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Saturday, April 27, 2013

ring ouzel madness

 In my first six years of birding in BK I recorded just seven ring ouzels, today I saw seven more!

After a lazy morning we headed out for a walk and a picnic around Gröthögarna. At Norra Ängalag a skulky ring ouzel dived into cover and disappeared. Song thrushes were everywhere. There were a few migrants around the car park here including single blackcap, lesser whitethroat and pied flycatcher. The walk around the headland was rather quiet although another year-tick finally materialised in the shape of a single confiding male whinchat.

Meanwhile Mats had found two more ring ouzels at Vasaltheden so we headed that way to check them out and get a site-tick. I braked just short of the gate because there were at least four ring ouzels grubbing about in the trees either side of the gate! In the end we counted at least six but I think there may have been more. Many moved out onto the bare fields nearby to feed, whilst others skulked inside the juniper. Superb!

Last stop of the day was Klarningen. Things had quietened down considerably here since yesterday, although it is always a difficult site to work against the light in the afternoon. Water levels continue to drop alarmingly... Best birds here were greenshank (1) and my first lesser black-backed gull on site this year.


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