SWEDEN - 1st September

 A similar day to yesterday, cloudless and chilly first thing, developing into a warm, sunny afternoon; the nets at Rysjön were busy as birds included an awesome group of 5 Northern Long-tailed Tits (out of a flock ofc8 – the first ones we’ve caught), a single Bluethroat, a new Thrush Nightingale, a Marsh Warbler and a nice little influx of Blackcaps and Willow Warblers.   

Presumably yesterday’s Black Kite was again over ploughed fields between the road and the house as we were driving back late morning.   

Other bits through the morning included a flock of 4 Curlew Sandpipers over the lake at first light where there was also single Slavonian Grebe and Little Grebe, the Smew and an arrival of Geese mid-morning which contained 6 Taiga Bean Geese and 30 Barnacle Geese (an overdue Kvismaren tick!) and 5 Tree Pipits and a Hawfinch overhead.   

A little look at Hammarmaden at sunset produced the amazing spectacle of 8,000+ Cranes coming into roost with flocks and flocks still coming in as the sun set and we left!   

Northern Long-tailed Tits – always brilliant!

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

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

 

GEDSER - 20th October

Yet another awesome day of ringing and tens of thousands of birds pouring overhead; a dry, overcast day with lightish winds meant another all day ringing session during which we managed an excellent 678 new birds again dominated by 486 Goldcrests which generally came through the very hectic morning (at some stages we were just down to two nets due to the sheer volume of birds being caught) while other birds making up the totals included 26 Wrens, 41 Robins, 29 Blue Tits and 19 Siskins.  

                There was some quality mixed in with the catch though with our fifth Yellow-browed Warbler of the autumn caught in the morning rush, 2 Firecrests, 12 Northern Long-tailed Tits (along with two Southern birds resembling the British ones), 3 Treecreepers, 2 Northern Bullfinches (plus one of yesterday’s re-traps) and another awesome Hawfinch.

                During the crazy hectic mornings ringing there were tens of thousands of birds piling over the garden to the east but unfortunately I didn’t have that much time to just appreciate the spectacle let alone get any counts of anything.   Chaffinches, Bramblings and Siskins were again passing over in big flocks but the day belonged to the thousands and thousands of Fieldfares (and smaller numbers of Mistle Thrushes and Redwings) which poured over the garden in huge flocks – amazing scenes!   The numbers I saw over the garden were a small percentage of what was happening through the day as numbers counted at the point included 65,430 Fieldfares, 12,170 Mistle Thrushes, 1,750 Redwings, 25,400 Chaffinch\Brambling and 1,590 Siskins!

                Mixed in the multitudes were a couple each of Woodlarks and Hawfinches, at least 200 Sparrowhawks, several Red Kites, a Common Buzzard, 20+ Swallows, a couple of Grey Wagtails, more probably Northern Bullfinches, several Crossbill flocks and a selection of the other usual bits and bobs – Redpolls, Greenfinches, Linnets, Skylarks, Meadow Pipits etc.    Also more obvious today were big flocks of Woodpigeons, Jackdaws and Rooks with a few Stock Doves thrown in.

                Definitely also worth a mention was a brilliant first winter Peregrine which perched on a dead tree on the edge of the garden and allowed close approach to enable some decent pictures to be taken; the bird had many features suggesting an ARCTIC PEREGRINE of the subspecies calidus, with its pale head, thin moustachial stripe on very white cheeks and the underpart streaking fading to much thinner streaks in the centre of the chest.

 

Putative Arctic Peregrine

Northern Long-tailed Tits; the bottom picture was when one of them perched on the net (but not actually trapped in it!) to look up at and investigate the rest of the flock which were caught!

Hawfinch

 

GEDSER - 13th October

The first completely dry day for a good while with the easterly wind increasing from a moderate breeze in the morning to howling strong by late afternoon; it was a fantastic day of ringing with at least some nets open all day as we managed an excellent 443 new birds caught highlighted by a second Great Grey Shrike, 4 awesome white headed Northern Long-tailed Tits and the first 2 Mistle Thrushes of the year.

                The numbers were dominated by 314 Goldcrests – mainly caught during a very hectic first few hours along with 30 Blue Tits, 53 Robins and 14 Blackbirds plus bits and bobs of other things including 2 Coal Tits, 4 Chiffchaffs, a Blackcap and a Redwing.

                There was not much else seen really (not that there was any time to look up during the morning!) with 4 Swallows still, a Rough-legged Buzzard, a few Chaffinches and Bramblings heading east and a few White-fronted Goose flocks heading south.

Northern Long-tailed Tits - awesome!

Great Grey Shrike

Mistle Thrush

Couldn't resist some more Goldcrest pictures as they were once again hopping around on the grass within centimetres of your feet!

13th October

Another ‘perfect’ start with the faintest waft of an easterly breeze under overcast skies; the nets were busy with 100 new birds caught but the variety was poor with 72 Goldcrests making up the majority of the total but there were 2 Siberian Chiffchaff types with one of them calling loudly, even when in the hand.

                A walk round the coast then produced a flock of 20 Pink-footed Geese, the late Common Sandpiper still, 2 Jack Snipe, a Lapland Bunting and a further increase to at least 29 Wheatears and 240 Rock Pipits.   The sun came out later in the afternoon to produce a lovely end to the day which encouraged a few raptors to appear around Groda with a hovering Rough-legged Buzzard, a high circling Hen Harrier, 2 Sparrowhawks, a Common Buzzard and a big female Peregrine.

                Inland it was much quieter than yesterday but there were some good birds around with a big flock of 26 Northern Long-tailed Tits at Vatnemarka – the first of the autumn, a Black Woodpecker in Lebeltet Nord and 13 Swallows still while the 6 Brent Geese, a Tufted Duck and 76 Wigeon were on Vågsvollvåien.

 

'Siberian' Chiffchaff #1 - this bird gave the classic tristis call

'Siberian' Chiffchaff #2 - they're from the east at any rate!

Jack Snipe

Northern Long-tailed Tit - its about time these turned up!

Chiffchaff

Rock Pipits in the evening light