A 10 km coastal walk in September is always going to produce a few good birds. Today was rather quiet, but two superb Lapland buntings at Gröthögarna on the trek back to the car more than made up for it.
Walked the coast from Torekov to Hovs Hallar today to count waterfowl. As usual the September count was easily done as there were very few waterfowl around! The five-kilometre stretch of coast produced the following; grey heron (3), cormorant (239), mute swan (10), mallard (110), wigeon (48), gadwall (1), teal (6), common scoter (3), eider (82), goosander (1) and red-breasted merganser (5).
During the count I was entertained by a merlin (catching and then drowning an irate starling, before settling down to a messy breakfast), a couple of lesser black-backed gulls, good numbers of wheatear and smaller numbers of rock pipit and whinchat. The bushes were full of common migrants this morning but nothing of note appeared.
It was the walk back that produced the bird of the day when I was jolted out of my reverie by a couple of Lapland buntings on the path. It was one of those occasions where you find yourself looking at a great bird through your bins without knowing quite how you became aware of the bird in the first place. Auto-birding!
Its the 10,000 hour rule. After this long actions become programmed into our psyche. Athletes talk about it when it comes to doing an action well and without thinking. Guess you must have got a good 10k hours birding under your belt!
ReplyDeleteNice one Phil.. bit of a purple patch. Long may it continue!
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