20th November

 A nice walk in the morning down my stretch of the River Teme at Leintwardine for the first time in ages produced all the usual suspects although the highlight was a Great White Egret which flew high upstream along with 3 Kingfishers, 2 Dippers, a Green Sandpiper, 4 Little Egrets, 3 Grey Wagtails and 30+ Siskins.   

The rest of the day was quiet with good views of the long-staying Red-throated Diver at Brockhall Gravel Pit (always scarce inland) with two drake Pintail and 193 Wigeon the only other birds of note here and 10 Mandarin at Bodenham.

Green Sandpiper

Heron

Dippers

Red Kite

Buzzard

SWEDEN - 4th September

 Bit of a breezy, overcast morning that was cut short by a spell of drizzly rain; there was limited interest in the nets apart from my first two Swedish Dunnocks (they do exist!) along with a few of the usual Blackcaps, Willow Warblers, Whitethroats etc.   

Also seen on the lake were 10 Barnacle Geese, a single Taiga Bean Goose, 2 Pintail and a Slavonian Grebe while interestingly at least 5 Marsh Harriers were actively hunting over the reeds before it was even half-light – they usually are not up and flying until much later, I guess they have finally cottoned on to the big Swallow and White Wagtail roost in front of the tower and are having a go.   

A walk round a windy Oset from late morning produced the highlight of a huge flock of 120+ Hooded Crows which suddenly appeared overhead, purposefully flying north which was odd until a young male Goshawk was seen following not far behind!  

Other birds included 177 Barnacle Geese, 4 Ringed Plover, 14 Ruff, an adult Great Black-backed Gull and a few land migrants comprising a late Sand Martin with 150+ Swallows feeding over the recently cut fields, 8 Whinchats, a Wheatear, 3 Yellow Wagtails and 3 Tree Pipits.   

Goshawk record shot

Heron

SWEDEN - 26th August

 Another quiet morning at Ason both in the nets and overhead, lovely though – flat calm with a stunning sunrise; in the nets the highlights were single Marsh Warbler and Lesser Whitethroat, both firsts for the site this year.   

Overhead, highlights comprised 2 Hobbies, 3 Hawfinches, 3 Brambling and 4 Tree Pipits while c40 White Wagtails were on the bridge first thing and a Goosander, 2 White-tailed Eagles, single Spotted Redshank and Redshank and 2 Common Sandpipers were on the lake.   

It clouded over in the afternoon and a walk along the dirt roads to the north of Kvismaren produced a single Red-backed Shrike, a cool flock of 20+ Northern Long-tailed Tits, 3 Tree Pipits, a Spotted Flycatcher, 120+ Siskins and a steadily trickle of high Crane flocks heading south (6+6+23+11+5).   

There’s one particular Heron at Ason that fishes by flying low over the water and plunging in to catch fish, like a poor man’s Osprey, its pretty successful though!

Juvenile Swallows gathering on the bridge

Awesome Northern Long-tailed Tits

SWEDEN - 6th July

Strong force 6 south-westerlies blazed across the area all day preventing any ringing and bringing numerous, heavy showers from late morning; there were plenty of new birds across the reserve though (probably because of the weather) with some excellent wader counts including 88 Bar-tailed Godwits (35 on Hammarmaden and 53 on Löten), a single Knot and 4 Curlew Sandpipers on Hammarmaden, 12 Dunlin, a juvenile Little Ringed Plover running around on the road, 17 Ruff, 3 Spotted Redshank, 24 Greenshank and 50+ Wood Sandpipers.   

Other birds during a good walk around in the morning included an adult Arctic Tern on Rysjön (a Swedish tick!), a single Whooper Swan (a Kvismaren tick!), c60 Little Gulls at the colony, a Hobby, a Peregrine and a very impressive performance by the 450+ Swifts – all feeding really low, whizzing close past you so you could hear the wings as they bombed past.

Swift

Common Tern

Heron

Hobby

NORTH RONALDSAY - 17th August

A breezy, showery morning improving into a bright, sunny afternoon; a few new bits were found through the day including 2 Herons, a Merlin, 79 Knot, 9 Ruff and the first Goldcrest of the autumn around the Obs - certainly a dispersing youngster from Orkney rather than a Scandinavian migrant!

Heron

NORTH RONALDSAY - 12th September

I got back from Kirkwall at lunchtime and headed out to do the middle census route in tricky, very windy conditions with the definite highlight being a Corncrake I flushed from the docks at Longar from where it flew to the dense grass and Irises towards Burray – a long overdue North Ron tick!   Other birds included a Willow Warbler, 7 Wheatears, 5 Herons, a Kestrel, 56 Wigeon, 40+ Teal and three Knot.  

Herons

NORTH RONALDSAY - 29th July

Still bright and sunny with an even stronger SE wind in the morning with cloud building from mid-afternoon; a little walk round The Lurn before sheep punding just produced six Swifts which came in off the sea from the west.   I then walked around the middle census route at lunchtime where birds included a juvenile Ruff on Ancum (the first juvenile of the autumn) along with 2 Herons, 10 Teal and good views of a Water Rail, a Black-tailed Godwit and 146 Oystercatchers in the cut fields and a good selection of waders at Westness including 135 Dunlin, 22 Knot, 10 Purple Sandpipers, 60 Turnstone and 5 Sanderling.

Tysties

Swift

Black-tailed Godwit

Bonxie

Juvenile Sand Martin

Heron annoying the Terns

NORTH RONALDSAY - 5th March

A bit of a miserable day with rain through the morning and the strong easterly wind throughout; didn’t really see much but the highlights were the Green-winged Teal on Gretchen and catching up with yesterday’s adult Iceland Gull at the top of Bewan.

Snow Bunting

Grumpy Heron