epic garden birding

Had a great day in the field today. Kicked off with a look for a few things that may still be lurking on the hill. Lya Ljunghed failed to produce any stonechats but spring was in the air with whinchat and cuckoo singing lustily away. Taking the road through Tvehöga produced a few singing wood warblers but a quick check for red-breasted flycatcher failed too. In Östra Karup a grey wagtail joined me going down the road.

Klarningen produced the first year-tick of the day with a high honey buzzard over north. Also here one male shoveler and 40+ eider south! Otherwise quiet, recent rain has put the water level too high for passage waders! The ducks are breeding though with fluffy mallard, goldeneye and coot available.

High honey buzzard north over Klarningen

Next task was to check a few sites for the black stork that was present during my last tour. I checked the road between Frestensfällan and Baramossa. No joy although Baramossa (just off-patch in Laholm kommun) did produce a nice young family of whooper swan. Typically when I stray out of BK there is a reminder to return to the fold and this time it came in form of an SMS from Mats Ljunggren - he had a firecrest in his garden at Glimminge. As this was one of my most-wanted BK birds I was interested but did not exactly dash over. I checked a few more sites and then headed home for lunch and a look in my garden. I think it is the bible that it states that one should not look at birds in another person's garden until one has thoroughly checked one's own...

Over lunch I was stunned to hear an Acrocephalus warbler singing from one of the hedges.  A reed warbler! Superb and totally unpredicted addition to the garden list. Things were even better in Mats' garden in Glimminge plantering. The firecrest put on quite a show but I totally failed to secure a good image. Also here a honey buzzard over.

The best I could do with the firecrest but what a great bird and a superb find by Mats

Mats' garden was also busy with redstarts.

A walk around Glimminge and Vasaltsheden produced Slavonian grebe (1, full summer-plumage), two little terns, a couple of male red-backed shrikes and a singing icterine warbler. The latter two my first of the year.

A quick look at the pond at the Mäsinge end of the plantation produced a damselfly year-tick - Enallagma cyathigerum and a big grass snake.

Last stop of the day with some kids in tow was fantastic. We went up the hill to Hålehallstugan and the sun shone down. The carpark must have had 150 Cordulia aenea sheltering in it and down by the lake edge we found a good number of Coenagrion lunulatum. Overhead a male honey buzzard displayed with a frog grasped in it's talons. A nice end to a superb day in the field.

 Cordulia aenea

Honey buzzard displaying with a frog dangling from it's talons

An hour at Yttre Kattvik

Busy in the house most of the day - a few migrants knocking around in the garden including this redstart and a spotted flycatcher.

At the end of the day, with breezy SW winds blowing, Number 2 and I headed out for an hour at Yttre Kattvik to see if any of the seabirds reported further north were coming within range down in BK. We managed one pale phase Arctic skua and ten common scoter - so pretty quiet!

Redstart - RIP

Tragic!

Number 1 made a grim discovery this morning. Our redstart male had collided with a window and died. The female was out and about feeding herself and the pair had adopted a box next door - not sure what stage they were at (eggs?). Presumably they will fail. Gutting. Maybe we will get another male, but the garden sounds quiet without him for now. The kids insisted on a full state funeral of course, with decorated coffin and flowers... By the way the nest-box I put up for the redstarts was nicked by a pair of pied flycatchers and they look pretty pleased with themselves. Had two males squaring off on the TV aerial today!

In the afternoon we went out to Torekov rev hoping for some waders. There were two bar-tailed godwits resting out there but no sign of yesterday's reported turnstone or purple sandpipers. A quick look in the wood produced the first spotted flycatchers of the year.

Birding - 16/04/09

Redstart - new in and back in the garden

Took my bowl of cereal to the back window to peruse my domain as is usual and nearly sprayed it with muesli this morning. Two male redstarts were fighting for exclusive rights to the only organic lawn for miles. A year-tick and a species I still cannot believe I get in my garden. The victor is pictured above - now I will have to reward him with a suitable nest-box. Last year they fed regularly in our garden but nested just outside it. Also in the garden this morning; a song thrush (first for the garden this year) and a dunnock.

A brisk easterly wind dictated a walk along the moderately sheltered shoreline north of Båstad during the late morning. Light passerine migration evident, with finches, white wagtails and a couple of swallows passing north out at sea. The coastal woods and scrub produced little in the way of migrants, plenty of resident and recently arrived breeders singing though including a smattering of chiffchaff and willow warbler. Petersberg had a fly-over green sandpiper and a pair of red-necked grebe.

Finished the day with a hot dog session at Hålehallstugan to celebrate the birthday of No. 2. Birds here included two pairs of red-necked grebe, another green sandpiper, black woodpecker and my first jay on the patch this year.