Quick blast

Today was supposed to be about me spending most of a sunny day in the field but something cropped up (an emergency visa application...) and I only ended up getting 1.5 hours for my troubles. Birding the patch has been cursed by weather and other problems so far this year. Despite the short time I did bag three year-ticks so all was not lost.

Kicked off at Hemmeslövsstrand where I finally connected with a flock of 40 scaup just offshore, also here 35 tufted duck, 55 common scoter and best of all a Halland black guillemot (much scarcer up this end of BK). Moving quickly on to Kattvik, the stretch between the harbour and Yttre Kattvik produced more black guillemot (2), three coot, a single guillemot and red-necked grebe and 8 great crested grebes. No sign of the large number of grebes reported over the weekend though.

Lastly drove over to Ripagården and had time to count ten coot and not find a jack snipe before the phone rang and I started running about like a headless chicken for the rest of the day...