pine marten!

Willow tit

Had a good walk this morning around the long loop from Killeröd which kicked off with a brief view of a pine marten on the track. My fourth daylight encounter in six years.

This time of year is always busy in the woods hereabouts, with plenty of young birds on the wing and big flocks of insectivores cramming in food ahead of their migration to the tropics. I too am heading to the tropics soon but I was trying to get fitter not fatter as I wandered around the circuit!

Birding had a great 'Scandinavian' feel to it this morning with great looks at flyby goshawk (1) and nutcracker (2). Cranes bugled and black woodpeckers gave their insane flight calls. A huge flock of flycatchers and chats must have contained at least 20 spotted flycatchers...

During the walk I had hoped to find a two-barred crossbill as we are in the midst of a huge crossbill/two-bar irruption at the moment, but despite the near constant presence of calling crossbills I could not find their scarcer cousin. The common:two bar ratio so far through Falsterbo this autumn is 15463:77 though so perhaps I should not feel too bad...

 Goshawk

Nutcracker