peeeeeeegmy!

Today's star bird, a cracking male pygmy owl, whistled in for great views. I have heard two birds in BK before without converting them but this one surrendered nicely.

After mucking out the house yesterday I reckoned that I deserved a day in the field! Kicked off by looking at the 'big field' at Ljungbyholm, which had a nice adult peregrine sitting in the middle of it. Storahultsstrand was quiet, plenty of ice offshore and the sea was holding a good-sized flock of goldeneye (200+). Nearby on Grytskären an adult white-tailed eagle was making a nuisance of itself and another (or the same) adult peregrine was in attendance too.

Walking Ranarpsstrand produced a handful of meadow and rock pipits and five starling. Slim pickings.

After lunch I decided to try and bag a few easy year-ticks by going for a walk in the woods between Killeröd and Önnarp. This worked well, two hour's of walking in the snow produced the desired sackful of year-ticks, including a nice pair of singing common crossbills, calling nutcracker, crested tit and at least five willow tits. The best though came at the end when a male pygmy owl burst into song nearby and a hectic chase through the woods eventually produced good views before I had to go for the school-run. Sweet.