SWEDEN - 18th October

 Same again in the morning, clear, sunny and calm so the nets were again very quiet although a smart male Bullfinch and a Redwing were some compensation; other birds present on the reserve included 7 Ruff, single Spotted Redshank and Greenshank, 2,040+ Barnacle Geese, 5 Little Grebes, a high flock of 8 Bearded Tits over the bay, a Grey Wagtail and a Hawfinch.   

A walk from the Marina along the southern shore out towards the point was pretty quiet in the blustery NW wind but it did produce my long overdue first Rock Pipit in Sweden.

Bullfinch

Hooded Crow

Rook

23rd February

Still very windy with frequent, nasty showers sweeping through; walked round Penmon Point in the morning, there was nothing too startling but there were loads of birds off the point with hundreds of Guillemots and Razorbills along with Kittiwakes, Shags, Red-throated Divers and blizzards of Herring Gulls starting to think about the upcoming breeding season, 4 Purple Sandpipers on the beach with Turnstone and the peculiar highlight of two Bullfinches coming in off, across the sea (separately, with about 20 minutes between them), they were only coming from Puffin Island but still, it was rough weather for a sea crossing, even a short one!   Two Chough in fields along the approach road were a year tick.

Turnstone coming in

Turnstone and Purple Sandpipers

Summer and winter Guillemot comparison

Guillemot and Razorbill comparison

Bullfinch in off (looking forward to some proper spring migration!)

Lesser Black-backed Gull

22nd February

Nicer than the previous couple of days – dry at least although we kept the very strong westerly wind and a look at Maltraeth Cob Pool with a bit of a walk up the River Cefni produced a good total of 203 Pintail on the pool along with 4 Black-tailed Godwits, a Little Egret, a Merlin over the fields, plenty of Ravens going over, heading to roost in Newborough Forest, 2 Mistle Thrush and a Bullfinch.

Pintail

Raven

Bullfinch

17th and 18th January

Had a good couple of days up in the Highlands on my way back up to North Ronaldsay, it was gorgeous in the light snow which fell the day before and the bright, clear sunshine, very cold though getting down to -8 at night.   Highlights included my first UK Capercaillie with decent flight views of a female and brief views of a male as I flushed them from trees along a track somewhere above Carrbridge, a few Crested Tits scattered around the place and a 2cy Golden Eagle in the hills up Strathdearn where there was also a Peregrine and good numbers of Red Grouse.  

Other bits comprised several Red Squirrels and plenty of Coal Tits, Treecreepers, Siskins, Redpolls and Bullfinches – which were kind of interesting as many of them were feeding out in the snow-covered Heather as well as a couple seen flying high south, high up over a bare moorland covered hillside, may they be continental birds as this doesn’t seen like British birds behaviour?

Crested Tit

Golden Eagle

Red Grouse

Treecreeper

Bullfinches

12th January

A good day around Rutland Water produced some good highlights; we started off at Burley Fish Ponds where birds included 3 Slavonian Grebes, 2 Black-necked Grebes, at least 3 Great White Egrets, c30 Golden Plover with a huge flock of Lapwings and plenty of the usual wildfowl including Egyptian Geese, Wigeon, Goosander, Gadwall etc.   Also of note was great views of a big dog Otter on the bunds and in the water around the fish ponds.   We then walked the usual route around the reserve hides where highlights included a drake Smew, good views of a Water Rail in front of one of the hides, a female Marsh Harrier, several distant Red Kites, at least 3 more Great White Egrets, a sleeping Jack Snipe right in front of one of the hides, another Otter swimming across a lagoon and big numbers of birds in the south arm as viewed from a hide including a Great-northern Diver and a female Scaup with a huge flock of Tufted Ducks.

Bullfinch

GEDSER - 7th November

A decent day, fairly bright but with a brisk and very cold northerly wind; the feature of the morning was an excellent influx of 80+ Northern Bullfinches, at one stage the whole garden was full of their deep, musical calls – awesome!   We managed to catch 18 of them, they were all huge birds with wing lengths up to 98 and weights up to 37.8g – neither of which the computer liked!

The day`s ringing total was a good 150 new birds, largely made up of a big catch of Redpolls with the aid of playback after the standardized session had finished; they were a real mixed bunch of birds from small dark Lesser Redpolls with wing lengths of 68 to huge, white Common Redpolls, one with a wing length of 82 (the computer didn`t like that either!).   The proportion ended up with 67 Common Redpolls and 47 Lesser Redpolls although some were more or less guessed at as they were in the middle of colour and biometrics.

There was also a bit more action overhead through the morning with increased numbers of Chaffinches, Bramblings, Siskins, Goldfinches and Greenfinches heading east along with a Grey Wagtail, 200+ Woodpigeons, a couple of Waxwings heard, 2 Mistle Thrushes and a few Yellowhammers and Reed Buntings.   Wildfowl were also obvious (reflecting the passage offshore) with 10+ Whooper Swans, 16 Bewick`s Swans, 20+ Tundra Bean Geese and the odd Goldeneye and Wigeon whizzing over.

A little walk mid-afternoon north along the coast was fairly quiet with 3 Little Gulls, a few flocks of Red-throated Divers and ducks still passing offshore and 12+ Curlew feeding in the fields.

Common Redpolls

This Common Redpoll had a Swedish ring

Just to illustrate the difficulties with these Redpolls; these two were identically small (wing length 70) with one a classic looking Lesser Redpoll and the other resembling a Common Redpoll.   So is the left hand bird a very small Common or a very pale Lesser......

Northern Bullfinches

Little Gull

GEDSER - 3rd November

A gorgeous day calm and sunny with a bit of a frost first thing but the nets and the skies were a bit disappointingly quiet; we managed 40 new birds through the morning which did include a few nice bits with a Firecrest, 2 Northern Bullfinches and 13 Long-tailed Tits – 9 of which were the lovely white-headed Northern birds.   The sky was very quiet with just a handful of Chaffinches, Bramblings, Greenfinches and Siskins, a couple of Jackdaw flocks which came in off and the odd Yellowhammer, Redpoll and Reed Bunting.

                A walk up the coast in the afternoon was also quiet with just a Ring Ouzel in a hedge at Birkemose, 3 White Wagtails on the beach and 9 Little Gulls offshore of note.

 

A selection of Long-tailed Tits caught today included some pure white-headed ones, some intergrades and a couple more resembling europaeus birds

Firecrest

Northern Bullfinch

Northern Long-tailed Tits

Buzzard