one on my patch a couple of months ago which caused a minor twitch among the locals - apparently it was the first in the Copenhagen area for 5 years. I am recovering rapidly from shingles, so hope to get out tomorrow morning which will be the first time for a couple of weeks.... Terry
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