LANDGUARD - 24th August

 A nice, calmish start with some cloud cover but the NNE wind picked up significantly by mid-morning blowing the clouds away; again, there was a little scattering of migrants across the area which today included 3 Pied Flycatchers, my first Redstart of the autumn, 5 Willow Warblers, 2 Lesser Whitethroats and a Yellow Wagtail.   

Also of note was a juvenile Arctic Skua sat on the sea just offshore for a while, a Fulmar and 86 Teal south at sea.   

I then had a rush of blood and drove up to north Norfolk for a walk along Blakeney Point tomorrow morning, I had a short walk in the evening (didn’t even make it to Halfway House) but the only birds of note were 4 Greenshank, a couple of distant Spoonbills and a single Whinchat.

Whinchat

LANDGUARD - 11th May

 A stunning, flat calm morning, soon becoming warm and sunny with a gentle SSE wafting breeze; there were a few new migrants scattered around and overhead comprising 3 Blackcaps, a Chaffinch, a Chiffchaff, a Grey Wagtail south (slightly late here), a House Martin, 2 Jackdaws, some new Lesser Whitethroats and Whitethroats, 2 Redpolls, a handful of Swallows south, 2 Swifts, a Tree Pipit, 9 Wheatears, a Whinchat and a Willow Warbler.   

Over the sea birds included 12 Barnacle Geese, 3 Common Terns, a drake Gadwall south, a Gannet and 4 Kittiwakes – an unusual number still offshore here this late into May, interesting to speculate concerning displaced birds from the Lowestoft colony which have been on social media recently.

Lesser Whitethroat

Whinchat

SWEDEN - 3rd September

 A very different day with early morning light rain delaying the start of ringing at Fågelsjön for a couple of hours but when we did get started it was a decent session with the big flock of Siskins feeding on the thistle heads along the path producing most of the birds but the total also included 2 Bluethroats (both young females, with two other seen along the path), a Savi’s Warbler and a smart juvenile Whinchat.   

There wasn’t too much else flying around in the heavily overcast conditions with 2 Golden Plover with the Lapwings the first for a while, 2 Spotted Redshanks flying about and single Tree Pipit and Wheatear along the path.   

A walk in the afternoon to Rysjön and back in the still overcast weather (becoming drizzly by mid-afternoon) was also fairly quiet with an increased 68 Barnacle Geese and 9 Taiga Bean Geese on Rysjön along with a Little Grebe, a tatty adult Red Kite which flew east and probably 3 Hobbies hawking over the reedbeds.   

Bluethroat and Savi’s Warbler

Whinchat

Red Kite

SWEDEN - 20th August

 A lovely, cool, misty, autumnal morning after yesterday afternoon’s and evening’s torrential downpours; it was busy in the nets at Rysjön but there wasn’t too much of note in amongst good numbers of Willow Warblers and Reed Warblers with the exception of two more Red-backed Shrikes and the re-trap Savi’s Warbler once again.   

Other birds seen included 2 Little Grebes finally on the lake (they have been reported almost everyday for weeks now but I couldn’t get a sniff!) along with the reappearing Smew (haven’t seen it for ten days now), 2 Slavonian Grebes, a Bittern, 3 Great White Egrets and a juvenile White-tailed Eagle.   

It inevitably turned into a very warm, sunny and humid afternoon and a very productive walk round the reserve had many highlights with a notable influx of waders (due to the rain) on Löten and Hammarmaden as totals comprised 51 Ruff, 2 Curlew Sandpipers (the first lovely, peachy juveniles of the autumn), 21 Dunlin, 2 Spotted Redshanks, 2 Greenshank, 25+ Wood Sandpipers, 7 Ringed Plover, a Curlew and a Common Sandpiper.   

Other birds through the afternoon included some good raptors with 2 Honey Buzzards (one over the house and one over Löten), a Peregrine over the house and at least 2 Hobbies and some good migrant totals including 8 Whinchats, 4 Spotted Flycatchers, 20+ Willow Warblers, a Goldcrest (actually a Kvismaren tick!) and a few Blackcaps and Garden Warblers.   

Whinchat

Spotted Flycatcher

Wall Brown

SWEDEN - 16th August

 Busy again for the first few hours at Rysjön but again it only lasted until the temperature rose which happened quite quickly this morning; highlights in the nets comprised a re-trap Savi’s Warbler, 2 Marsh Warblers, a Whinchat, a Lesser Whitethroat and a good total of 35 Willow Warblers.   

Other birds included 4 Slavonian Grebes, 3 Red-necked Grebes and 2 Great-crested Grebes on the lake where a White-tailed Eagle was again mooching around at first light and a little increase in ducks included 15 Wigeon and 3 Pintail while overhead 7+ Tree Pipits and a few Siskins were noted.   

Brambling caught at Ason a couple of days ago, looking very different to when they arrive in the UK in little over a month

Adult Whitethroat

Juvenile Whinchat

SWEDEN - 8th July

Bar a spell of rain as a front moved to the south of us it was a decent ringing session at Fågelsjön as the highlights included 2 Marsh Warblers, some Bearded Tits, a female Yellow Wagtail, a juvenile Whinchat and 4 re-trap Great Reed Warblers; not much else was seen although the were more than normal waders flying around – all the usual species but encouraging nonetheless.   

The afternoon followed this theme with a long walk round the reserve producing some excellent visible migration with a steady stream of Swifts pouring in from the north and presumably carrying on south although there were hundreds whirling over the lakes (750+ put down for the day) as well as quite a few very high Black-headed Gull flocks also heading south.   

The highlight though was on Löten as I inadvertently timed my arrival with two huge, heavy rain showers which slowly swept across the site and as they were just moving through (although it was still raining) waders started to call with 22+ Greenshank, 40+ Wood Sandpipers, 3 Redshank and some Curlew all suddenly launching into the sky to head away high to the south – a fabulous sight with the air full of ‘tuu’s’ and twitters as the migrant birds which had just been waiting out the rain continued on their way south, brilliant!   

Totals for the afternoon comprised 14 Curlew Sandpipers, 3 Bar-tailed Godwits, a Little Ringed Plover, 14 Curlew, 9 Snipe, 4 Green Sandpipers, 3 Spotted Redshank, a good 44 Greenshank, 65 Wood Sandpipers, 3 White-tailed Eagles in a field at Hammarmaden and a Hobby.

Whinchat

Bearded Tit

Nuthatch from the other day

Female Blue-headed Wagtail

Wheatear

Hobby

SWEDEN - 5th July

Calm and cloudy to start allowing us to get a standardised ringing session in at Fågelsjön where the highlights included a French ringed Reed Warbler, a re-trap Marsh Warbler, a nice male Whinchat, another juvenile Yellow Wagtail, a re-trap Great Reed Warbler (which was fitted with a logger) and a nice selection of Bearded Tits.   

The wind then picked up with heavy, persistent rain through until mid-afternoon when it turned very windy with some nasty showers whipping though; it was a brilliant session at Löten though where some smart waders had dropped in with an adult BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER and 9 Curlew Sandpipers – all in stunning bright red breeding plumage the definite highlights.   

Other birds here included 10 Dunlin, a Garganey, a distant adult White-tailed Eagle, 21+ Greenshank (several of which were stained a peachy buffy colour, presumably from their breeding pools further north), 60+ Wood Sandpipers, 4 Spotted Redshank, 20+ Ruff, 26 Black Terns, a male Grey-headed Wagtail (a slightly imperfect one with a bit of a whitish supercillium behind the eye), the first juvenile Marsh Harriers on the wing and 400+ Swifts whizzing around really low.

Marsh Warbler

Juvenile Whinchat

Female Whinchat

Male Whinchat

Roe Deer

SWEDEN - 26th June

A similar ringing session at Fågelsjön in the morning produced the highlights of 3 Great Reed Warblers (one fully colour-ringed with a data-logger, one just with a metal ring [wandering female ringed last autumn] and an un-ringed male), 2 Thrush Nightingales, the first juvenile Willow Warbler of the year and a ten-year-old re-trap Reed Warbler; other bird seen included 55 Cranes, a Greenshank, the first bit of visible migration of the ‘autumn’ with a flock of 15 Curlew heading high south in migration formation, the two Great White Egrets and two singing Marsh Warblers.   A walk round to Löten in the still hot afternoon didn’t produce anything new but counts included 2 Garganey, 2 Pintail, the 2 Pochard, 370 Lapwing, 3 Little Ringed Plover, 15 Ruff, 2 Green Sandpipers, 5 Spotted Redshank, 50+ Wood Sandpipers and good views of a Bittern on the deck.

Crane

Whinchat

Brilliant Emerald

SWEDEN - 24th June

A quiet but nice morning ringing at Fågelsjön where birds caught included 2 Whinchat, 2 Bearded Tits, two re-trap (and colour ringed) Great Reed Warblers and the first fledgling Blue-headed Wagtail and Whitethroats; other birds seen around and about comprised 40+ Cranes, some nice male Ruff feeding in a recently cut field, 2 Green Sandpipers, the two Great White Egrets and a brief singing Savi’s Warbler.   A little look at a lake called Hällebosjön just to the south in the afternoon produced good views of two smart summer plumaged Black-throated Divers – which have been present since early spring but don’t seen to be doing anything breeding wise.

Great Reed Warbler

Juvenile Blue-headed Wagtail

Whinchat

Very small fledgling Whitethroat - how did it even get into the net!

Sunrise

SWEDEN - 17th June

A few hours in the damp morning was spent counting stuff on Rysjön, where the fantastic marsh produced plenty of highlights (nothing rare for here just amazing Scandinavian marshland scenes!) which included single singing Great Reed Warbler and Savi’s Warbler, lots of calling Black Terns as they fed chicks, good flocks of juvenile Bearded Tits in the reeds, Cranes flying about including a flock of 25, awesome wader flocks with returning birds starting to appear which included 15+ male, fully plumaged Ruff, 18+ fully black Spotted Redshanks, 30+ Wood Sandpipers, 3 Greenshank and a few Green Sandpipers, loads of duck including a single drake Garganey, 10 Red-necked Grebes, loads of Marsh Harriers and lots of Blue-headed Wagtails breeding in the marshland.   

Other little bits of note comprised a single Taiga Bean Goose, a Hobby, one male Grey-headed Wagtail, a couple of Cuckoos and a few Common Terns.   

The afternoon was quieter but a look at the ringing site of Fågelsjön produced good flight views of a Bittern, a few distant Little Gulls, 2 Ospreys, the Thrush Nightingales still (with another couple of others seen and heard), 4 Whinchats and a Goldeneye with ten small ducklings.

Grey-headed Wagtail

Juvenile Bearded Tits

Black Tern

Whinchat