self-found hoopoe - just splendid

Today's highlight was easily my single-observer five minutes with a hoopoe at Hovs Hallar. There were too many non-birders (NoBs) walking the path for it to stick around for those trying to twitch it sadly, but it may still be lurking somewhere.

Got up rather late this morning but got to Sinarpsdalen for 0800 and my attempt to add lesser spotted woodpecker and grey wagtail to the year-list was partially successful with a single female grey wagtail popping up to look at me.

Klarningen next, chasing garganey. No joy but there were a few birds on site including 23 wigeon, four shoveler and eight redshank. News of a hoopoe flying over Förslöv sent me off to Hovs Hallar on a gamble. After a random police breathalyser test I reached the site and eventually settled in my usual place looking south from the low ridge towards Gröthögarna. Now Hovs Hallar is the site in BK where I should spend more time. Geographically it has huge potential, especially in spring and it is hugely under-watched. This New Year I made a resolution to visit more often but it is a hard place to work in the traditional sense but a great place to sit and watch birds go by. This static form of birding has taken me ages to get used to but it paid off very quickly today.

I had hardly settled in when a bird flying past caught my attention. A single avocet resolutely heading north high above the sea. Only my fifteenth BK record and coming after a blank year in 2013 a most welcome addition to the year-list. On the sea a single gannet and red-necked grebe. Raptors were dribbling through with sparrowhawk and kestrel heading north and out over the sea, their presence indicated by corvid harassment. Amazingly a snow bunting went through north too hugging the shoreline but not stopping. Then the crows were up again and I looked on in amazement as the hoopoe appeared to the south flying towards me for a minute before dropping into the scrub - my second BK bird. I texted out a message and looked up in time to see it coming on towards me again. This time it landed in view and after a few desultory pecks of the turf it was flushed by Easter walkers and hopped the wall. I gave chase but looking over the wall revealed no bird, an amazing vanishing act. Håkan J arrived just a few minutes too late and Jan was not far behind but I fear they dipped.

After lunch we all took the bus down the hill and walked back up Sinarpsdalen in the blazing sun. Butterflies and bees were on the wing. I finally caught up with a singing willow warbler and four hawfinches were good to see as usual. A black woodpecker called in the distance. A great day.

Peacock

Hawfinch

hawfinch

Overnight snow saw plenty of activity at the garden feeders today, I still revel in the occasional hawfinch that pays us a visit here. This one has been on-and-off all week but I finally got a half-decent image today whilst working on the many images from my recent trip to Uganda.

Cold easterlies and vanishing avocets

We had this monster visitor to the feeder this morning, my first hawfinch this month.

Over breakfast this morning we scored a superb hawfinch at the feeders. I love seeing these monsters in the the garden.

The kids finally got tired of me after being stuck at home ill for a week and requested a transfer to their grandparents. This allowed me to slip out to work the area between Sandön and Mjöhult. I was hoping to catch up with the recently arrived avocets reported this week and also have a go at the unseasonal (early) bar-tailed godwit. Neither could I find, perhaps the easterly blow and chilly conditions have sent them south again?

Sandön did produce calling bearded tit and reed bunting. The sandflats were fully exposed but few waders were present apart from a handful of curlew and oystercatcher and 17 ringed plovers. Rönnen was even cooler in the wind and apart from a hunting white-tailed eagle had little to recommend it. At Farhult I felt that I would surely track down the errant avocet but it really was not to be. Here though a pair of pintail and a single dunlin were some consolation. Both redpoll and bullfinch called from the trees.

Driving home through Lönhult and Stureholm I found 55 whooper swans and connected with the golden eagle again. A great end to the session.

Last bird of the session was the 2K golden eagle at Stureholm, a nice way to end the day.

Feeder magic

With Mrs B pulling an extra shift to pay for Christmas, I was kid-heavy and car-light today. No chance to bird the coast. Despite this I managed two good birds, the first was a hawfinch skulking near the feeder in the garden. They fly over but seldom actually visit. Near Förslöv we watched a goshawk try and catch a duck (off a small stream) and then fly off being mobbed by a hooded crow. In the old days I would have been satisfied with hawfinch and goshawk after a day in the Brecks...

All I could get of the hawfinch today. My first this month, quiet a few went south through Falsterbo this autumn and they seem scarce around here at the moment.

Another harsh weather visitor to the feeders is the yellowhammer, as soon as it snows they arrive in small numbers.

The garden list or Reason No. 1 Why I do not miss Norfolk

Updated on 26/01/18 - total 112 species.

The garden list can only get better, I just do not spend enough time there at the moment! Luckily, birds migrating north or south follow the coast and sometimes short-cut the peninsula through a gap in the Hallandåsen (a prominent ridge) and pass right over my house. We knew the house was well-situated when we bought it but the passage overhead has exceeded expectations.

Whooper swan, tundra swan, greylag goose, white-fronted goose, Canada goose, barnacle goose, shelduck, mallard, teal, goosander, eider, cormorant, grey heron, osprey, sparrowhawk, goshawk, kestrel, hobby, peregrine, buzzard, rough-legged buzzard, honey buzzard, black kite, red kite, marsh harrier, white-tailed eagle, pheasant, crane, lapwing, greenshank, green sandpiper, wood sandpiper, oystercatcher, curlew, whimbrel, woodcock, herring gull, common gull, black-headed gull, great black-backed gull, swift, black woodpecker, green woodpecker, great spotted woodpecker, lesser spotted woodpecker, nightjar, tawny owl, long-eared owl, cuckoo, feral pigeon, woodpigeon, stock dove, collared dove, skylark, swallow, house martin, white wagtail, grey wagtail, meadow pipit, tree pipit, redstart, thrush nightingale, robin, blackbird, song thrush, mistle thrush, redwing, fieldfare, blackcap, garden warbler, lesser whitethroat, whitethroat, willow warbler, chiffchaff, icterine warbler, reed warbler, goldcrest, pied flycatcher, spotted flycatcher, long-tailed tit, marsh tit, willow tit, coal tit, great tit, blue tit, nuthatch, treecreeper, dunnock, wren, waxwing, nutcracker, jay, magpie, jackdaw, raven, hooded crow, rook, starling, tree sparrow, house sparrow, chaffinch, brambling, greenfinch, siskin, linnet, redpoll, bullfinch, hawfinch, parrot crossbill, common crossbill, two-barred crossbill and yellowhammer.