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Friday, March 11, 2011

Snow, rain, hail, sun and repeat

A mixed day weather-wise, classic spring stuff. A strong SW wind throughout made the whole thing a bit unpleasant. But I did spend most of the day outside which was nice. In the morning I checked out Yttre Kattvik, winds were supposed to shift westerly but it never happened... A few things were moving though including red-throated diver (2), crested grebe (7) and guillemot (2).

Next stop was Ripagården were I was swiftly engulfed in snow and spent most of my time sheltering behind a bunker. Not much noted in these conditions unsurprisingly and I left with four coot and a collection of recent arrivals (shelduck, oystercatcher and starling).

In the afternoon, Mrs B and I headed out to look for geese around Lönhult, we found just one substantial flock of greylags (250+), but could only find two white-fronted geese. The light and distance were poor though and frustratingly a neck-collared bird evaded a protracted reading attempt. A check of Farhult for geese revealed that the sea had risen, driven by the gale force southerlies. Few birds about, especially waders, as a result.

Rönnen was better with a reasonable flock of eider building, which included two smart-looking long-tailed ducks. Will this be the location for the annual spring king eider this year? Other notables here included smew (3), white-tailed eagle (1) and ringed plover (4).

Last stop of the afternoon was Sandön where we found a huge total of six smew, as well as three scaup. Again high water levels meant few birds close in, but 75 oystercatchers were roosting on the Själrönnen offshore rocks.

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