Road trip

With 'Birding Copenhagen's' Terry Townshend soon to be transferred to far-off China, it was time for a farewell tour. We have not got together much over the last two years but when we do it is always enjoyable. This trip to Öland was no exception, although we had to battle some rain and a lot of windy weather...

On the way down to pick up Terry at Lund I stopped at Saxåns mynning. Here the ruddy shelduck performed briefly in the light rain just after dawn, obligingly flying in out of the mist to land in front of the bird-tower and then off again. Kosher? Who knows? Also here a pair of avocet, but not much else spotted in the grim conditions and short time available.

Picked up a bleary-eyed Terry and headed straight for Ravlunda firing-range, the military were using it in the afternoon, so we were under a slight time constraint but had a fantastic four hours. Ravlunda was amazing, superb habitat and the rain stayed away. Walking in from Road 161 to the small pond we had a close encounter with a super little singing male firecrest. Breaking out into grassland with scattered trees we could hear singing woodlarks, golden orioles (2+ heard, one seen eventually) and mistle thrush (1). A splendid male Montagu’s harrier hunted the heathy grassland areas around the range during our visit. Green woodpeckers were frequently encountered and out on the heath we heard the whinging 'song' of a wryneck. A single golden plover flew south. Searching for tawny pipit and barred warbler took up most of our time; splitting up to search more of the large potential area proved disastrous for Terry when I connected with a fly-through bee-eater. Heard calling initially, I spotted it circling briefly before trying (and failing) to get Terry’s attention by a number of increasingly desperate methods. The bird slipped away north and Terry dipped. The whole debacle 'harshing my buzz'! What a shame. On the walk back we finally scored a pair of tawny pipits but we had to abandon the barred warblers and hope that we levelled the score on Öland. A calling lesser spotted woodpecker by the car was the last of a hatful of year-ticks at this wonderful site.

We headed for lunch and a chance of serin at Kivik but the rain came and hampered our efforts and in the end we elected to head for Öland. Only one bird of note on the journey - a single white stork near Viby.

As we approached Ottenby the mist and rain returned. Nevertheless after tea we headed out for a wet and gloomy session along the access road to the lighthouse. Here we searched hard for the Kentish plovers reported recently but failed. Some good birds though with whimbrel (2), bar-tailed godwit (2), black-tailed godwit (5), turnstone (1), ruff (1) and little gull (2 2K). A long day but rewarding.