Larking about with the kids

Numbers 1 & 2 are still off school with a bug, the antibiotics are being pumped in and they seem to be responding. Today we ventured out to Klarningen where I built them a huge nest in the bird-tower. En route we headed over the hill picking up several flocks of fieldfares, six mistle thrushes and best of all we caught up with Ekenberg's flock of 12 (yes, twelve!) woodlark at Ehrenstorp. An amazing record and always great to see.

Whooper swan numbers are still building at Klarningen, with 70 on site and another 14 on nearby Eskilstorps dammar.

Klarningen over three hours was almost as good, the goose flock produced two taiga bean geese, the whooper swan flock had built to 70 and still included the two tundra swans. A solitary crane dropped in unnoticed and commenced feeding along the back - at last! Another year-tick popped up in the shape of a single snipe. No sign of any ringed plovers today, were they just passing through? Raptors featured too with rough-legged buzzard (1) and my first kestrel this month, the latter almost certainly migrating. A stiff easterly blew throughout the day and seems to have reduced the flow of migrants in the last few days.

The tundra swans gave us a flyby too this morning.