Cuckoo!

I must be bonkers because it was not until after tea last night that I finally went down for the last hour of daylight and what would have been an epic seawatch if I had missed my tea and gone straight away! Highlights were my first skuas of the year, a dainty 1K long-tailed skua that angled in from the NW and bounced off again and at least two Arctic skuas. I managed to miss at least one sooty shearwater and a red phalarope, ho hum. Hopefully more of them later, if the autumn weather continues on in the same vein we could have a bumper year for seabirds. Two grey plover past close were nice. Got home to find that Martin Åkesson had found a 2K Mediterranean gull just up the beach and off-patch of course...

Today I decided to walk the beach between Båstad and Eskilstorpsstrand, in case the Med gull was still around and to see if any wrecked seabirds were present. Highlights on this long and often wet walk were as follows; osprey (1, Båstad), Arctic tern (3), guillemot (2 plus another dead), knot (singles at Båstad and Eskilstorpsstrand), little stint (1 south at Hemmeslövsstrand), sanderling (1, Eskilstorpsstrand) and little gull (4 1K birds south at Hemmeslövsstrand and another resting there on the way back). A fall of wheatears was very evident all along the stretch walked.

Moving on I headed for Torekov, picking up a cuckoo over the car at Lugnet, just outside town. The rev was looking pretty busy. At least 35 wheatears grounded here, quite a spectacle. Waders hanging about included; golden plover (84), grey plover (3), knot (1) and bar-tailed godwit (2). As I watched a magic merlin shot along just above the sea and bumped a flock of starlings feeding in the seaweed, emerging somehow with a greenfinch! A neat trick! Looking south I could see a lot of calidrids feeding on the weed by the harbour. Closer inspection revealed a flock of 60 dunlin which included four little stints. After two sparse years for this species I seem to be back on track.

Last stop of the day was Glimminge Plantering, the beach here produced a single shelduck, seven knot, five dunlin and a brace of greenshank. Then it started to rain again...