seawatch at last

American mink - a regular during Båstad seawatches sadly

Westerly winds at last meant seawatching was finally on the cards. I fitted in two sessions at Båstad between my domestic duties today. Just over two hours in the morning netted two sooty shearwaters, three embayed pomarine skuas but I could not find a little auk going past despite them being reported from sites either side of me... Gannets were going past in good numbers and I also logged six scaup and three long-tailed ducks. Offshore a single black guillemot and five black-throated divers were notable. Raptors stole the show though with a merlin through and just before I headed back for lunch a superb late osprey in-off right over my head. My latest by at least five weeks (!) and the latest BK record on Svalan.

The afternoon session was rather quieter though. The three pomarine skuas were still knocking about and kittiwake (5) were coming through at last. Rather quiet (only a short spell of windy weather) but the two BK year-ticks netted were welcome nonetheless.

Minky 'magic'

The kids and I headed out in the afternoon for some birding, still windy and grey which makes dragonfly work a bit tedious. First stop was Ranarpsstrand. An hour here produced three tufted duck, two goosander and seven redshank. I spotted a female American mink carrying a youngster and the kids charged towards it, the minklet was sacrificed as the female headed for cover, allowing us great close-up views of the cute youngster as it mewed plaintively. Not sure what would have happened to it if I had been alone, my boot was twitching but such thoughts had to be abandoned with Number 1 and 2 cooing over it. We retreated back 15 metres and lay down and the female eventually retrieved the infant and carried it away. Nice encounter, just a shame that the introduced American mink population is high enough to make it sadly rather commonplace.

Mink youngster, dropped by the female when she came face-to-face with my offspring.

Mink female at Ranarpsstrand today.

Black-necked grebe at Hasslarps dammar today, birds have been reported on-and-off since spring, maybe the same skulky birds are responsible.

Last stop of the day was a look at Hasslarps dammar, I was hoping to catch up with a couple of black-necked grebes and we eventually tracked them down. Also here a variety of wildfowl with wigeon (male), gadwall (pair) and pochard (two males). Small numbers of waders too with little ringed plover (2), green sandpiper (6), spotted redshank (1), greenshank (1) and wood sandpiper (6). Marsh warbler and grasshopper warbler sung sporadically.