Race day!

Today was the day we were going to set the record straight! It was time for the annual bird race in Stockholm. Last year it was only the two of us. This year we were back in full force, entering the race with the original lineup from 2007 - Jörgen, Claudia and Anders.

We had entered under the name of The Turnstones, to reflect our intention to leave no stone unturned in our hunt for species and with pun intended (for non-birders: Turnstone is also the name of a bird).

This year our plan was to head out before daybreak to Torö, south of Stockholm, and then bird our way all the way to Norra Järvafältet to the north and then head back to the finish line at 17:00. It would mean a tight schedule and a lot of driving - around 240km as it turned out, but it would also mean a good outlook for potential species.

The day started at 06:30, when Jörgen picked us up. He is a formidable team mate and birder - calm, well prepared and an expert local birder. As a father of two young kids and former elite soldier he is also indifferent to hunger, thirst and fatigue. He's the kind of guy you really like to have on your side, so riding with him meant a lot for us today.

At 07:30 we were opening the day at Torö as planned. The yield was maybe slightly lower than we had initially hoped, but on the other side, Jörgen was rewarded with no less than three(!) lifers within 3 hours. As the day progressed we continued to work our way north, building our list.

Among the most notable species south of Stockholm, I think Razorbill, Black Guillemot and Rough-legged Hawk stand out, although I really liked the Long-tailed Duck as well.

One of the great things with the bird race is that all species count as equal - one species, one point. Very simple. This means that you have to make sure you cover all the common ones as well as spending enough time out there to get the less common ones as well. It is a delicate balance and in 2007 we ran out of time and missed the House sparrow. This year we made sure not to repeat that mistake.

We had a plan and a schedule and tried to work off the species and sites as meticulously as possible. In the end it worked quite well and to our surprise we managed to end third in the race with a total of 51 species. The winning team clocked 66 species. Although we ended up in third place, I think we all feel like winners. Thanks to all team members - GREAT WORK!

Bird of the day: Gråsparv -- Haussperling -- House Sparrow -- Moineau domestique -- Passer domesticus

Getting up early

Birding is about a lot of things, among other things it is about getting up early. Today we got up early and hitched a ride out to see a Dark-throated Thrush just north of Stockholm, in Vallentuna. We arrived there just around first light and were quickly rewarded with an appearance.

The bird was hanging out around a bird feeder in suburban neighborhood and we weren't the only ones who had showed up. In fact there was a small crowd gathered just opposite someones garden, binos and telescopes ready.

I guess the guy living in the house was not too pleased to see us when he entered the kitchen in the morning to make coffee and breakfast. On the other hand the Dark-throated Thrush is a rare guest in Sweden, so I guess it's the only time he has to endure it. ;-)


Black-throated Thrush -- Svarthalsad trast -- Schwarzkehldrossel -- Grive à gorge noire -- Turdus (ruficollis?) atrogularis

PS: (Note by Claudia) I am a little confused about the taxonomy here. In Avibase it says that this taxon is considered a full species, but sometimes also a subspecies to the Dark-throated thrush. Any help anyone?

Cormorants

In the Gothenborg fish harbor, next to the Iceland gull, there were a bunch of cormorants hanging out. They were having a ball, feasting on the leftovers from the fish gutting. Each piece of fish was the target of a lot of attention, so it wasn't really a quiet dinner for anyone. It was more along the lines of "If you got it, gulp it down!".





Bird of the day: Great cormorant -- Storskarv –- Kormoran –- Phalacrocorax carbo

Iceland Gull in Göteborg

The same day that we went to the peninsula Årnäshalvön at the Swedish West coast a juvenile Iceland gull was reported in Göteborg. Göteborg is about 70 km from Årnäshalvön and was more or less on our way back anyway, so we headed there. Me and Hans had both seen Iceland gull before and guess where - in Iceland, or more precisely at Reykjavík harbour. It was a first in Sweden for all four of us, though. And here you are: An Iceland gull to the right. (The one to the left is a juvenile European herring gull, I guess.)


Juvenile Iceland gulls can be hard to distinguish from glaucous gulls (vittrut, Eismöwe, Larus hyperboreus) but apparently the best characteristic is the bill. The bill of an Iceland gull is slimmer and the transition from the black tip to the pink part of the bill is more diffuse than that of a glaucous gull where the bill looks as if it was neatly "dipped into ink". (Source: http://www.birdwatch.co.uk)

Well, as if 470 km back to Stockholm wasn't enough, we additionally went to Falköping on our way home which corresponds to a detour of about 100 km. All to see an Oriental Turtle-Dove which had been reported there the same morning. However, when we arrived there in the late afternoon it chose to hide well from us and all other - more or less desperately - seeking birders. I guess three new species for Sweden in one day was asking too much.

Obviously, the next day it was reported from the same spot again in the morning. By then we had finally made it home, though. :-)

Bird of the day: Iceland gull -- Vitvingad trut -- Polarmöwe -- Goéland arctique -- Larus glaucoides

East coast, West coast!

Today we traveled more than 2x500km (2x310miles) back and forth to Halland on the west coast of Sweden to see an American pipit. It would have been a longshot, but we had two secret weapons at our disposal. Birding Team Claudia Staab joined forces with global superbirder Hans Jörnvall and wife and on top of that we had excellent local support in the form of Hans Johansson. The latter had generously made his local expertise available to us and we took the offer today.

We want to express our deepest gratitude to all. Without either the trip wouldn't have happened. Hans drove all 1000km steadily and swiftly and also helped id the bird. Local guide Hans showed us the way leading up to the bird and generously offered hot coffee and tasty cheese sandwiches. Thank you all!

The American pipit is very rare in Sweden to say the least and this individual has made Årnäshalvön a popular destination for all Swedish birders since November.

Initially the whole thing almost slipped on us, as the bird was scared away by a couple of eager birders just as we arrived. The pipit flew and couldn't be found for almost one hour. Seeing the bird fly away just as you arrive was a nightmare and it was really terrible to experience that after having spent the last five hours in a car gradually getting psyched for the moment.

After some intense searching we finally regained it and good times were had by all. I even managed to snap a couple of photos from a distance.


Bird of the day: American pipit -- Hedpiplärka -- Pazifikpieper -- Pipit d'Amérique -- Anthus rubescens rubescens

Back to more common birds - concrete treecreeper

These days I would have a chance to be nominated for world's laziest couch potato. Too bad there isn't such an award. Today I got kind of sick of it, though. There's a competition going on! A new Betonglista (concrete list) is waiting out there. You might remember the microbirding competition in Stockholm City where people aim to see as many species as possible within Stockholm's former customs frontiers (innanför Stockholms tullar). So today I decided to go for a walk in the concrete where I was rewarded with two more species for my betonglista: Two treecreepers and two robins. Here's one of the treecreepers which I saw in Rålambshovsparken, Stockholm City:


On the following picture you can see the impressive claw of the hind toe:


Treecreepers like to nest in crevices, often the space between the trunk and detached bark pieces. Right next to where I saw those two I also found a potential nesting site - we'll see what happens in spring! :-)


Bird of the day: Trädkrypare -- Waldbaumläufer -- Treecreeper -- Grimpereau des bois -- Certhia familiaris

Yellow-browed bunting - follow-up

The yellow-browed bunting is still there and many more have seen it by now.

It's not the most cooperative bird really, on Sunday I got nothing but a short glimpse of it, but today around 3:45 PM it sat nicely exposed for a while which even allowed for some filming (although the light was pretty bad and on top of that I had to zoom in a little...).


Bird of the day: Yellow-browed bunting -- Gulbrynad sparv -- Gelbbrauenammer -- Bruant à sourcils jaunes -- Emberiza chrysophrys

Follow-up: First page news

The news about the bunting actually made it to the news today and Expressen had a small story about the sensational discovery. They choose my picture of the bird to go with the story and I'm proud to be published on the web and in the printed edition. A first for me. :-)

The full story can be found here:
Sparv orsakade kaos i Stockholm


----

Yellow-browed bunting!

We did it! We saw it! As I understand it, it is the first recorded sighting ever in Sweden and there has only been a few at all in Europe and we were there! It might be the first and the last time on Swedish soil. Great!

We arrived at dawn, just after first light and joined a company of around 200 eager birders, some of which had traveled all night from Umeå in the north and Denmark in the south. It was quite some crowd that had gathered in the cold morning (-13C when we left home).

After having arrived, the waiting began. The bird only showed itself very briefly and always in hard-to-spot locations around a small bird feeding station in the woods. We're getting fairly used to this kind of stakeout by now and took turns at the scope, while the other scanned the surroundings using binos and tried to keep warm. After a couple of hours of standing still and waiting in the cold, it doesn't matter how much clothes you wear - your hands and feet are going be very cold. Eating and drinking coffee helps and moving around of course. The problem is that you don't want to move too far, because the bird can show up at any time, so you need to be prepared at all times. It's tough! ;-)

It took a while, but after a couple of hours we finally got a good look at the bird, after having had only very brief and frustrating glimpses before that. I even managed to get the camera on the scope and squeeze off a couple of shots for documentation.

The feeding station is kept by the local birding association (JOK) to attract winter birds. I guess they really succeeded this time. We had a quick word with one of the local birders who was among the first ones to see it yesterday and he said he couldn't believe his eyes when he first saw it. In fact he couldn't even id it correctly, which is very understandable. I didn't even know that there was something called Yellow-browed bunting until yesterday, when we got word of it.




Claudia, still vigilant after a couple of hours of being vigilant in the cold.



Me, trying also to be vigilant.

Bird of the day: Yellow-browed bunting -- Gulbrynad sparv -- Gelbbrauenammer -- Bruant à sourcils jaunes -- Emberiza chrysophrys

Back from Gotland and getting ready for a rare bunting

We're both back from having spent Christmas with the families and lo and behold if the birding year isn't taking off with a bang! Today at around after lunch, a Yellow-browed Bunting was spotted just to the north of Stockholm at Norra Järvafältet. As I understand it, it is more than rare around here. The field guide lists it for reference, but there is no indication of observations. Normally even rare birds are noted with a star system, indicating how common, or uncommon the species is.

Naturally we're going up there tomorrow to have a go at it. The weather forecast promises clear weather, but fairly cold (-10 Celsius). I guess we're in for a long cold day, waiting for a very small bird to show up.

While on Gotland, my brother and his family and I went for a nice walk/mini birding tour at Lummelunda bruk. It was a great day out with nice company and sightings of Common Kingfisher, Winter Wren and White-throated dipper among the highlights. The light was bad for photography, but I managed to get a decent picture of the dipper at least.



In the garden of the house where we stayed, I found this very creative and original nesting box on a Walnut tree. Very nice!



Birds of the day:
Strömstare -- Wasseramsel -- White-throated dipper -- Cincle plongeur -- Cinclus cinclus