Sifting mud to find a Rustic Bunting

It is the time of year when the birds are in migration. This means that you get all sorts of birds passing through on their journey south. It is an excellent opportunity to see birds that otherwise would require you to dedicate part of your vacation to see.

Rustic Bunting (Videsparv, Emberiza rustica) is one of those birds and starting from last week, the reports of local sightings have increased. Today I figured I'd try my luck and headed out to Ågesta to follow up on several sightings reported yesterday of possibly as many as four individuals.

Ågesta is quite large, but all reports were centered around a marshland patch called Pumphusängen. I know the spot from before and it is home to breeding Reed Buntings, so finding resting Rustic Buntings there made sense.

Of course I found nothing - one lonely Reed Bunting, but that was it in terms of Emberizas.



Although the weren't that many birds overall to see, I still could enjoy several raptors in the sky and a young White-tailed Eagle even passed by close enough to snap some pictures.


When I got to Pumphusängen I realized that they has prepared the area to reduce the overgrowth in order to restore it to the original marshy quality. That meant that essentially I would have to sift through a gigantic mud field to try to find the bird.

Somehow it seems that the majority of the birds you really want to see are hiding in a mud field around here. I haven't done any statistics, but I bet that if would go through this blog and count the posts relating to sightings of rare or temporary birds, you would find us in, or next to, a mud field in almost all of them! There are many really nice and scenic places around here, but no, they have to go for the mud fields. Why!

Bird of the day: White-tailed Eagle -- Havsörn -- Seeadler -- Pygargue à queue blanche -- Haliaeetus albicilla