Birding - 02/12/09

'Turneresque' stuff this evening.

Took Numbers 1 & 2 out for a freezing walk around Torekov in the afternoon. We kicked off at the rev, no sign here of the two purple sandpipers, but they could easily have been resting up somewhere out of sight. Offshore a big raft of 53 goldeneye was notable. A few wildfowl were on the move with whooper swan (5) and greylag goose (20) south during the hour we were here. Other birds of note were teal (1), redshank (7) and snow bunting (1).

Checked out the rocks by the harbour next and found one resting adult shag and 14 snoozing grey herons. We had two more shag offshore at our last stop, Påarps Mal, as well as Slavonian grebe (1), red-necked grebe (1), long-tailed duck (1) and lapwing (1). The bushes around the house here had goldcrest (2), chaffinch (5) and six mistle thrushes flew by south.