The return of the cold weather brought the sun back out for the first time in ten days so out I went to enjoy it. Checked out some off-patch sites in the morning. Sandön was first, pretty quiet here but a male smew gave a nice flyby (year-tick), a white-tailed eagle (2K) flew in and 12 velvet scoter headed west. I never see enough smew in a year...
Rönnen was also quiet but ten curlew were new in and there were two more white-tailed eagles perched up and looking naughty. No sign of the gyr so I moved on to Farhult. Here another male smew flew past (surely the same one?) and there were three more curlew here. A cruise around for long-eared owls failed to produce the goods.
Last stop of the morning was a quick look at Lönhult for the merlin. There has been a regular bird here all winter, which I caught up with last month. There was a raptor perched distantly in the field on arrival, it looked good but then flew - a sparrowhawk. A single lapwing and a flock of 45 goldfinch were good - the latter another year-tick.
In the afternoon driving in the village produced four more lapwing - they really are moving early this year. Three wood pigeon in the garden were new in and proof of more movement. At the end of the day I managed an hour at Ranarpsstrand but had to settle for four wigeon, rather quiet to say the least.
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