SWEDEN - 27th July

A steady ringing session at Fågelsjön with the definite highlight being catching 2 Bluethroats – a female with a big brood patch and a 2cy male in serious heavy moult and missing a tail; the only other thing of note were the 3 Great White Egrets leaving their roost with the increasing numbers of Cranes at dawn.   

A good long walk round the reserve in the afternoon was very productive, especially the excellent numbers of waders on Löten (probably due to the heavy rain overnight) which included 2 Little Stints (both pristine juveniles – a Swedish tick!), 46 Dunlin, 5 Curlew Sandpipers, 3 Spotted Redshank, a juvenile Little Ringed Plover, 28+ Snipe, 50+ Wood Sandpipers, a Greenshank, a Curlew, 5 Ruff and 13 Redshank (my peak count so far) while a 2cy Common Tern was also of note and new in.   

I was back at the tower when a little shower moved through and almost instantly a flock of 6 Grey Plover and 14 Bar-tailed Godwits dropped in, circled several times, decided that the shower wasn’t too bad after all and continued high away to the south.   

Other bits of note seen included maybe 3 Honey Buzzards (one over Fågelsjön and then two together over the fields near the bridge – the pale one was carrying a large chunk of honey-comb, maybe indicating nearby breeding?), two adult White-tailed Eagles in their usual tree, at least 5 Ospreys, a pair of mating Baltic Hawkers (a new Dragonfly species), a big Eyed Hawkmoth caterpillar and a dead Water Shrew.

Bluethroat #1

Bluethroat #2

How does it fly when its in this heavy moult

Blue-headed Wagtail also in heavy moult

Honey Buzzard