lunch on the beach (20150406)

Had a picnic on the beach today at Vasaltheden. Not much going past during the two-hour session but a few things on the sea (Slavonian grebe and two red-necked grebes). Vasaltheden had many linnets - avoided so far this year. A quick check on the pasque flowers at Greviebackar revealed that they were still there.

epic garden birding

Had a great day in the field today. Kicked off with a look for a few things that may still be lurking on the hill. Lya Ljunghed failed to produce any stonechats but spring was in the air with whinchat and cuckoo singing lustily away. Taking the road through Tvehöga produced a few singing wood warblers but a quick check for red-breasted flycatcher failed too. In Östra Karup a grey wagtail joined me going down the road.

Klarningen produced the first year-tick of the day with a high honey buzzard over north. Also here one male shoveler and 40+ eider south! Otherwise quiet, recent rain has put the water level too high for passage waders! The ducks are breeding though with fluffy mallard, goldeneye and coot available.

High honey buzzard north over Klarningen

Next task was to check a few sites for the black stork that was present during my last tour. I checked the road between Frestensfällan and Baramossa. No joy although Baramossa (just off-patch in Laholm kommun) did produce a nice young family of whooper swan. Typically when I stray out of BK there is a reminder to return to the fold and this time it came in form of an SMS from Mats Ljunggren - he had a firecrest in his garden at Glimminge. As this was one of my most-wanted BK birds I was interested but did not exactly dash over. I checked a few more sites and then headed home for lunch and a look in my garden. I think it is the bible that it states that one should not look at birds in another person's garden until one has thoroughly checked one's own...

Over lunch I was stunned to hear an Acrocephalus warbler singing from one of the hedges.  A reed warbler! Superb and totally unpredicted addition to the garden list. Things were even better in Mats' garden in Glimminge plantering. The firecrest put on quite a show but I totally failed to secure a good image. Also here a honey buzzard over.

The best I could do with the firecrest but what a great bird and a superb find by Mats

Mats' garden was also busy with redstarts.

A walk around Glimminge and Vasaltsheden produced Slavonian grebe (1, full summer-plumage), two little terns, a couple of male red-backed shrikes and a singing icterine warbler. The latter two my first of the year.

A quick look at the pond at the Mäsinge end of the plantation produced a damselfly year-tick - Enallagma cyathigerum and a big grass snake.

Last stop of the day with some kids in tow was fantastic. We went up the hill to Hålehallstugan and the sun shone down. The carpark must have had 150 Cordulia aenea sheltering in it and down by the lake edge we found a good number of Coenagrion lunulatum. Overhead a male honey buzzard displayed with a frog grasped in it's talons. A nice end to a superb day in the field.

 Cordulia aenea

Honey buzzard displaying with a frog dangling from it's talons

osprey!

Today's highlight was this hunting osprey found in the afternoon at Stora Hultsstrand and drifting it's way north.

Had a walk in the morning around Öllövsstrand and Vasaltheden. The easy highlight being my first whimbrel of the year, hugging the coast as it flew north silently. Also here grey partridge (pair) and a few wheatears, including a female.

Later we checked out Ljungbyholm for nine ruff and nearly 40 shelduck on the flooded bits of the big field. Nearby Stora Hultsstrand produced an osprey drifting north and looking for food on the go.

quick look

Checked the sunny edge of Glimminge plantering at noon, quite a few crossbill (10) and chiffchaff (9) and also a single redstart, but nothing more exciting. Best bird of the day came in the village later on in the afternoon when a nutcracker flew high overhead.

off again

Ahead of my departure to Malaysia on a dragonfly tour Mrs B and I took some time out and walked around on the coast. The weather has become very pleasant again and the wind is from the east, sometimes it is hard to leave BK behind...

We checked out Vasaltheden and were rewarded with a 1K cuckoo and some equally immature red-backed shrikes (3). A thin veneer of grounded yellow wagtails was obvious and overhead we were treated to more of the same, plus a few tree pipit and common crossbill. Glimminge had a few waders but nothing too exciting, again high-flying crossbills intruded on our conversation. Hopefully their will still be time to catch up with two-barred crossbill when I return. Am I going to miss something big though this time?

red-backed shrike

Common lizards appeared today and I even had a brief glimpse of an adder. It remains rather cool though and we had frost overnight. We still have a long way to go before it feels like spring.

Had a busy morning in Ängelholm, tree pipits notable migrating overhead early on and two grey partridge at Barkåkra on the way home. Driving back into BK after lunch I headed straight for Vasaltheden where Kent had just located BK's first red-backed shrike and thrush nightingale for the year. I walked the site and nearby Öllövsstrand picking up the red-backed shrike - a lovely male. Throughout the walk I was struck by how much this spring feels like autumn, birds are coming through but not singing. Normally migrants go straight onto territory and get busy but this year birds are too busy feeding it seems. I pished a likely spot at Öllövsstrand and was rewarded with an hitherto undetected common whitethroat, my first of the year. Normally you would find these birds singing...

Other notable birds during the session were whimbrel (1) and three sand martins.

ring ouzel madness

 In my first six years of birding in BK I recorded just seven ring ouzels, today I saw seven more!

After a lazy morning we headed out for a walk and a picnic around Gröthögarna. At Norra Ängalag a skulky ring ouzel dived into cover and disappeared. Song thrushes were everywhere. There were a few migrants around the car park here including single blackcap, lesser whitethroat and pied flycatcher. The walk around the headland was rather quiet although another year-tick finally materialised in the shape of a single confiding male whinchat.

Meanwhile Mats had found two more ring ouzels at Vasaltheden so we headed that way to check them out and get a site-tick. I braked just short of the gate because there were at least four ring ouzels grubbing about in the trees either side of the gate! In the end we counted at least six but I think there may have been more. Many moved out onto the bare fields nearby to feed, whilst others skulked inside the juniper. Superb!

Last stop of the day was Klarningen. Things had quietened down considerably here since yesterday, although it is always a difficult site to work against the light in the afternoon. Water levels continue to drop alarmingly... Best birds here were greenshank (1) and my first lesser black-backed gull on site this year.

gyr again!

An adult white-tailed eagle gave a fly by on it's way north.

The gyr gave a fly by on it's way south and then I caught up with it again whilst chasing a water pipit on Vasaltheden. It flew up from the beach with a bird's wing clasped in it's talons!

Had two hours in the field before knuckling down to more African invertebrate identification. It may be cold and snowy at the moment but the lying snow is good for one thing, spotting grey partridge, and I finally got six near Öllöv for the year. Glimminge was my destination this morning. Quite a bit going on here with flyby white-tailed eagle and five shelduck on the sea. The high point though was the gyr coming past close in on it's way south.

I went south too walking onto Vasaltheden and whilst chasing a very annoying and flighty water pipit bumped into the gyr on the beach. It flew up with a bird's wing in it's talons and landed on a rock. The water pipit distracted me then the gyr flew inland out of sight. The fog descended and I headed back to the office.

papa's got a brand new camera

Spent most of the day playing with my new camera, things are going to be a bit macro for a while! Syrphus torvus btw.

Spent an hour at Klarningen this morning, plenty of waders about, including three greenshank, a spotted redshank and quite a few wood and green sandpipers. Young waders too with fluffy redshank and little ringed plovers indicating successful breeding. Wildfowl present included a male wigeon and a pair of shoveler. A quick look at Petersberg revealed two great crested newts.

In the afternoon we walked Vasaltheden, hoping for a dragonfly to photograph, no luck there and very few invertebrates about after all the cold weather. The heath at Segelstorpsstrand was better with a rapid grass snake, a few hoverflies and a few idas blues on the wing.

Coreus marginatus

A Sciapus sp. (Dolichopodidae) at Segelstorpsstrand, it transported me back to Borneo watching the antics of this fly on an oak leaf, I may never leave BK again.

A tatty female idas blue at Segelstorpsstrand, several were flying over the small area of heathy vegetation today. Only my second record in BK, presumably I am overlooking them.

02062012

Portrait of the author as a pissed-off, soaking wet and cold birder. Will summer ever actually arrive?

Spent two-and-a-half hours tramping the coast between Öllövsstrand and Mäsinge strand during the late morning. Almost nothing to show for it, bar a couple of singing thrush nightingales and a ton of rain. 

In the afternoon the whole team accompanied me to Sinarpsdalen and we had a good look at the valley mire. The sun came out but it was still windy and not much was showing on the Odo front. We were greeted by a trio of raptors at the car park though - red kite, buzzard and honey buzzard. Sweet.

winds northerly

Quite cold this morning when Number 2 and I headed out for a morning in the field. We stopped first to look at the 'big field' at Ljungbyholm, nothing doing here, just a reed bunting in residence and no sign of any golden plovers.

Likewise Ranarpsstrand was rather quiet, two curlews being the best of it. Intriguingly small packets of eider were heading north here, where are they gathering this year? There must be a king somewhere in BK.

Our last stop of the morning was a mooch about Vasaltheden. Snipe active here and the best birding of the day too with plenty of linnets, a great grey shrike and a rough-legged buzzard.

In the afternoon, I took Mrs B for a walk in the sun off-patch at Farhult. Water level up here but enough edge for 20 avocet, my first of the year.

a walk in the woods

A flock of 60+ waxwing in the Lindab carpark at Förslöv kicked off the day. The men from Glimminge found a pygmy owl at Killeröd yesterday, which prompted a long morning walk around the area. No sign of the owl, but a lot of agitation amongst the local tits and goldcrests when they were played the 'bicycle-pump' call. Highlights included a total of 29 two-barred crossbills and at least five crested tits.

In the afternoon I suddenly found out that there had been a Siberian chiffchaff at Öllövsstrand yesterday, so off I went late in the day for a fruitless search of the coastal scrub. Vasaltheden produced the only good bird of the afternoon, a 1K peregrine flying past south.

Hard work

As Mrs B will tell you I do love a bird with a sense of porpoise.

A mild, calm, perpetually grey day. I was out all day getting some walking in ahead of an upcoming panda thrash in China. I hope I will be fit enough, bamboo always grows on such steep slopes... and pandas only grow on bamboo!

Effectively covered the stretch of coast between Vejbystrand and Glimming plantering today. That's a lot of mileage and with minimal return today sadly. Highlights were the long-staying 1K great skua (still happily married to his porpoise corpse) at Stora Hultstrand, nine twite at the same location, two redshank, a wheatear and a Lapland bunting at Ranarpsstrand and a curlew at Segelstorpsstrand. At the turning point at Glimminge I bagged a chiffchaff. Still plenty of invertebrates about and a good show of late migrants, but nothing to compare with the isabelline wheatear on nearby Kullaberg.

Pallid falls in BK!

Raptors very much on the menu today, this 2K male marsh harrier went south through Vasaltheden in the morning.

This morning I went out with the intention of bagging a BK pallid harrier and guess what, I actually did! Sweden is groaning under an unprecedented invasion of mostly 1K birds at the moment, incredibly there have been 27 pallid harriers through Falsterbo to date this autumn! The chances of finding one yourself have never been better and I got the ball rolling by finding one off-patch last week.

I started off just after dawn at Ljungbyholm. Two kestrels in the air here and quite a few more were noted during the morning at various sites, a definite influx. A merlin was still dashing about here but and hour here failed to produced any harriers, other than a single 1K marsh. Ranarpsstrand next for a quick look, two grey wagtails were nice, they seem scarce this autumn.

Last but not least I headed for Öllövsstrand and walked into Vasaltheden. A marsh harrier migrated through straight away and there was an osprey on the deck eating a fish. More kestrels (2) here and at one point a merlin dashed south with a crow in hot pursuit. The heavens opened and I just had to stand there and take it as the lightning streaked about. Afterwards I watched a great grey shrike dry himself off and start hunting - BK's earliest autumn record and a hideous reminder that winter is next.

Walking back I was dragging my heels when I was overtaken in Öllövsstrand by a superb 1K pallid harrier. Apart from the 'thing' I saw at Falsterbo I have been really lucky with my views of ringtails this autumn and this bird was very close but heading southwards on a mission. Short but sweet. Result!

Osprey south through Klarningen in the afternoon.

After lunch some of the team accompanied me to Klarningen, water levels are higher than I have ever seen them but there is little use of the site, just two pintail, one teal, three wigeon and a handful of mallard today. Overhead was better with a sub-adult white-tailed eagle and an osprey through together during the hour long watch. At least 20 whinchat on site and the fields along the access track had a dozen wheatear. A great day.

Atlas work - more Odonata

Had a leisurely start today and headed out when things got warm to search Vasaltsheden for Ischnura pumilio, dropping the team at the beach. The mire here is very dry and much of it was accessible for a change, amazingly I could not find a single damselfly, just one Libellula depressa had a look around before buzzing off. The bushes in the mire had a singing icterine warbler, surely a recently arrived migrant.

Before picking up the team I checked Mäsinge pond again whilst I was in the neighbourhood. Things have really picked up here with several new species recorded: Erythromma najas, Brachytron pratense, and a pair of Libellula depressa.

After a quick lunch I dashed out again. The weather forecast for the rest of the week looks dicey so these sunny days have to be capitalised on. I checked out a few sites near home. Lönhult pond is an odd spot, by rights it should have a rather poor Odonate fauna. It lies in the middle of an agricultural area, is clearly highly eutrophic and has little submerged aquatic vegetation. I was stunned therefore to record 11 species of dragonfly at the site including both Coenagrion lunulatum and hastulatum. After walking the superb Vasaltsheden mire and recording just one species it seemed a little strange. At least 15 Libellula depressa here were entertaining. It was not just dragonflies either, I flushed two green sandpipers off the pool and the small area of scrub and trees included within the buffer surrounding the man-made wetland had singing marsh warbler and thrush nightingale.

The pond at Lönhult - it may not look like much but it is going to be an interesting place to watch.

One of two Coenagrion lunulatum spotted at Lönhult today, I thought this species would have narrower habitat tolerances but it looks like it is going to be widespread in BK.

Last site for the day was the valley mire part of Sinarpsdalen, plenty of red-backed shrikes in here plus one fly over hawfinch. The mire was chocker with Pyrrhosoma nymphula and Coenagrion puella (easily the best site for these two that I have found in BK so far). But the prize went to the five or so Calopteryx virgo along the little brook. This spot may well produce my first Cordulegaster in BK I reckon.

Stunner! virgo in all it's glory.

Vejbystrand to Glimminge

Had time for a quick check of the garden this morning. Somewhere up the hill a thrush nightingale was singing and the pied flycatcher is still singing strongly but no sign of a female yet. All three tree sparrow nests have noisy young that will fledge in the next week I guess.

Took the chance to walk between Vejbystrand and Glimminge after breakfast. It was a rather quiet affair but did produce some good birds. Chief amongst them being two BK year-ticks - marsh warbler at Ljungbyholm and Lervik and a nice male red-backed shrike at Vasaltheden.

Saw my first wall browns of the year during the walk today.

Pearl-bordered fritillary at Vasaltheden.

A brisk NW wind made the long walk a bit of a chore but the other birdy highlights just about made up for it (!); shelduck with fluffy young, avocet (1, Vejbystrand), a few singing icterine warblers and thrush nightingales and at least two broods of young wheatears on the wing. Time speeds on, young birds are appearing, ducks are going into eclipse and autumn migration is just round the corner already! My walk ended with a well-timed pick-up at the pond in the Mäsinge part of Glimminge, where I had my first Orthetrum cancellatum of the year, as well as Ischnura elegans and Enallagma cyathigerum.

Gröthögarna magic

The best bird at Gröthögarna this morning was this short-eared owl, only my second in BK.

Another morning session on Gröthögarna for me today. I have birded this area reasonably consistently for four years and so was overjoyed to get three site ticks in four hours! A great session. Walking the back trail against the light at the start of the walk was almost immediately brightened up by a soaring short-eared owl, which floated about idly sparring with a marsh harrier before drifting off. Birds had dropped out all over the site, good numbers of whinchat and grey-headed wagtail evident and a few pied flycatchers. The thrush nightingale was singing away lustily - still no others in BK, a late arrival for this species this year. Walking on into Ripagården I was overtaken by a male pochard heading north, my first for the site. The reedbed still had a singing reed warbler, with sedge warbler singing nearby too. The final icing on the cake came back near the car at Norra Ängalag - a reeling grasshopper warbler. Offshore on Tjällran sat a single turnstone. Great session.

Two cranes remains at Gröthögarna.

In the afternoon we walked Vasaltheden (marsh harrier) and nearby Glimminge (hobby) and checked out Greviebackar for pasque flowers. Nice day.

The mental weather continues

Out and about before breakfast again this sunny morning, this time walking the stretch of coast between Öllövsstrand and Mäsingestrand. Quieter than yesterday but the walk produced some good birds. My main aim was to finally find a whimbrel for the year and one duly obliged at Glimminge. Other notable birds included a flock of ten shoveler flying south, three common sandpipers, two little terns and best of all a male whitethroat, happily building a nest at Vasaltheden for a female that has yet to arrive. My earliest whitethroat by five days, this settled high is producing lots of early records and the trees are leafing up nicely. It will be a shock if the temperatures drop back to what you can normally expect at this time of year!

Redstart!

Nipped out in the morning before breakfast for a walk between Öllövsstrand and Glimminge. This was rather a quiet affair until I turned south to head home at Glimminge and a female hen harrier migrated past overhead - amazingly my first of the year. Before leaving the plantation I tracked down my first redstart of the year too - a singing male.

Back at home 13 redwing passed low over the house, reminding me that I must get out after ring ouzels soon.

In the afternoon we all went for a walk up past Bösketorp pools. Plenty happening here with six cranes stealing the show but also four green sandpipers, four little grebes and 13 tufted duck. An evening drive through of the Sinarpsdalen circuit produced a pair of curlew at Salomonhög

Wheatear!

It definitely feels like spring now!

Spent the morning in the field today. Started late at Brandsvig, a quick stop here secured my first little grebe of the month, as well as at least ten teal and eleven snipe. Next I drove back into BK and checked out Vasaltheden/Glimminge. Tramped about in the wet bits at Vasaltheden searching for jack snipe but skunked out, flushing 11 snipe in the process. The airspace above the heath produced flyby barnacle geese (6), sparrowhawk (1) and waxwing (10). The air was full of the songs of meadow pipit, reed bunting and yellowhammer. Just before walking into Glimminge I noticed a wheatear perched near the bunker, a confiding bird and a welcome year-tick.

Glimminge was rather quieter just before lunch. The easy highlight was my first BK redshank of the year. I stared at it amazed, it looked so good. The red legs burnt holes in my colour-starved retinas! Also on the beach here single rock pipit and white wagtail.

Later in the village I tracked down a singing male siskin and nearly had my head knocked off by a hunting sparrowhawk whilst mucking out the car.