caning the scarce

 

Not one but a pair of stonechats popped up at Lya ljunghed this morning. My third record and the kommun's fifth. The status of stonechat in Sweden was one of the big surprises when I moved here from the UK.

My run of good birds in the last two weeks continued today. After a quick listen along the ridge which netted nothing, I rocked up at Lya ljunghed hoping for whinchat and cuckoo for the year. Before I had parked up whinchat was on the list and I climbed out determined to scan hard for a possible early red-backed shrike. However the first bird I spotted was a very distant but unmistakeable male stonechat! A very scarce bird in BK. I halved the distance to the bird to try and get photos and was astonished when I realised it was with a female! A great record but Lya had not finished with me. 

Back at the car I carried on scanning and found a female merlin on the ground, it eventually took off and flew past me on it's way north. A cuckoo called nearby and then I heard the distinctive call of a ring ouzel. A female, it perched up for 'scope views before dropping back down to feed out of sight. What a great hour!

Dropping down the hill to Klarningen I stopped at Tvehöga for singing wood warbler (another year-tick)  and picked up a nice male black woodpecker. Klarningen was quiet but Patrik Stridh kindly pointed out a yellow wagtail flying through the site and out of view as we chatted away. Other notables were five wood sandpipers and at least five ruff and there were still three wheatears on site.

A female merlin was a late addition to my year-list and the icing on the cake of an incredible hour at Lya ljunghed this morning.

Nearly!

A bad shot taken in haste to try and record part of a high-flying flock of migrating red-throated divers. This is perhaps one of the more exciting aspects of migration in this neck of the woods. Observers further north recorded 1300 birds this morning.

A day of not connecting with stuff! Hit the beach at Eskistorpsstrand early this morning but just five minutes too late for a chance of a yellow-billed diver reported a little further north. One of the features of birding Laholmsbukten is the incredible passage of red-throated divers in early May. Birds collect rapidly offshore over a few days and then fly high in huge flocks before heading overland. This morning saw at least 360 down my end of the bay, but I must admit that counting this phenomenon is difficult to do accurately. Many divers go over and then chicken out and head back to sea, so there is a constant to-and-fro that is hard to keep track of.

Walked in to Eskilstorpsdammar next, picking up a great female merlin en route...

"You looking at me?"

The pools were quiet with snipe (3), curlew (1), greenshank (1), cuckoo (male), tree pipit and a few other migrants including redstart, whinchat, lesser whitethroat and chiffchaff. From the pools you can just see water at Klarningen and this produced ruff (2), greenshank (1) and wood sandpiper (1).

After breakfast took the gang out for a walk between Lervik and Ranarpsstrand. Highlights were few and far between; purple sandpiper (1 Grytskären), greenshank (1), common sandpiper (3), little tern (6 at Ranarpsstrand), sparrowhawk (1 north) and yellow wagtail (1 north). The bad news was a couple of little egret probably travelled through BK whilst we were walking along, did we miss them too?

Finally nipped out for a quick look at Torekov in the evening. The rev was quiet, although I managed to leave my 'scope at home which did not help. Highlights included; shoveler (male), little tern (1), more redstarts (a big influx today?) and a displaying redpoll. Flytermossen had a marsh harrier (male) and a singing reed warbler.