Dagens fågel - Bird of the day

Short-toed treecreeper!

2012-01-15T22:15:00.004+01:00

Finally, after quite a few walks in the neighbourhood, eyes and ears wide open... we have seen what we think was a short-toed treecreeper (Gartenbaumläufer, trädgårdsträdkrypare, Certhia brachydactyla). On the pics below you can see the relatively long beak, the short toe, a weak off-white superciliary line, distinct white spots on the wing tips as well as even steps along the light brown wing edges, all characteristics distinguishing it from the common treecreeper (Certhia familiaris). In other words it took quite some scrutinizing of Collin's bird guide... but now we are fairly certain. Comments are welcome, of course!

Bird of the day:
Short-toed treecreeper - Trädgårdsträdkrypare - Gartenbaumläufer - Grimpereau des jardins - Certhia brachydactyla

First post from Munich, Bavaria! About time.

2012-01-13T21:40:00.004+01:00

With a baby to entertain, job applications to write and a household to keep running, time is somewhat limited lately for blogging unfortunately. Still, I get to do a little birding when I take our little one out for a walk. So here are some observations from yesterday's walk.

Long-tailed tit, Northern race: Aegithalos caudatus caudatus

In the same flock of about 15 individuals: Long-tailed tit, Continental race: Aegithalos caudatus europaeus

A colony of rooks (corvus frugilegus) live nearby.

European robin (Erithacus rubecula).

All these pics are taken in our neighborhood, Munich-Solln, on one of my baby walks.
Which have increased in number by the way since I repeatedly heard what I think is a short-toed treecreeper's song... but I never got a good look at the treecreeper in question. But eventually I will! :-)

Common Rosefinch at Laboe

2011-06-07T20:52:00.004+02:00

Last Friday the weather was beautiful and I decided to go on a short trip to Laboe - after all, the bus to Laboe stops in front of our doorstep. It was supposed to be a little walk with the baby buggy but, by way of precaution - you never know -, I took the camera with me. And luckily so, because I had just passed the Laboe Naval Memorial when I heard a bird song that I had not heard for quite a while but recognized immediately nevertheless -a distinct "pleased to meet you". :-) A rosefinch! Eventually I realized that there were at least three of them.

So far I had only seen rosefinches on Gotland, so I was quite surprised to find them there, undisturbed by all tourists and water sports enthusiasts.

Felicia, however, was quite unimpressed by them and continued sleeping in her baby buggy.

Bird of the day: Common rosefinch - Karmingimpel - Rosenfink - Roselin cramoisi - Carpodacus erythrinus

and suddenly Little Grebe

2011-03-20T16:36:00.003+01:00

So, we were walking in the sunshine along the Hörn quay in Kiel this afternoon. The plan was to enjoy some of the spring weather, go for a cup of coffee and then to return home. With the constantly scanning eyes of two birders, the short walk however quickly became a "mini birding walk" and sure enough. Suddenly we had found two Little Grebes in the backwaters of downtown Kiel. What a nice surprise!

Searching this blog for previous references, I discovered that the last recorded obeservation on this blog was made by Claudia in Kiel last January, so maybe it shouldn't have been such a big surprise. Apparently they seem to use the open waters of the Kiel harbors during winters. Still it was a nice find. The Little Grebe in not rare, but it is uncommon to see them and they are very cute.

Great Crested Grebe is another winter guest in the Hörn area and we saw a couple today as well. This one was fishing in the shadow waters of a steam boat.

Birds of the day:
Skäggdopping -- Haubentaucher -- Great Crested Grebe -- Grèbe huppé -- Podiceps cristatus
Smådopping -- Zwergtaucher -- Little grebe -- Grèbe castagneux -- Tachybaptus ruficollis

Bewick's Swans and a glimpse of spring

2011-03-13T19:25:00.015+01:00

About 10 days ago, by pure coincidence, we watched a documentary on a flock of migrating Bewick's swans (Zwergschwan, mindre sångsvan, Cygnus bewickii). Year by year hundreds of Bewick's swans rest for several weeks in a region called "Eider-Treene-Sorge Niederung", between Meggerdorf and Bergenhusen in central Schleswig-Holstein. We immediately booked a car and got up about 4 o'clock in the morning on the following saturday to drive there. The Bewick's swans were not very hard to find and indeed, there were hundreds of them! They breed in the tundras of Northern Russia.

Bewick's swan, Zwergschwan, mindre sångsvan, Cygnus bewickii

After that we decided to take a trip to the coast of the North Sea, starting with St. Peter-Ording, a well-known tourism site, not least because of the TV series "Gegen den Wind", a German "Baywatch" version. There we just took a little stroll down to the deserted beach.

This place is probably crowded in summertime - at this time of year we could observe flocks of birds instead of tourist masses, though. We saw and heard displaying sky larks (Feldlerche, sånglärka, Alauda arvensis, see below) as well as a few common shelducks (Brandgans, gravand, Tadorna tadorna).

Sky lark, Feldlerche, sånglärka, Alauda arvensis

Then we continued to "Katinger Watt" where we had been for Easter last year already. We expected to be far too early to see any bird at all, but were pleasantly surprised. For me the highlight were three smews (Zwergsäger, salskrake, Mergellus albellus) one male and two females:

Smew, Zwergsäger, salskrake, Mergellus albellus; 1 male, two females flying in

Smew, Zwergsäger, salskrake, Mergellus albellus; 1 male

Besides, we saw many wigeons (Pfeifente, bläsand, Anas penelope), dozens of greylag geese (Graugans, grågås, Anser anser), common goldeneyes (Schellente, knipa, bucephala clangula, see below) and last but not least, in total three greater white-fronted geese (Blässgans, bläsgås, Anser albifrons) of which one showed some characteristics of lesser white-fronted goose (Zwerggans, fjällgås, Anser erythropus) which is classified as vulnerable (see below).

Common goldeneye, Schellente, knipa, Bucephala clangula

Below is a picture of a couple of greater white-fronted geese of which the one to the right shows the above mentioned characteristics of lesser white-fronted goose, including somewhat smaller size, lesser black markings on the stomach and a hint of an orbital ring (not well visible in the picture below). A hybrid maybe? Well, we will never know for sure, but apparently hybridization between greater and lesser white-fronted geese occurs naturally, albeit infrequently (Nijman V et al, "Wild hybrids of Lesser White-fronted Goose (Anser erythropus)×Greater White-fronted Goose (A. albifrons) (Aves: Anseriformes) from the European migratory flyway", Zoologischer Anzeiger - A Journal of Comparative Zoology 248(4):265-271).

Greater white-fronted goose, Blässgans, bläsgås, Anser albifrons; in front to the right: Eurasian wigeon, Pfeifente, bläsand, Anas penelope

Greylag geese, Graugänse, grågäss, Anser anser

In the end, this day turned out to become much more rewarding than we had anticipated! It's always a very special feeling to finally realize that spring is on its way with all its birds in migration and display - nature comes to life again and so do we. :-)

Nature reserve Schulensee

2011-03-08T21:11:00.005+01:00

Marsh tit - Sumpfmeise - Entita - Parus palustris

About 10 minutes by bus from our place, there is a nature reserve called Schulensee which BTW belongs to the Natura2000 sites. As the lake apparently only rarely freezes up completely, it is an important area for overwintering seafowl, apparently one of the few places in Schleswig-Holstein where you can find common teal (Kricka, Krickente).

Going there today I was absolutely determined to nail some "spring messengers" with my camera - well, indeed I heard and saw some, including singing male chaffinches (Bofink, Buchfink), display-flying greenfinches (Grönfink, Grünfink) and wood pigeons (Ringduva, Ringeltaube) as well as a singing dunnock (Järnsparv, Heckenbraunelle) - but none of them consented to show up and remain long enough in front of my camera lens. What I got instead were resident species like a treecreeper (Trädkrypare, Waldbaumläufer) and a marsh tit (Entita, Sumpfmeise).

Treecrepper - Waldbaumläufer - Trädkrypare - Certhia familiaris

Marsh tit - Sumpfmeise - Entita - Parus palustris

Overall, I was a little disappointed actually; the nature reserve is not very accessible and it wasn't the nice walk that I had hoped for; most of the time I was walking on asphalt being overtaken by cars, and a considerable part of the round track lead through the village or along a main road... while the actual nature reserve was "locked away" behind a fence. Not very nice, particularly if you're used to stroll around freely in great nature reserves in Sweden... But I guess they have a good reason for making it inaccessible. Actually, the only good spot to observe seafowl was from the village (see below) where I was rewarded with the sight of both a couple of common teals and a gadwall (Snatterand, Schnatterente). Not too bad after all!

Visa större karta

Winter in Kiel - summing up

2011-03-07T12:34:00.006+01:00

We have had three fantastic sunny days now and took well advantage of them to go birding. But before we welcome spring on this blog, here a quick post on overwintering birds downtown Kiel.

About two months ago, I discovered a couple of red-breasted mergansers (Småskrake, Mittelsäger) in the southernmost part of the Kieler Förde called "Hörn", very close to where we live. I did not have my camera on me, so I called Anders who grabbed his and immediately took a stroll down to take these pics:

Red-breasted merganser, male (Småskrake - Mittelsäger - Mergus serrator)

Red-breasted merganser, female (Småskrake - Mittelsäger - Mergus serrator)

Below you can get an idea where the so-called "Hörn" is situated. It is not a very charming place really, pretty much in Kiel city centre, surrounded by the main station and industrial zone-looking areas. This doesn't seem to discourage several overwintering guests, though. Except for the red-breasted mergansers shown above that we only observed once, about five great crested grebes (Skäggdopping, Haubentaucher) have been there during the winter, more or less stationary.

Visa större karta
Great crested grebe (Skäggdopping - Haubentaucher - Podiceps cristatus)

Another good location for overwintering birds downtown Kiel is the little shallow lake name "Kleiner Kiel" that I have mentioned in previous posts. During wintertime, many ducks and other seafowl gather there, including gadwalls (Snatterand, Schnatterente), tufted ducks (Vigg, Reiherente), great cormorants (Storskarv, Kormoran), common pochards (Brunand, Tafelente, see below) and common mergansers (Storskrake, Gänsesäger, last picture).

Common pochard, couple; front: female, back: male (Brunand - Tafelente - Aythya ferina)

Common merganser, male (Storskrake - Gänsesäger - Mergus merganser)

I hereby officially declare winter in Kiel to be over. Spring is approaching with giant steps and, yes, we are more than ready for it! :-)

Autumn walk at nature reserve "Altarm der Schwentine"

2010-11-08T21:55:00.002+01:00

A few pics from yesterday's excursion to "Altarm der Schwentine". This nature reserve is known to harbour overwintering dippers and grey wagtails - we saw none of them yesterday, but maybe it is a little too early still. Anyway - we enjoyed a nice walk in sunshine and autumn colours - a nice break from cleaning and organizing the apartment. :-)

Boar (Sus scrofa, Wildschwein) with young one in Raisdorf's wildlife park.

Common goldeneye (Bucephala clangula, Schellente, Knipa)

Black-headed gull (Larus ridibundus, Lachmöwe, Skrattmås)

Missing migration

2010-10-13T09:43:00.004+02:00

Winter migration is peeking. 60 0000 cranes currenty in the Brandenburg area and at Falsterbo, Sweden they just had a record with just over 10 000 Common Buzzards passing through in a single day. We are still busy cleaning the old apartment and getting settled in the new one. On a crisp autumn day like today, I really miss being out there and seeing the spectacle.

I guess have have to make do with a movie from the Common buzzard record at Falsterbo.
Link to video

Bye bye Stockholm! Hello Kiel, Germany!

2010-09-19T16:26:00.005+02:00

Did this blog die? No, but it since I've been busy moving to Germany to join Claudia so there has been little time for birding. Settling in in a new apartment and getting settled in foreign country takes time and effort. Ging forward we hope to get out more and to activate this blog again, but it will take a while still.

Meanwhile, I'll post these quick snaps of waders on at the seafront in Laboe, just outside Kiel.

Among the reeds

2010-08-15T19:21:00.004+02:00

One of the favorite spots at Hjälstaviken is the wooden path in the reeds known as WWF-Spången. It winds into the reeds across the southern part of the shallow lake that is Hjälstaviken. Following the path into the reeds you are completely surrounded by the sounds and movement of the variety of birds living there. The most spectacular for me are the Bearded Parrotbills, but there's an nice mix of warbles in there to. The Reed-Warblers dominate in sheer numbers.

Yesterday I came upon a a family of Reed-Wardblers. The parents went back and forth, catching insects to feed the young. They were also quite curious, briefly stopping to check me and my brother out before going on with their constant feeding to bring up their young.

Above: Me trying to catch the busy Reed-Warbles and Bearded Parrotbills on camera at WWF-Spången.

Bird of the day: Eurasian Reed-Warbler -- Rörsångare -- Teichrohrsänger -- Rousserolle effarvatte -- Acrocephalus scirpaceus

Sweltering at Hjälstaviken

2010-08-14T22:48:00.003+02:00

I have my brother over for a visit and today we decided to give Hjälstaviken a shot. That proved to be very rewarding. The place is a local migration hotspot for waders and we got plenty. Among others, I was especially pleased to find several Curlew Sandpipers, Red Knot (a new lifer!) and Grey Plover.

Apart from those, I also managed to finally get a half decent shot of Bearded Parrotbill. Something I have been wishing for since we started visiting Hjälstaviken.

Hot and humid. Those are two words that can be used to accurately describe the conditions today at Hjälstaviken. And I'm not kidding. It was extreme. We've had quite a lot of rain the past weeks and cooler weather, but today all that water which has come down must have instantly evaporated in the heat. The result was rain forest like conditions.

All in all, it was another great day at one of my favorite birding locations around here.

Bird of the day: Bearded Parrotbill -- Skäggmes -- Bartmeise -- Panure à moustaches -- Panurus biarmicus

Death from above

2010-08-02T21:04:00.006+02:00

Stop the presses, I got a new lifer on my Swedish list! :-)

Yesterday I returned to Ågesta in search of a European Stonechat. I was lucky and found it almost right away with the help of some other birders on the scene. That's another species ticked on my Swedish life list. Nice!

Unfortunately I was only able to get a real blurry photo from far away, but I'm including it anyway as documentation.

After having seen the Stonechat I stopped by the observation tower by the main lake and got to see an Osprey fishing just in front of me. It did a couple of runs, but with no luck this time. It is a magnificent bird and I always enjoy seeing them fish.

This time I was lucky and got some decent shots of it.

Bird of the day: Osprey -- Fiskgjuse -- Fischadler -- Balbuzard pêcheur -- Pandion haliaetus

On the lookout

2010-07-17T10:19:00.007+02:00

Taking photos of birds is hard. Just getting the basics like focus, exposure and framing right is hard. Paying attention to things that make good photos - background, composition, colors, light and mood etc takes a lot of experience and luck. Taking great photos of birds is beyond me.

I'm in constant awe of the likes of Brutus Östling. There is currently a joint Östling/Jonsson exhibition at Kulturhuset in Stockholm and I can recommend it to anyone in Stockholm this summer. Very inspirational!

Not all birds are equally hard to capture on camera and with this post I want to highlight birds that like to perch in the open, where they have a good overview of their surroundings. Many birds have a favorite spot from which they like to keep an eye on what is going on, either because they are looking for prey or avoiding becoming prey. Those are among the species that are easier to capture than many other.

These birds have several properties that favor the photographer. They keep reasonably still, making it possible to focus and get a simple composition. Since they are perched in the open and tend to keep to a predictable spot, it is often possible to get some control over the background using positioning and a shallow depth of field.

The drawback with perching bird-on-a-pole pictures is that they tend to lack drama and in the end they all tend to look alike. I find that trying to tell a story, or even making anything that stands out with a perching bird on a lookout is a challenge, but then again, I find everything about bird photography a challenge. Just got to keep practicing I guess.

Perching and posing - it is still hard to nail it. As you can tell from the photos in this post, it is still hard for me just to get the focus down... Having a fast focusing lens helps I imagine. These photos were taken using my old Sigma 80 - 400mm 1:4.5 - 5.6 APO which I suspect is using a converted tractor engine for focusing. It is loud and slow. The lens itself if not really tack sharp, but that is not the main problem for me. But the focusing... I actually find myself shifting more and more to completely manual focusing for some situations. The picture of the Sedge warbler in the previous post was manually focused for instance.

Birds in this post

- Whinchat
- Northern Wheatear
- Meadow Pipit
- Reed Bunting

Dagens fågel:
Buskskätta -- Whinchat -- Braunkehlchen -- Tarier des prés -- Saxicola rubetra

Edit:
Changed Red-backed Shrike to the correct Wheatear. Thanks Odysseas for pointing it out!

A sunny day at Hjälstaviken

2010-07-10T22:48:00.009+02:00

A week ago I visited Hjälstaviken, searching for (and finding) Bearded Parrotbill. In the same reeds was I also glad to find breeding Sedge Warblers (above). Although it is more than on hour's drive to get there, Hjälstaviken definitely ranks on my top list of places to go birding around Stockholm. It is a beautiful shallow lake that is home to both a plethora of breeding species as well as acting as a resting spot for a mix of migrating waders and geese.

The southern part of the lake is covered in reeds. A wooden walkway has been built to enable easy access for anyone seeking to explore the green marshland. Following it is like entering into a green world, full of bird calls and birds singing.

The northern half of the lake is less reedy and the shallow water is the perfect place for ducks, gulls, geese and waders. A wooden platform has been placed there. While I was on the platform, scanning for waders, a White-tailed Eagle swept down and grabbed gull - a perfect example of why it is always worth visiting the place! :-)

Bird of the day:
Sävsångare -- Sedge Warbler -- Schilfrohrsänger -- Phragmite des joncs -- Acrocephalus schoenobaenus

Vacation in the wild

2010-07-06T19:26:00.009+02:00

We're back! Actually, we returned almost two weeks ago, but it's not until now I have gotten around to updating the blog. As mentioned in the last post, we headed north this year for a trekk into the Abisko-Kebnekaise area in the northern part of Sweden. We had planned to be out eight days, but due to the hard conditions this early in the year and that Claudia came down with a quite bad fever already on the second day, we decided to cut it short and re-route to return after five days.
The weather forecast talked about continuous rain for nine days solid. This turned out to be false, but we really got the full spectrum of the mountain weather - the first day we had rain, brief sunshine, small hail (graupel), sleet and snow. The wind varied from quite calm, to very strong when crossing through the mountain pass on the photo above (Lapporten).

Overall it started out bad, got a lot worse on the second day and then gradually better again. The temperature was ok, with freezing only at night and increasing to around 16C towards the end of the trip.
Although this wasn't specifically a birding trip, we did of course pay attention the all wildlife and took notes of the major observations. We were lucky and could enjoy many of the local birds in their breeding environment. Personally I enjoy seeing birds in their summer or winter quarters more than in migration. I find that seeing them where "they live" gives you a deeper understanding of the species and the conditions which has formed it.

Among the observations this year, I personally remember the drama of walking into the turf of a nesting Long-tailed Jaeger couple. They defend it vigorously...

On another occasion we could observe two Ring Ouzels chasing a Rough-legged Hawk that had come too close to their nest, meanwhile a Merlin prowled the same mountain side above.

We also enjoyed seeing and hearing among others the Arctic Loon, Rock Ptarmigan, Willow Ptarmigan, Snow Bunting and Lapland Longspur.

The snow fields are notoriously unpredictable at this time of year. The snow is slowly melting and the fields can be weak and give way to whatever surprise lies under - a stream, massive rocks, mud or whatever. We tried to check as carefully as possible, but in the end it is better to try to avoid crossing them if you are unsure about what lies under.

We headed out on June 21st, which is early in the season. They major challenge then is not the cold, but that it is very wet as the snow is melting on the mountain sides and the water collects into streams and muddy fields in the lower regions. This translates to quite tough going at times, with cold, fast streams to wade and seemingly endless mud fields littered with rocks or covered in waist-high thick shrubbery or a combination.

Walking for hours on end in wet, muddy conditions carrying fair-sized backpacks (ours weighed 20 - 23kg) eventually takes it's toll on your feet. We have very good boots, but in the end Claudia had as much mud and water inside her boots as on the outside and suffered quite bad blisters as a bonus to her fever and cold.

This time we let the GPS log our trip and this is the track. It doesn't look a lot, but for us it was quite an ordeal, especially the first two days. The loop starts at Abisko Turistation and from there we went in the direction from green to blue.

Bird of the day: Fjällabb -- Long-tailed Jaeger -- Falkenraubmöwe -- Labbe à longue queue -- Stercorarius longicaudus

Vacation at the best time of year!

2010-06-18T08:02:00.005+02:00

The second half of June is the best time of year for vacation around here. Everything in nature is still fresh and although most birds have nested, you still get very decent birding. The climate is cool, but with a distinct summer feeling. It's great!

Today is the first day of our vacation this year and I'm picking up Claudia at the airport in just a few hours. What a feeling! I'm really looking forward to seeing her and to spending a couple of weeks together. The last year Claudia has been working in Kiel and although it has worked well to live apart, you can't help missing your loved one. I guess it's only human.

This year we have decided to head north and return to the frozen tundra of northern Sweden to enjoy some trekking in the land of the midnight sun. The last (and first) time we were up there, we did it as volunteers for a research project to count birds. This time birding will be a natural part of it, but we are there primarily to enjoy the wild open nature and the special landscape in and around the mountain range of Kebnekaise.

View Larger Map

The weather forecast for the area is currently 9 days of continuos raining, but you never really now until you are up there. Weather in the mountains is notoriously unpredictable. Regardless, we are looking forward to 8 days of trekking in one of the most remote and special regions of Europe.

Now I need to check the tent.
Until next time, you can check out the posts from last time we went north here.

See you out there!

Bird of the day: Lövsångare -- Fitis -- Willow warbler -- Pouillot fitis -- Phylloscopus trochilus

Fledgelings in the garden

2010-06-08T21:11:00.004+02:00

This weekend I went out birding with two friends and really went for it. It is such a busy time of year for birds and you can stay out there 24h and really feel the activity going on at full throttle. The warblers are belting out their tunes as if there was no tomorrow and meanwhile many earlier arrivals among the migrators have already hatched their eggs and there are fledgelings all over the place - even in the backyard of our house!

One morning the week before last I suddenly spotted a gull fledgeling from the balcony. It was closely monitored by it's worried parents as it went on discovering the backyard of our house (an apartment complex). I immediately grabbed my camera and went downstairs to take a couple of photos.

As I entered the garden I was immediately made aware that I was persona non grata in the yard. The gulls were really hostile and repeatedly made dives and fake attacks to drive me away. As I didn't want to stress them or their young one I just snapped a few pictures and went back inside.

Now I have to make do with following their tender love and care for the chick as it grows up quickly just outside the apartment. It is amazing how fast they grow! It is also amazing that it seems to like the goo that the parents throw up as food for it.

Bird of the day:
Fiskmås -- Sturmmöwe -- Mew gull -- Goéland cendré -- Larus canus

A walk in Flemmingsbersskogen

2010-05-23T12:55:00.006+02:00

Just south of Stockholm lies a boreal forest called Flemmingsbergsskogen. It is quite easy and convenient to reach using public transportation. Having never visited it before, I decided to go there yesterday to check it out. It is an area of forest preservation and therefore it is also a rich biome. Bird wise it hosts typical wood and moor species including everything from Capercaillie to mixed warblers.

Flemmingssbergsskogen and the neighboring nature reserve called Orlången turned out to be a really great and accessible place and in the end I spent four hours walking around, enjoying the sights and sounds of the forest.

To me, Flemmingsbergsskogen is great example of the fantastic contrasts of Stockholm. On one hand you have the busy center of the nations capital city, but if you go just 15-20min in almost any direction, you get access to nature reserves, wildlife and the tranquility of being by yourself in the wild for hours. They are like hidden gems of Stockholm.

Bird of the day:
Tree Pipit -- Trädpiplärka -- Baumpieper -- Pipit des arbres -- Anthus trivialis

Wrapping up the Öland weekend posts

2010-05-16T20:54:00.006+02:00

Browsing the pictures from Öland to find the Pallid Harrier I realized there were a lot of images that I would like to share. This post is therefore more or less a mix of impressions from our birding weekend at Ottenby on Öland on the first weekend of May.

We had a great time and although there were few spectacular finds apart from the Pallid Harrier, we still really enjoyed some great birding at one of the premier migration hot spots of Sweden.

Birds of the day (in order of appearance):

Common eider -- Ejder -- Eiderente -- Eider à duvet -- Somateria mollissima

Common Redshank -- Rödbena -- Rotschenkel -- Chevalier gambette -- Tringa totanus

Common Starling -- Stare -- Star -- Étourneau sansonnet -- Sturnus vulgaris

Northern Wheatear -- Stenskvätta -- Steinschmätzer -- Traquet motteux -- Oenanthe oenanthe

The bomb!

2010-05-16T20:14:00.006+02:00

It's been two weeks since the trip to Öland and as I have pushed this post gradually forward it's become less and less relevant with time, but better late than never I guess.

So, as Claudia mentioned in the last post, one of the highlights from the weekend at Ottenby was a new lifer. It came the form of a Pallid Harrier that appeared out of nowhere at Schäferiängen on Saturday. As we had no clue about the looks of a Pallid Harrier, we actually didn't realize what it was one until later in the evening.

As we browsed the photos from the day, Claudia noted that there was something strange about a Hen harrier (Blå Kärrhök, Circus cyaneus) on some of the photos. After reading up on Harriers and posting the pictures on Birdforum for advise we were finally ready to id it as a Pallid Harrier and chalk another one up on the lifers board.

It was great, almost like some sort of detective work to gather knowledge and evidence!

Apart from the rare Pallid Harrier we saw a load of other species, but no other rare find. Öland this time of year is great and it is also early enough to be off-season and very calm and quiet. The weather is cool, but when the sun is out you feel the warmth and can really feel how spring will turn into early summer in the weeks to come.

Bird of the day:
Pallid Harrier -- Stäpphök -- Steppenweihe -- Busard pâle -- Circus macrourus

Red-necked grebe, Bårby, Öland

2010-05-03T09:27:00.003+02:00

We have had a great time on Öland! All my bags are packed and I am ready to leave Stockholm, but as I won't have to leave before an hour from now, I seize the opportunity to dwell on memories a little... Best of all, of course: We got a new lifer, namely Pallid Harrier (Steppenweihe, stäpphök, Circus macrourus), but Anders will hopefully post that soon, as he's got the pics. Another nice change: Anders got the local Öland birding guide, where all birding locations on Öland are described - hereby we discovered a lake at Norra Bårby, for instance, which features breeding red-necked grebes (Rothalstaucher, gråhakedopping, Podiceps grisegena). We observed this pair in nest-building activities.

Here's a map of the lake:

Visa större karta

The grebe pics are taken through our telescope, by the way - it was a lot of fun to resume digiscoping, after not having done that for ages.

Bird of the day:
Red-necked grebe - Rothalstaucher - Gråhakedopping - Podiceps grisegena

Barrow's Goldeneye in Preetz!

2010-04-26T22:09:00.008+02:00

Here's a quite sensational bird for Germany - in Europe Barrow's Goldeneyes (Spatelente, Islandsknipa, Bucephala islandica) only breed on Iceland, they are occasionally seen along Norway's coast, but extremely rare in the rest of Europe. My first rare bird in Germany, by the way, as up to now I had "hunted" rare birds in Sweden only... (talking about Sweden: We are getting ready for Öland again! Just a few more days...)

I have joined Germany's Club 300 and their mailing list just a month ago or so, and actually one of my major reasons to join was that I had missed a reported Barrow's Goldeneye in February, just 15 to 20 km North of Kiel - I was really frustrated by that, when I found out in March. But just a few days ago another report came in - this time a male Barrow's Goldeneye had been seen in Preetz, in lake Kirchsee, just about 20 km Southeast of Kiel. Yesterday I biked there with two colleagues of mine and found the bird quite easily on the Eastern lake shore. Both locations are shown below, they are at a linear distance of approximately 25 km - hence it is highly likely that we're talking about the same individual.

Visa större karta

Also I learnt today from another birder that the individual in Bülk had a black dot in the right white crescent between eye and beak, and this is a characteristic that the bird in Preetz shows as well - you can see that reasonably well in the pictures below.

Needless to say that I was pretty happy yesterday. I have seen Barrow's Goldeneyes before on Iceland, but I got not nearly as close then and besides, there they are not so spectacular. :-) I wonder how this one ended up here - did it get delayed by volcanic ashes as well...?

Sunny day in Kiel

2010-04-11T11:43:00.006+02:00

Once again the rain pours down outside here in Kiel, so I seize the opportunity to update our blog and to dwell on the memories of a sunny day in Kiel yesterday. :-)

I had already packed away the camera and was on my way home when I heard a characteristic call from the bushes next to the bicycle lane alongside Schrevenpark, very much like the call on this website - a long-tailed tit. They are pretty common in Kiel, still I have never managed to get a decent pic because they are so restless and evasive - usually they move on exactly when I have finally managed to get the focus right. This one is the best so far. BTW, Kiel appears to be hybrid zone for the two races caudatus (here an older post with the Nordic race from Hjälstaviken, Sweden) and europaeus, I have seen both of them here several times; but on the other hand I might just have seen migrating caudatus; in other words, more research is needed.

Central European Long-tailed Tit - Stjärtmes - Schwanzmeise - Aegithalos caudatus europaeus

Otherwise I did most of my photographing around Kleiner Kiel yesterday, because I went directly from the institute (just around the corner from Kleiner Kiel) around 6 PM (yes, of two weekend days I chose the sunny one to spend in the lab - aaaargh, next time I'll check the weather forecast). Here is the yield of that tour, and I am particuarly proud of the first one, if you can be proud of a lucky shot like that:

Black-headed gull - Skrattmås - Lachmöwe - Larus ridibundus

Canada goose - Kanadagås - Kanadagans - Branta canadensis

Tufted duck - Vigg - Reiherente - Aythya fuligula

Common wood pigeon - Ringduva - Ringeltaube - Columba palumbus

Common moorhen - Rörhöna - Teichhuhn - Gallinula chloropus

The latter bred successfully in Kleiner Kiel last year - hopefully they manage again, it was a lot of fun to checkup on the fledglings, see two posts from last year here and here.

Well, let's hope the rain will stop at some point today, although I am not very hopeful really... A nice book, a blanket and some hot tea might save the day.

On the road again! OR: Easter birding 2010

2010-04-05T16:54:00.014+02:00

Definitely one of the highlights this Easter: This white stork that we saw on our way to Katinger Watt on Sunday, somewhere along the B202... we think that it was in Christiansholm, but we forgot to pay attention to where we were.

White stork - Vit stork - Weissstorch - Ciconia ciconia

But maybe I should try to proceed chronologically.
This Easter Anders came to stay with me in Kiel. By now we always rent a car when Anders comes here - public transport doesn't take you as far and to as good birding places as in Stockholm, so renting a car expands your radius considerably. On Saturday we went East all the way to Fehmarn, an island in the Baltic Sea, close to the Danish border. There we visited the NABU (German Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union) center Wallnau which was really nice!

Visa större karta

We saw several red-necked grebes (Rothalstaucher, gråhakedopping, Podiceps grisegena) as well as common shelducks (Brandgans, gravand, Tadorna tadorna), white wagtails (Bachstelze, sädesärla, Motacilla alba) and more.

Red-necked grebe - Rothalstaucher - Gråhakedopping - Podiceps grisegena

White wagtail - Bachstelze - Sädesärla - Motacilla alba

The day after, we decided to go West instead and visited another NABU center, this time the Katinger Watt. The Katinger Watt is located near the Eider dam at the North Sea Coast of Schleswig-Holstein in Nordfriesland:

Visa större karta

This one turned out to be a real luxurious birding spot! The weather was kind of variable that day: It was nice and sunny when we got there, but soon after that it started to rain - which fortunately did not matter much, as they have roofed hide-outs there from which you can observe all kinds of seafowl being comfortable and dry!

And here are some of the birds that we saw there:

Pied Avocet - Säbelschnäbler - Skärfläcka - Recurvirostra avosetta

Northern Lapwing - Kiebitz - Tofsvipa - Vanellus vanellus

Common shelduck - Brandgans - Gravand - Tadorna tadorna

Common goldeneye - Schellente - Knipa - Bucephala clangula

Well, well, yet another great weekend has passed much too quickly. Anders is already on his way back, probably getting off his plane at this very moment, while I have returned the car and now, back at home, try to come to terms with the fact that tomorrow is a normal working day. But there is hope: Tonight we will do the last planning for our next excursion together, which will be on Öland on the weekend of 1st May. Looking forward to this very much...

Embankment at Eider dam

Race day

2010-01-31T18:48:00.014+01:00

Yesterday was the day of the yearly bird race in Stockholm. We have been participating every year since 2007. This year Claudia couldn't make it, so Jörgen and I had to make the best of the situation on our own. Entering under last year's name, Turnstones, we hoped to collect at least 40 species and maybe avoid finishing last.

Jörgen leading the way into Alhagen

Our strategy was to follow a refined version of last year's successful route, which then yielded enough species to land us in third place. This year we added some new stops and after some tactical decisions underway we ended up with this route:

06:25 - Pickup in Aspudden (-19C, -2.2F)!
07:45 - Torö Kyrka (short stop, looking for a Tawny Owl)
08:00 - Örudden at Torö (sunrise at the coast)
09:24 - Nynäshamns hamn
10:30 - Alhagen (following Genvägen and back)
xx:xx - Hammarby sjöstad (quick stop, forgot to note time)
13:00 - Råsta
14:00 - Plantagen/Barkarby flygfält
14:30 - Matningen vid Säbysjön, Norra Järvafältet
16:00 - Lötsjön (very quick stop)

Water rail at lake Råsta. Photo from a previous visit this year.

All-in-all the tour landed us 48 species and we were quite happy with that. We had reached our goal and had some bonuses along the way. Incidentally 48 is the same number of species as last time we entered the competition as a two person team.

The last time we entered as a two person team we ended up on a shared position next to last and incidentally, this was the case this year as well. Next to last on a shared fourth place. Seven teams made it to the finish line at Enskede Värdshus and the winning team had an impressive 67 species.

This winter has been exceptionally cold here on Stockholm and they just said on TV that it hasn't been this cold since a winter in 1829 (I think)*. For birding this is definitely a good thing, since the cold forces many species closer to civilization and you have the added bonus of an increased likelihood of rare guests. I believe 67 species will be a result that might prove to be hard to beat for anyone participating in the competition in the coming years.

Bird of the day: Water rail -- Wasserralle -- Vattenrall -- Râle d'eau -- Rallus aquaticus

Note:
By now I have heard three different years 1829, 1947 and 1989 so I think there is no common agreement around this other than that it is an exceptionally cold winter this year.

Bar-headed geese

2010-01-16T23:10:00.002+01:00

I took a short stroll along the "Kleiner Kiel" today, a little lake in central Kiel that I have mentioned before. It has been very cold lately, so "Kleiner Kiel" is almost entirely frozen over nowadays, except for one hole in the ice at a pedestrian bridge where all the geese, ducks, moorhens, coots and gulls gather. Tough times. I particularly like these bar-headed geese - they are always fun to photograph.

Bird of the day:
Bar-headed goose - Streifengans - Stripgås - Oie à tête barrée - Anser indicus

Grebes

2010-01-15T08:41:00.002+01:00

It has been unusually cold in Northern Germany lately, so last weekend, inspired by Anders' last post from Stockholm, I put myself at the mercy of the cold and the storm and did some city birding. With some results, albeit not as impressive as Anders' report of the dipper and redwings...

Here's a great crested grebe that I found when walking along the Förde in Kiel:

And not far from that, a little grebe, constantly diving restlessly as usual:

Birds of the day:
Skäggdopping -- Haubentaucher -- Great Crested Grebe -- Grèbe huppé -- Podiceps cristatus
Smådopping -- Zwergtaucher -- Little grebe -- Grèbe castagneux -- Tachybaptus ruficollis

Coldspell spells great city birding

2010-01-06T15:58:00.006+01:00

Like most of the Northern hemisphere, Stockholm is subject to the current coldspell. Very cold weather usually drives birds into the cities in search of food, shelter and open waters, so today I put on some extra layers of clothes, grabbed my camera and headed out in the city, hoping of finding something.

Stockholm was indeed full of birds you don't normally see too much downtown and I found two species that really surprised me - Redwing and White-throated dipper.

Three Redwings were foraging on Kastellholmen and at first I thought I was really lucky to find such rare bird around here. I then talked to a birder and I learned that the Redwings are all over the place. Having been away from Stockholm since the 23rd of December I had missed that, but apparently it's like a minor invasion! I have no idea why, but I guess the cold has something to do with it.

The other surprise was the White-throated dipper. It must be looking for a suitable stream to spend the winter and meanwhile the open waters of downtown Stockholm seems to do the trick. I almost missed it, since it was very hard to spot under a stone quay. I discovered it only when it flew a couple of meters to change position.

As the cold is supposed to continue for at least another few days, I am looking forward to some good winter birding here in Stockholm.

Birds of the day:
Redwing -- Rödvingetrast -- Rotdrossel -- Grive mauvis -- Turdus iliacus
White-throated dipper -- Strömstare -- Wasseramsel -- Cincle plongeur -- Cinclus cinclus

Some Christmas birding in Breunsberg

2010-01-03T22:25:00.007+01:00

Also this year I spent christmas at my parents' place in Breunsberg, a village close to Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, Germany. I have probably mentioned it before - my father has a great bird feeder which you can very comfortably observe while sitting at the kitchen window with a steaming cup of coffee... a pretty nice way to do birdwatching!
It was not really cold enough this christmas to drive all the usual forest residents to my father's bird feeder, but still - a robin, two nuthatches and a marsh tit were regular visitors.

I also spent a great deal of time outside, as here in the surroundings of Breunsberg:

On 27th December, me, my brother and his wife, my sister and her boyfriend did a little trip to the tavern Karlshöhe in Spessart.

A short stop at the Hafenlohr, a little stream in Spessart, revealed the presence of an overwintering dipper, unfortunately a fugitive one (Wasseramsel, strömstare, Cinclus cinclus).

Walking through the woods in Spessart we heard red crossbills (Fichtenkreuzschnabel, mindre korsnäbb, Loxia curvirostra) and goldcrests (Wintergoldhähnchen, kungsfågel, Regulus regulus). We had hoped for some woodpecker action, particularly for the middle spotted woodpecker that apparently is doing quite well in Spessart, but didn't see any.

No decent walk is complete without "Einkehr", a stop at a tavern to refresh or warm up. This is the promising welcome sign of the tavern Karlshöhe. It kept what it promised! :-)

Birds of the (holi)day(s):
Rödhake -- Rotkehlchen -- European Robin -- Rougegorge familier -- Rødhals (DK) -- Roodborst (NL) -- Pettirosso europeo-- Erithacus rubecula
Nötväcka -- Kleiber -- Eurasian nuthatch -- Sittelle torchepot -- Sitta europaea caesia
Sumpfmeise -- Entita -- Marsh tit -- Mésange nonnette -- Glanskopmees (NL) -- Poecile/Parus palustris
Strömstare -- Wasseramsel -- White-throated dipper -- Cincle plongeur -- Cinclus cinclus
Red crossbill -- Fichtenkreuzschnabel -- Mindre korsnäbb -- Bec-croisé des sapins -- Loxia curvirostra
Goldcrest -- Wintergoldhähnchen -- Kungsfågel -- Roitelet huppé -- Goudhaantje -- Regulus regulus

Suddenly a new lifer!

2009-12-08T22:34:00.002+01:00

Having not birded for ages I had really given up for this year, hoping for a comeback next year. "Given up" however doesn't translate to "no interest". I still keep an eye on things on the internet and there has been a small stir the last days in Stockholm, where a Isabelline Wheatear have suddenly appeared. Me and Jörgen decided to have a go at it during lunch today and it was almost too easy (although that can never really happen).

We went there. Got out of the car. Saw the small earthen mound on which the Isabelline Wheatear was reported less than an hour earlier. Saw a group of birders lined up, binos fixed on a stone on the earthen mound. Went over there. Saw the bird. Just like that! Very convenient.

It was still muddy though with just a few degrees above freezing and damp on the verge on drizzling rain, but I'm not complaining. I remember the Green-winged Teal in April. This was very easy. Didn't get any good pics though, but that doesn't really matter.

As usual with a rare bird, we weren't alone. A small crowd hung out there during lunch as well.

All in all, it made my day!

Bird of the day: Isabellastenskvätta -- Isabellschmätzer -- Isabelline Wheatear -- Traquet isabelle -- Oenanthe isabellina

Rooks - de råkada bara vara där

2009-10-17T23:16:00.006+02:00

My actual plan today was to bike to "Falckensteiner Strand", a beach North of Kiel, enjoy the sunshine (it's kind of rare here!) and take som pictures of the birds I happen to encounter.
Well, I had only biked 500 m along Kiel's busiest street, the "Westring", when I saw several rooks foraging on the traffic island in the middle on the street... and well, I never got to Falckensteiner Strand.

While I was standing there, the call of a kestrel suddenly caught my ear - and yes, indeed, there was a common kestrel being mobbed and chased by this flock of rooks. Wouldn't want to change place with that guy. :-) Unfortunately what the ear and the eye caught, the camera did not... or in other words, don't look for the kestrel on the pic below.

For the record: It's not like I biked 500m and that was it - I actually made it to Kiel airport which is situated about 7 km North of Kiel, but by then it was 5:30 pm and I had to head back because my bike light needs new batteries... Sunset here is at 6:20 pm by the way. On my way I passed the Kiel Canal (Nord-Ostsee-Kanal in German), the 98 km long canal linking the North Sea to the Baltic Sea. The district Kiel-Holtenau is situated at the Baltic Sea entrance.

Bird of the day:
Rook -- Råka -- Saatkrähe -- Corbeau freux -- Corvus frugilegus

Winter wren, Schrevenpark

2009-10-09T23:11:00.004+02:00

One of many many winter wrens in Kiel. This one was photographed in Schrevenpark, 20th September. As I said before, they are all over the place, although now they are less conspicuous, because they only rarely take to singing nowadays. Still, often enough they utter their characteristic staccato call, and that's how we found this one.

Bird of the day:
Gärdsmyg -- Zaunkönig -- Winter Wren -- Troglodyte mignon -- Winterkoning (NL) -- Troglodytes troglodytes

Birds of the Equinox, Kiel - or: Geese, geese, geese...

2009-09-27T10:36:00.017+02:00

This is my contribution to "Birds of the Equinox"! As last week was really busy, I chose a very accessible location for this event - Schrevenpark, Kiel, situated just 200 m south from where I live.

This park appears to be an eldorado for geese, wild and escaped ones. I really should read up on when an originally escaped bird can be considered wild, because some of the rare species appear to have bred there (e.g. bar-headed goose). Apart from that they produce interesting hybrids... Like, for instance, this family here, a greylag goose (Anser anser) and a chinese goose (domesticated form of swan goose, Anser cygnoides) and their hybrid offspring:

The family (greylag goose in the back, chinese goose in the middle and their offspring in front)

Chinese goose

Hybrid Greylag goose/Chinese goose

Another goose that does not really belong here is the bar-headed goose. I counted nine of them this time (although I am pretty sure that there are considerably more of them in Schrevenpark). I am pretty sure that this population derives from escaped geese, but it seems like they are breeding out in the wild now.

This barnacle goose here is the only one of its kind in Schrevenpark. As is the taiga bean goose shown beneath.

Weisswangengans (Nonnengans, vitkindad gås, barnacle goose, Branta leucopsis)
Saatgans (sädgås, taiga bean goose, Anser fabalis)

And no, that's not it yet. These egyptian geese are part of "Schrevenpark Goose Melting pot" as well:

Egyptian goose (Nilgans, nilgås, Alopochen aegyptiaca)

Last but not least, there were these whitish geese, mostly gathering with Canada geese - I suspect that they are snow geese (Schneegans, snögås, Chen caerulescens?) or some hybrid form, but I am not sure.

O.K., but now let's leave the geese behind, as I did actually see other birds as well, believe it or not. For eaxmple, about 20 black-headed gulls (Lachmöwe, skrattmås, larus ridibundus), all in winter plumage already, were around as well.

A species that I always find particularly fun to watch here is the common moorhen (Teichhuhn, rörhöna, Gallinula chloropus). As I have reported before on this blog, they breed downtown in Kiel, in Lake Kleiner Kiel, and possibly here as well. In contrast to the few ones I observed in Sweden, these here are not particulary shy and keen on hiding all the time... :-) Although they don't feel very comfortable in front of a camera lens.

Apart from those species it was pretty quiet in Schrevenpark that evening. A few blackbirds, a carrion crow, some wood pigeons including one juvenile bird, a blue tit, a great tit, some winter wrens, a coot, the obligatory "park mallards" and that was it. It was still fun and a welcome change to work, though. I'll leave you with some pics of Schrevenpark then...

Birds of the Equinox - please participate!

2009-09-21T13:42:00.005+02:00

Birds of the Equinox is a project to document birdlife during the September 22 equinox. For participation in Europe, all you need to do is to watch birds (15 minutes to several hours, just as you like) between Tue 22nd september, 11:19 a.m. and Wed 23rd september 11:19 a.m. (The actual equinox is on Tue 23rd 11:19 p.m.). Note: All times here are specified for central European Summer time.

You can find more information, including other time zones, here.

Count me in! :-) Kiel is going to be a part of Equinox this year!

A long walk in Hansta and Norra Järvafältet

2009-09-20T20:43:00.004+02:00

Yesterday my friend Anders and I had decided to get up early and follow the break of dawn at Hansta nature reserve. We weren't going birding, but looking to do some nature photography.

Hansta is home to many woodpeckers and we heard at least two species, but saw only one - the omnipresent Great Spotted Woodpecker. The lack of bird sightings was however more than compensated for by the amazing forest scenery, clear air and the photo friendly autumn light.

We ended up spending almost eight hours walking around and exploring the variety of the nature reserve. A great, but somewhat exhausting day.

Bird of the day:
Större hackspett -- Buntspecht -- Great Spotted Woodpecker -- Pic épeiche -- Dendrocopos major

Sifting mud to find a Rustic Bunting

2009-09-13T20:01:00.007+02:00

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

Saturday afternoon at Angarnsjöängen

2009-09-06T12:13:00.004+02:00

So,
for the first time in ages we went birding yesterday. Claudia flew up from a rainy Kiel and we hit the road in a rental car and headed out to Angarnsjöängen to enjoy a sunny, early autumn afternoon. It was great and I think we both realized how much we miss doing this together.

Angarnsjöängen is one of the premier places to go birding in the near-Stockholm area. It is very accessible and going by car it's less than 30min from the city center to get there.

Birding wise it was a good day, but not extraordinary by any means. I guess we have to wait for October and the semi-regular influx of Siberian rarities for anything extraordinary to blow in on the low pressures. Among the highlights from yesterday were a decent mix of waders, like Common Sandpiper (Drillsnäppa, Actitis hypoleucos), Dunlin (Kärrsnäppa, Calidris alpina) and Ruff (Brushane, Philomachus pugnax). In the sky above we saw several raptors in migration.

Due to the long distances invloved at Angarnsjöängen we really didn't get any good shots of birds, so I'll leave you with an empty bird of the day.

Schleswig-Holsteinisches Wattenmeer

2009-08-27T23:05:00.004+02:00

Just a quick post before I collapse - I am drop-dead tired.
Today we, that is the whole group from the institute where I have been working since may, went to "Schleswig-Holsteinisches Wattenmeer" (Wadden Sea National Park), a beautiful area in Northwest Germany. It is by the way a Unesco World Heritage site!

Birdwise I did not see much - the area is quite crowded with tourists. But I got many pictures of black-headed gulls which I'd like to share with you. Other than that a few oystercatchers, herring gulls, a grey heron, cormorants...and last but not least a fun day with my colleagues. :-)

Bird of the day:
Skrattmås -- Lachmöwe -- Black-headed gull -- Mouette rieuse -- Larus ridibundus

A quiet morning at Isbladskärret

2009-08-02T22:18:00.004+02:00

Today was a great day! This morning I finally managed to drag myself out of bed early enough to be able to take a morning bus to Isbladskärret. It was ages since I was out birding and although Isbladskärret is not the best place on Earth, it is good enough for me. The weather today made the trip even more enjoyable and I really took it all in. The place itself is perfect for a short city escape and on a good day the birding is surprisingly rewarding. Today wasn't really one of those days, but I was happy to find both Green Sandpiper and Wood Sandpiper.

There was also a lot of butterflies and I spent what turned out to be almost 1GB worth of photos trying to catch a good frame. It is hard when the sun is out and they are active, never staying long in one place.

In the book Digital Macro Photography (by Ross Hoddinott) I read that to get good butterfly photos you need to get out really early, when they are still cold from the night and wet from the dew. Using the first morning light, you have a chance for really good pictures. I guess I have to get up even earlier then. He also recommends using a long macro lens, which I don't have either.

Bird of the day:
Gräsand -- Stockente -- Mallard -- Canard colvert -- Anas platyrhynchos

Altarm der Schwentine - a nature reserve close to Kiel

2009-07-19T20:48:00.005+02:00

Some people claim that you need a car to go birding in Schleswig-Holstein (Germany’s northernmost federal state of which Kiel is the capital). As using a car and conserving nature is somewhat contradictory I am determined to prove them wrong.

For my birthday I got a book which lists all nature reserves in Schleswig-Holstein. Well, let’s see how many of them are accessible by public transport! Today I probably picked the easiest one: The “Altarm der Schwentine” nature reserve, a Natura 2000 area, meaning that it is part of the EU initiative from 1992 to create a coherent European system of protected regions valuable for rare flora and fauna. So what species make this nature reserve worth protecting? Here’s a little give-away:

Yes, the perfect biotope for kingfishers (kungsfiskare, Eisvogel), grey wagtails (forsärla, Gebirgsstelze) and dippers (strömstare, Wasseramsel). And indeed, kingfishers and grey wagtails breed here regularly while dippers stay here for the winter season. I saw none of them today, though. A couple of moorhens (rörhöna, Teichhuhn) with their fledglings were in the water, but the light was too bad to take their picture.

From Kiel, “Altarm der Schwentine” is just one train station away. All you have to do is get on the train direction Lübeck and get off at Raisdorf 8 minutes later. Armed with a compass, I managed to find the nature reserve without any problems, just followed streets and paths northeast as best as I could. A 10-minute-walk is all it takes and there you are. I passed a little zoo/game reserve on my way where they had these kind of “hanging-ear goats” (see below), Shetland ponies, some type of lamas and I don’t know what.

And this little vivarium is also where I discovered our (wild!) bird of the day: A couple of Collared-Doves (turkduva, Türkentaube, Streptopelia decaocto).

Bird of the day:
Eurasian Collared-Dove -- Turkduva -- Türkentaube -- Tourterelle turque -- Streptopelia decaocto

Some more geese from Schrevenpark

2009-06-16T23:22:00.003+02:00

Surely those bar-headed geese in Schrevenpark are not wild birds originally. Bar-headed geese commonly breed in Central Asia and spend the winters in India and Pakistan. They would certainly not choose to be here (Kiel is a pretty cold place I am about to find out), so they must have been introduced. Nevertheless,they are very pretty and it's fun to see them so close by. They are not very shy either. We were surprised to see that not all of them are ringed, though. Maybe they breed here? I'll have to check more closely.

That makes an old question arise: When can one consider a species wild? How many generations of wild-life does it take? I mean, strictly speaken, we wouldn't be allowed to count pheasants and canada geese either, right, since they have been introduced?

Bird of the day:
Bar-headed goose - Streifengans - Stripgås - Oie à tête barrée - Anser indicus

Hybrid goose in Schrevenpark, Kiel

2009-06-15T19:52:00.004+02:00

Well, I haven't been around much yet in Northern Germany, as I spent most of my weekends either furnishing my so far still pretty empty apartment (that is except for the cartons and boxes) or dancing at somebody else's wedding. Still, I live very close to a park called Schrevenpark which is pretty interesting, at least in terms of geese. I hope to be able to cover all different species. Today I give you two at a time in form of a hybrid:

This is definitely a canada goose hybrid and I would suspect greylag goose as the other parent. But I have no experience whatsoever with goose hybrids. (By the way, we blogged about a very similar one from Råstasjön South of Stockholm, before.) Anyway, Schrevenpark has several more goose species to offer... but I'll get to that in a future post.

Ubiquitous winter wren... also outside my living room window

2009-06-02T19:45:00.004+02:00

The winter wren is certainly one of the most thriving bird species here in Kiel, it’s as if every little garden here has its own winter wren territory. You hear them singing everywhere, no matter where you are downtown and if there is only a little lonely bush somewhere, be sure to hear a winter wren sing in it. Amazing.

Well, so I wasn’t surprised when I heard one just outside my living room window yesterday. That’s the one:

And that’s a sonogram of a winter wren’s song, it's so powerful that your ears almost hurt sometimes. And from this little bird!

Listen to the corresponding sound here.

And that’s the tree outside my living room window, I am afraid I don’t really know what kind of tree that is…

Bird of the day:
Gärdsmyg -- Zaunkönig -- Winter Wren -- Troglodyte mignon -- Winterkoning (NL) -- Troglodytes troglodytes

Quiet Sunday morning walk

2009-05-31T21:52:00.005+02:00

So spring must officially be over. The weekend has been really hot and sunny. I went for a stroll in Tantolunden this morning. It was surprisingly quiet, but with some warblers at least semi active. The Garden Warblers (Trädgårdssångare, Sylvia borin) I had hoped for were however either quiet or simply not there.

On the way back I saw a Lesser black-backed gull circling over a trash can. That sort of sums the whole trip up - not overly exciting. :-)

Lesser black-backed gull -- Silltrut -- Heringsmöwe -- Goéland brun -- Larus fuscus

Meanwhile in Stockholm

2009-05-25T23:04:00.003+02:00

Meanwhile in Stockholm I havn't been able to do as much birding as I had hoped to do. A fair attempt to rise early last Saturday was cut short when I realized that the rain was pouring down at 5:30 in the morning and that the bed was just two steps away from the window.

I have however managed to take a morning stroll through our old patch in Tantolunden. The weather was better then and I enjoyed the plenty of spring birding. Late May is a really good time to get out and enjoy nature, even if it is just the old park area in your home town.

The highlight if the walk was probably the warblers and the European Goldfinches that I heard and saw. All the trees seem to be in bloom as well, making a beautiful backdrop to any walk in the park.

Bird of the day: European Goldfinch - Steglits - Stieglitz/Distelfink - Carduelis carduelis

Moorhens in Kleiner Kiel again

2009-05-24T17:05:00.003+02:00

Took a stroll through Kiel again today. The weather is beautiful, it's warm and sunny, although the wind brings in a cool fresh breeze now and then. I stopped to order a "Radler" (mixture of lemonade and beer, very refreshing) at "Alter Markt" downtown - the response was a blank look. I remembered just in time that that kind of drink is called "Alsterwasser" or just "Alster" in Northern Germany. Well, flexible as I am, I ordered that one instead. :-)
Anyway, this is a birding blog, so here you are. Some pics of the moorhens again that are breeding in Kleiner Kiel.

Bird of the day:
Common Moorhen - Rörhöna - Teichhuhn - Gallinule poule-d'eau - Gallinula chloropus

Kleiner Kiel in Kiel

2009-05-16T17:26:00.004+02:00

Kiel does not cease to surprise me birdwise. Anders already mentioned the breeding moorhens with now five fledglings in a previous post. The same lake harbours a couple of greylag gees that today paraded in the lake with their six fledglings.

On a side note: Three days in a row I noticed two to four long-tailed tits close to or on the campus - of course I never carried a camera then. I really hope to be able to capture them on film some day!

Bird of the day:
Greylag Goose - Grågås - Graugans - Oie cendrée - Anser anser

New rythm

2009-05-14T19:32:00.003+02:00

Oh, these days have been busy and the blog has had to wait. Today is actually the first night in almost two weeks that I came home from work at a normal time and have a regular evening ahead of me. Well, "regular" in the sense of our new rythm, staying together, but living apart. Friends and colleagues wonder what it feels like, but I cannot tell yet. I guess I think it's working just fine so far. :-)

Looking through the image archive I found these images from our Easter birding tour. It was a day full of contrasting weather. The Whooper Swan was basking in bright sunlight at Styran, south of Stockholm. From there we continued south to the coast, where the weather shifted into very dense fog with a chilling slow breeze.

Bird of the day: Wooper Swan -- Sångsvan -- Singschwan -- Cygne chanteur -- Cygnus cygnus

Migration south

2009-05-04T22:31:00.002+02:00

This post, our 600th, marks a shift for this blog and in our lifes. After 6 years of living together, the team has split up geographically. Claudia has migrated south, to pursue a career in the field of epigenetics. She will do this as a postdoc at the Institute of Toxicology and Pharmacology for Natural Scientists, University Medical School Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Kiel. She starts today and I have just returned to Stockholm, after having spent a great weekend in Kiel.

Needless to say, my expectations weren't high about a town that was basically a pile of stones and rubble at the end of the war and that is now an important commercial sea trade center in the Baltic region. However, as it turned out I had to review my prejudices. Kiel was sunny, full of green parks and generally a nice place to walk around in.

There is even a very nice beer garden in a lovely park. Apparently there is only one decent beer garden in Kiel, but that one is very good. We enjoyed fresh asparagus, good beer and nice scenery there.

Birding wise Kiel was surprisingly rewarding. We will get back to you on that subject now that Claudia will do her blogging from there, but there was a lot of warblers and general bird life going on all over the place.

Moorhens were breeding downtown in the large pond called Kiel See. The fledgelings were already out and about and we saw them on several occasions.

Bird of the day: Common Moorhen - Rörhöna - Teichhuhn - Gallinule poule-d'eau - Gallinula chloropus

Good Fortune Friday

2009-04-13T16:35:00.009+02:00

Our Easter birding tour started out great with two unexpected lifers in one day. The first one was a Ring-necked Duck (Ringand, Aythya collaris) at Angarn. We had half expected this one, as it was known before we went there, but we kind of gave up hope when it couldn't be found for an hour or two.

Repositioning ourselves onto higher ground however proved to be successful. The duck was found and good times were had by all. Unfortunately we weren't able to get any decent pictures.

After having spent a couple of hours at Angarn we decided to head for the coast in the hope of some seabirds. This proved to be a bad decision birding wise. However, as luck would have it, the birding alarm system gave notice of a Green-winged Teal (Amerikansk Kricka, Anas carolinensis) just one hour's drive away from the coast, in Närtuna, near Gottröra.

We received the alert quite late in the day, so it became a race against the clock, trying to find it before sundown. The alert mentioned the bird to be located 500 meters South-East of a small church, out in a flooded mud field.

Of course it had to be a mud field! and of course the initial 500 meters turned out to be more like a kilometer across very muddy terrain, crossed by flooded irrigation trenches!

When we finally got there the only guy on the scene was leaving. He confirmed having seen the bird and even showed us a short video recording he had made. Having shown and told us of all these wonderful things, he also told us that he believed that the bird had flown away...

After having killed him on the spot and buried the corpse in a shallow and muddy grave, we started looking for the one special Teal in a group of maybe 30 regular Teals anyway, hoping we might get lucky.

The Teal was nowhere to be found.

As the sun drew closer to the horizon we were joined by a couple of other birders, who had also followed the call of the rare bird alert. We jointly sifted through the group of Teals once more.

The Teal was nowhere to be found.

The weather grew cold. The sweat that we had worked up during the criss-crossing of the mud fields carrying all our equipment set and stuck to us. Snot was hanging from our noses. A chilling evening breeze watered our eyes. We were hungry. A sense of bitter defeat started to spread through the group.
Then, suddenly, a new alert came in, telling of the Green-winged Teal from the place we were at.

After initial confusion, it became clear that two other birders had stared to drive around and double check pools in mud fields nearby and they had located the Teal once more. After no more than five minutes had we located the right pool and ticked the bird, just before sunset. For the second time that day we celebrated a lifer.

It took stress, tension, mud and waiting in the cold, but in the end it was was worth it. Chalk one up for the team! :-)

Bird of the day: Eurasian Jackdaw - Kaja - Dohle - Corvus monedula

Lifer 1 of the day: Ring-necked Duck -- Ringand -- Ringschnabelente -- Fuligule à collier -- Aythya collaris

Lifer 2 of the day: Green-winged Teal -- Amerikansk kricka -- Amerikanische Krickente -- Sarcelle à ailes vertes -- Anas carolinensis

Sunny Spring Saturday!

2009-04-12T21:45:00.002+02:00

Yes, it's Easter and yes spring is here to stay and yes the weather has been fantastic and yes we've been out there, making the most of it and yes it has been great! :-)

I don't know what has been best really - two lifers in one day on Good Friday - a good Friday, if you excuse a bad pun, or just getting out and about again, seeing the birds return and enjoying nature and birding at it's best. Fortunately I don't have to choose. We got all of it!

Saturday was spent at Hjälstaviken in 17degC and sun. To our surprise there weren't that many birds around and we had no luck in finding Bearded Parrotbill which we had hoped for, but we were rewarded with Northern Long-tailed Tit instead.

Bird of the day: Northern Long-tailed Tit -- Stjärtmes -- Schwanzmeise -- Mésange à longue queue -- Aegithalos caudatus

To Peter (Pietr?): Places to go birding in Stocksholm

2009-04-11T16:42:00.005+02:00

Spring has finally arrived and we have been busy birding for two days in a row. The Stockholm area has been blessed with fantastic weather and it's been two amazing days in the field. More about that in the following posts.

This post is however dedicated to the nice birding couple we met earlier today at Hjälstaviken, who were wondering about places to go birding in and around the Stockholm and Uppsala region. I scribbled down a few namnes on a post-it, but I guess that will be of little good to anyone.

The following is a very quick list of places where we tend to return to around Stockholm. If I get the time I will write a few more notes on each, until then, I hope it will improve your chances for some great Easter birding. Good luck!

Places were Anders and Claudia do their birding in and around Stockholm

Angarnsjöängen
Posts on the blog.

Hjälstaviken
Posts on the blog.

Fysingen

Landsort (http://www.landsort.com/)
Posts on the blog.
Huvudskär is another (not so easy to reach) place.

Torö (the peninsula near Ankarudden)

Järvafältet (The areas around lake Säbysjön and lake Ravalen)
The local birding club up there: http://www2.hemsida.net/jok/
Posts.

Ågestasjön (Walkable from Farsta subway station)
Posts on the blog.

Isbladskärret (Bus 69 from the Central Station. Marshland just north of the bus stop Isblandskärret)
Posts here.

Vendelsjön (in Tierp, 35km north of Uppsala) (South part of the lake)
Posts.

--- Gotland and Stora Karlsö. Not in Stockholm, but still great
Stora Karlsö (http://www.storakarlso.se/english/english.asp)
Gotland posts.

Bird of the day:
Sävsparv -- Rohrammer -- Reed bunting -- Bruant des roseaux -- Migliarino di palude -- Emberiza schoeniclus

Springtime in Breunsberg

2009-04-06T22:20:00.004+02:00

We're back from a mini weekend in Claudia's childhood home in Breunsberg. The occasion was the baptism of her goddaughter Eliza. The baptism went well. Claudia sang beautifully and joined the parents in a promise to father Kelly to denounce Satan.

Needless to say, spring was in full swing in Bavaria and we enjoyed some amazing spring days at around 20deg Celsius. The songbirds were having a serious go at it and the Cherry trees were in bloom. Great food, drink and company in a beatiful spring setting - what more can one wish for?

Bird of the day: Common kestrel -- Turmfalke -- Tornfalk -- Faucon crécerelle -- Falco tinnunculus

More spring now!

2009-03-30T21:21:00.002+02:00

Friday started out promising enough, but by the end of the day we had snow and strong winds once more. This week looks good too, but according to the weather service it will get cold again in a couple of days. I know it's still March, but I'm really longing for a definite change in season. A final push and a great swing towards summer! I guess everything will be different in just three weeks.

We still do some birding, but it's mostly around the neighborhood. For everything else it seems better to wait a couple of weeks.

Bird of the day:
Vigg -- Reiherente -- Tufted duck -- Fuligule morillon -- Aythya fuligula

Backlash

2009-03-23T21:42:00.005+01:00

Well, no sooner had I written "Practically all snow is gone by now" yesterday when it started to snow. This morning the world was white again and winter was temporarily back. It wasn't really the thing I was hoping for, but I guess it's March for you.

Walking home yesterday from a short walk around Aspudden and Vinterviken I looked up and spotted a White-tailed Eagle circling above. It's always a great sight and I was also pleasantly surprised to find what looked like a Sparrowhawk circling nearby its big relative.

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

Still no spring

2009-03-22T16:00:00.006+01:00

... but it is definitely around the corner. Practically all snow is gone by now and temperatures are steadily above zero, but we still see no green sprouts and very few migratory birds have arrived. For the impatient it is taking forever.

We've been taking walks and I have brought the camera along. The D300 is definitely a magnitude better than the old D70s, but ISO noise is still an issue. It is not as bad as the old camera, but shooting over ISO 1000 produces a noisy image with lack of detail as a result.

Bird of the day:
Storskrake -- Gänsesäger -- Common merganser/Goosander -- Grand Harle -- Mergus merganser

New equipment!

2009-03-14T09:17:00.004+01:00

The global financial downturn has hit the Swedish currency hard. It has dropped in excess of 20% in just two and a half months. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that prices on imported goods will raise and so I realized that if I ever was going to upgrade my camera, now was the time to do it. The decision was made even easier when I read that Nikon has announced a general increase in prices of 10 - 30%.

The combined pieces of information led me to order a new camera last week, so I am now the happy owner of a brand new Nikon D300! Compared to the old Nikon D70s it is a significant improvement. It is however also bulkier and I believe that the battery time doesn't come close to that of the D70s, where I have never run out of battery, including the entire mountain trek last summer.

Overall it's a fantastic camera and I am eager to give it a decent try in the field. For now I have only made a couple of photos, including the Common Merganser below (which has also received a small overdose of Photoshop enthusiasm...).

Bird of the day:
Storskrake -- Gänsesäger -- Common merganser/Goosander -- Grand Harle -- Mergus merganser

They say it's spring

2009-03-10T22:00:00.004+01:00

Please tell us more about it, 'cause it's for sure not around here!

I was reading yesterday how Odysseas is enjoying the flowers of spring and about Laura going birding, enjoying daylight saving time already! It's nice to know spring is around the corner, but it is sure enough taking it's time. Today was fairly mild, but that didn't prevent a full day of snowing.

To contrast the spring stories I went down town over lunch and snapped a few quick ones of the house sparrows. I followed up by taking a picture of the tree below, coming home from work. As you can see we are in no urgent need of daylight saving time. There is simply no light to save yet!

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

Yellowhammer, Norra Järvafältet

2009-03-01T20:57:00.002+01:00

Yesterday I took a walk in Norra Järvafältet again, one of our favourite nature reserves around Stockholm. Right now everything here is covered in snow and in the sunshine nature looks just amazing! I stopped a while to look for the yellow-browed bunting but it was nowhere to be seen. It seems to get increasingly harder to get a glimpse of Järvafältet's star visitor. Instead I heard a few goldfinches and saw numerous yellowhammers... One of them was cooperative and posed a little:

Bird of the day:
Gulsparv -- Goldammer -- Yellowhammer -- Bruant jaune -- Emberiza citrinella

Curing a cold, waiting for spring

2009-02-26T19:06:00.005+01:00

I'm at home, trying to cure a stubborn cold that is going on it's sixth day. I guess if I had stayed at home immediately it would be gone by now, but unfortunately I chose not to. Outside the weather is slowly beginning to shift around and although it's winter, spring is definitely around the corner. In just one month it will be here.

This winter has been a lot better than last year and consequently it is easier to cope with it. As long as the temperature stays mostly below zero it's actually quite agreeable. The Great tit is already singing of course, heralding the coming change in season.

Bird of the day:
Talgoxe -- Kohlmeise -- Great tit -- Mésange charbonnière -- Parus major

Yellowhammer

2009-02-19T22:58:00.002+01:00

The Yellowhammer is/was among the most common birds in Sweden. Living in an urbanized area I find it hard to believe. You almost never see any around here, but once you get outside of Stockholm they are common. On the other hand they are in serious decline across Europe, so I guess that might contribute as well.

To me it's a winter bird, although I know it is wrong. It might be the yellow color, contrasting against the pale colors of winter that lead me to associate them with winter. On the other hand their distinct song, counting to seven and spelling out "A little bit of bread and no cheese.", is a clear sign of spring and early summer.

Whatever the reason, it is a very nice and recognizable bird in Sweden, Europe and Asia. Too bad they are on the decline...

Bird of the day:
Gulsparv -- Goldammer -- Yellowhammer (bunting) -- Bruant jaune -- Emberiza citrinella

Early signs of spring - singing blue tits

2009-02-12T17:13:00.003+01:00

Just a quick post on this Thursday afternoon to celebrate that it finally seems like the worst part of winter is over! About time... At this time of the year the sun goes up at 7:30 AM and sets around 4:30 PM - we win about 3 hours relative to December!
Even more rewarding, the stationary birds have started singing, particularly the songs of blue tits and great tits are ubiquitous.

Bird of the day:
Blåmes -- Blaumeise -- Blue tit -- Mésange bleue -- Cyanistes caeruleus

Tough nuthatches

2009-02-11T09:40:00.004+01:00

I have said it before on this blogg but I like repeating myself: Nuthatches are among the very few overwintering birds that are entirely devoted to their local patch. Once they have established a territory they stay. For good.

Inspired by this, I took a walk in our own local patch the day before yesterday and guess whom I met?

The nuthatch was among our 51 species in the birdrace as well, of course. Anders captured this one at the bird feeder next to Råstasjön North of Stockholm:

Bird of the day:
Nötväcka -- Kleiber -- Eurasian nuthatch -- Sittelle torchepot -- Sitta europaea europaea

Last light

2009-02-04T22:19:00.006+01:00

The sun sets at around four in the afternoon this time of year, which means that dusk sets in at around three. At around two pm on birdrace Saturday, we had reached Norra Järvafältet in a faint hope to see the Yellow-browed bunting again. This didn't work out, but we still got to see a couple of species that we hadn't seen before in the day.

We spent the remainder if the day there and when the light got too low for seeing birds, we finished off with listening for them in the woods.

During the day we were pleasantly surprised to find a couple of overwintering robins. To me, they add a warm note to the cold winter. Nice!

Bird of the day:
Rödhake -- Rotkehlchen -- European Robin -- Rougegorge familier -- Rødhals (DK) -- Roodborst (NL) -- Pettirosso europeo-- Erithacus rubecula

Action birding

2009-02-02T22:50:00.005+01:00

Birdracing means being constantly on the move. There is just no time for the long meditative waiting of your normal birding day. No, you make sure you head out with as much intelligence gathered beforehand as possible and a solid plan to make the most out of the brief daylight hours.

This year Jörgen had really made his homework and he took us to unknown places in Tullinge where he does his local patching on regular days. Some were accessible and some required more work to reach.

The Tullinge tour really paid off though and it most likely was the thing that tipped the scale to our advantage in the race and placed us third. Among the Tullinge highlights I would like to mention the Tawny Owl and a trek down an icy forest ravine to find a Dipper. Jörgen is for sure the birding Tsar of Tullinge! ;-)

Bird of the day:
Tawny Owl -- Kattuggla -- Waldkauz -- Chouette hulotte -- Strix aluco

Race day!

2009-01-31T21:02:00.014+01:00

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

2009-01-27T22:20:00.008+01:00

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

2009-01-25T00:21:00.008+01:00

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

2009-01-21T19:00:00.007+01:00

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!

2009-01-17T23:00:00.005+01:00

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

2009-01-11T18:32:00.007+01:00

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

2009-01-06T18:15:00.005+01:00

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

2009-01-05T11:15:00.009+01:00

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!

2009-01-04T15:29:00.002+01:00

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

2009-01-03T21:40:00.005+01:00

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

Little owl nest box in Breunsberg - so far unused...

2008-12-30T20:28:00.008+01:00

Also this year, I spent christmas at my parents' in Breunsberg, a little village close to Aschaffenburg in Northwest Bavaria, Germany. It was about the same time last year that I got a few good glimpses of my first little owls (minervauggla, Steinkauz, Athene noctua) in managed grasslands with fruit trees (German: Streuobstwiesen) in Sulzbach, another village close to Aschaffenburg. Little owls thrive in such areas and as we have very similar areas around Breunsberg my brother thought it a good idea to build a little-owl-tailor-made nest box (a task which he delegated to my Dad) and finally set them up there:

The nest box consists of a long tube (or alternatively a stretched cuboid), closed at one side and with an entrance area on the other side. The entrance area exists of two consecutive panes with displaced entrance holes to protect breeding birds from martens. You get a better idea of the interior on this webside (scroll down for the picture).

So far, this particular nest box has been unused, but it has only been set up this spring. We probably need some more patience than that. Still, it might be a good idea to set up more than this one, because a couple of little owls needs more than one cavity to retreat to. We'll see what happens...

Bird of the day:
Minervauggla -- Steinkauz -- Little owl -- Chevêche d'Athéna -- Athene noctua

Parco dell' Appia Antica

2008-12-13T22:46:00.005+01:00

Lately there has been a lot of fuzz about a European Stonechat in Halland. They are a rare sight in Sweden. Unfortunately Halland is too far away for us to reach easily, especially considering the short daylight hours and slippery roads this time of year. The whole thing however got my mind to wander south again and made me remember our weekend in Rome a few weeks ago. We saw several Stonechats there, during our walk in Parco dell' Appia Antica, just south of the city.

The weather was overall balmy in Rome, but with occational showers, which made for dramatic changes in the sky. Seeing and sensing the shift in season actually added to the magnificent sceneries.

Bird of the day:
European Stonechat -- Svarthakad buskskvätta -- Schwarzkehlchen-rubicola -- Tarier pâtre -- Saxicola rubicola

Planning for indoor activities

2008-11-24T23:04:00.004+01:00

This week, winter arrived in force. I guess making sonograms and sorting though the memories of this year is what we have to resort to for the coming weeks.

It's dark and getting darker. It's cold and getting colder... It's time to hibernate until late winter season and the early arrivals of next year.

... but on the other hand, I have booked tickets for Christmas with the family on Gotland. Gotland is always interesting from a birding perspective. I guess the season might not be over just yet. :-)

Blue tit in an unusual format

2008-11-23T21:24:00.006+01:00

I have received several fantastic presents for my PhD, many of them related to birding in some way or the other. Among others, I got a RememBird, which I finally found the time to test today. This is my official first sonogram (spectrogram), a calling blue tit:

I was a little sceptic in the beginning, in the instructions to use it says something like "This is not primarily a device to record bird song". But it was primarily for that purpose I was interested in having one! And, luckily enough, today's first test leaves me optimistic. As both Anders and me had loads to do today, we just strolled around in the neighbourhood with quite some noise emanating from the nearby highway. Therefore I tried to edit the sound file in several ways. Apart from the RememBird software, I also downloaded Audacity,where I did the noise removal and Raven Lite 1.0, where the sonogram was created.

Looking forward to spring...

Great Roman Cormorant

2008-11-20T22:46:00.006+01:00

Rome was not only new birds, it was also about seeing familiar ones in new places. The Cormorants seemed common along the Tiber and they were as fun to watch as ever, riding low and catching fish.

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

Rome: Suburban birding

2008-11-15T10:39:00.009+01:00

Although we didn't go to Rome for birding, we still brought a pair of binos, a field guide and the book "Birding the world cities". The latter listed a suburban park as a good place for a nice walk, with lots of birding opportunities. We went there and the book turned out to be correct. The bushes were alive with a mix of warblers, robins and a host of other birds!

The weather started out good, but gradually got worse and as the clouds gathered we spotted a Common Kestrel looking for prey on the ground. This caused us to be extra alert, since we kind of had our hopes up for the Lesser Kestrel (Falco naumanni, Rödfalk), which was at least a theoretical possibility in Rome. As it turned out, this one was a regular Common Kestrel, which was nice nonetheless.

Bird of the day: Common kestrel -- Turmfalke -- Tornfalk -- Faucon crécerelle -- Falco tinnunculus

Taking in the full view

2008-11-13T21:01:00.009+01:00

Faced with the spectacular view of Isola Tiberina in the sunset, Claudia exclaimed Little Egret!, and sure enough, by the foot of the bridge and island a Little Egret was waiting for the fish to come.

For a while we were really excited and followed it for quite some time, believing that it was an exclusive opportunity to see one. Already the next day, we realized it wasn't. We saw a couple more walking along the river. They are most likely fairly common along the Tiber, including in the city.

Bird of the day:
Seidenreiher -- Silkeshäger -- Little Egret -- Aigrette garzette -- Egretta garzetta

From Michelangelo to Michahellis

2008-11-10T22:19:00.008+01:00

Confronted with the impressive sight of Fontana di Trevi in Rome, the first thing Claudia exclaimed was "Michahellis!" and sure enough, walking around among the statues was a Larus michahellis (Yellow-legged Gull). In Sweden that is a rare bird, but in Rome you get them all over the place, among all major monuments. Among all the major monuments in Rome you can find all sorts of birds, as it turned out.

We have just returned from a long weekend in Rome. It was about celebrating Claudia's new PhD degree. It was about going for our first non-birding vacation in ages... but as the plane touched down we saw our first Common Kestrel (Tornfalk) through the window of the plane and that was it. 24 hours later we had abandoned the Vatican and were exploring the banks of the river Tiber, trying to get a glimpse Cetti Warblers, Grey Wagtails and Kingfishers.

As it turned out, Rome is a great place for combining urban birding with culture and good food. We enjoyed our stay thoroughly and we'll post a few more pics later this week.

Bird of the day: Yellow-legged Gull -- Medelhavstrut -- Mittelmeermöwe -- Goéland leucophée -- Larus michahellis

P.S.
Please note that, as usual, is possible to click on the pictures to get a larger version.

Huvudskär continued

2008-10-26T13:25:00.003+01:00

Another surprise last Saturday was the lone Bullfinch we came across in the early morning hours. At first we only heard it calling out, but then as daylight grew, we also spotted a lone female, feeding in the tree tops. You never know what to expect on Huvudskär during migration and at least for me, the Bullfinch was not expected at all.

Birds aside, the archipelago is very inviting for fancy photograpphy and it's hard to stay within the confines of ones actual skill level. Please bear with me, as I go through yellow grass and red bushes...

Bird of the day:
Domherre -- Gimpel/Dompfaff -- Eurasian Bullfinch -- Bouvreuil pivoine -- Pyrrhula pyrrhula

Autumn on Huvudskär

2008-10-19T13:27:00.005+02:00

Yesterday the day had come for this year's autumn trip to Huvudskär, organized by one of the local ornithological societies, Södertörns fågelklubb. We got up at 4 AM, were picked up at 5:15 and reached the island on a rented boat at about 7:15, just before sunrise and in the company of about 15 fellow birders full of expectation.

So far, whenever we have been on Huvudskär, there has been one or two species which were overrepresented in numbers, and interestingly, it has been different species every time. Once there were robins everywhere, next time spotted flycatchers; this time, overall there was not so much bird activity, but goldcrests were all over the place. They did not include the much longed for rare company, though. A pleasant surprise was a small flock of waxwings.

The location of Huvudskär:

Bird of the day:
Sidensvans -- Seidenschwanz -- Bohemian waxwing -- Jaseur boréal -- Pestvogel -- Bombycilla garrulus

Microbirding for a Boreal Owl

2008-10-13T21:25:00.004+02:00

We're not actively engaged in the inner city microbirding competition Betonglistan anymore, but still... if a rare bird appears within the city limits we'll be there.

The Boral owl is not really a rare bird in Sweden, but in central Stockholm it is. They are currently in migration and that's probably the explanation for the this fellow's visit in a Kungsholmen city park. Stadshagen (the park and housing area in question) is just around the corner from the office, so when I got the mail I took off and managed to find the bird and even snap a mobile pic through a borrowed scope. Claudia managed to get a glimpse as well.

The bird was resting in the sloped wooded area to the left in this picture. It was discovered because of the worried birds harassing it.

A great event on a busy day.

Bird of the day: Boreal Owl -- Pärlugga -- Rauhfußkauz -- Nyctale de Tengmalm -- Aegolius funereus

P.S.
I posted about this on Betongbilder as well.

Colors and contrast

2008-10-05T13:01:00.002+02:00

This is the season of colors and contrast. On one hand, the breeding season is long gone and the bright breeding colors of the birds are replaced with the low keys of eclipse colors and moulting. On the other hand, nature is displaying a warm palette of colors and shapes, before settling in for the winter. Automn leaves, apples, mushrooms, dramatic weather and skyes all add to a wet, glistening colorful and spectacular part of the season. Inspiring, but hard to capture on camera.

Bird of the day:
Knölsvan -- Höckerschwan -- Mute Swan -- Cygne tuberculé -- Cygnus olor

Great Grey Owl - a nice break from thesis proofreading...

2008-09-30T22:02:00.004+02:00

Yesterday, a great grey owl was discovered in the morning, pretty close to Karolinska, in Rotebro, about a 25 min drive from the institute.
Luckily I got a hold of the head of our department, a very dedicated birder with a car and extra binoculars and yes, at about 4:40 PM, me, he and his wife were on our way.

When we got there the owl had started hunting (in broad daylight, is that common?) and noone knew where it was; but with about 20 birders streaking through the birchwoods it took no time at all to rediscover it. Great bird!! The photo was taken with my mobile camera (Nokia N95) through a telescope (don't remember the brand) and edited a little in Adobe Photoshop Elements.

Bird of the day:
Lappuggla -- Bartkauz -- Great grey owl -- Strix nebulosa

A thesis was left with the print shop today... feels really odd.

Goldcrest

2008-09-28T20:38:00.007+02:00

It's the smallest bird of Europe and you can send four of them by mail and still get away with just the normal fee. Although it's a common species around here, it's been really hard to get a good photo of it. You normally only see them very briefly as they fly from one tree to another in small flocks and you only see them in dark dense woods, camera facing upwards to the light... not the ideal circumstances.

This drab picture is among the best we ever managed to take and we used sound to lure them towards the camera and the small built-in flash to light the scene. It's blurry and dark and it doesn't reflect the charm and beauty of the small bird.

Bird of the day: Goldcrest -- Kungsfågel -- Wintergoldhähnchen -- Roitelet huppé -- Regulus regulus

Too late for the Three-toed ?

2008-09-22T22:01:00.004+02:00

On Saturday the we got an alert through the BMS (Bird Message System, an alarm system for mobile phones that is used by birders in Sweden) that a Three-toed woodpecker had been sighted in the woods at Norra Järvafältet. The locataion is just a ride by commuter train to reach, so we went for it. Would this be the day that we finally saw the Three-toed? Claudia has been up there at least four times this year without finding it.

When we reached the location we canvased the area without seeing anything in particular. After a while we came across feathers that looked a lot like woodpecker feathers. Some kind of predator had enjoyed a good meal. We hoped it wasn't the Three-toed. Unfortunately we are not skilled enoughto tell what woodpecker it was. Any suggestions are welcome.

The day was lovely nonetheless and we enjoyed a good day out with fair weather and all the signs of the season.

Bird of the day: None

Eclipse plumage

2008-09-17T20:13:00.005+02:00

Yes,
we're alive, but still not birding. This is another pic from my short walk on August 25th.

The ducks are in their eclipse plumage as you can see in this picture and the previous post. They look a little roughed up, but it is of course just an effect of the moulting process. I guess that if you can't fly properly, you need to keep a low profile. In just a while they will be back in full breeding plumage, by the time their new flight feathers are in place.

Isbladskärret is dried out this season and cows are grassing the land. It's done on regular intervals to preserve the semi-open landscape, which attracts a wide variety of birds normally. I believe the cows are called Highland Cattle. Beautiful, with a very distinct look.

Eurasian Wigeon -- Bläsand -- Pfeifente -- Canard siffleur -- Anas penelope

Birds, but no birding...

2008-09-14T21:01:00.006+02:00

Claudia is on her final stretch for the PhD and work has been ample for me as well. We're stuck in our tracks and can only follow the birding reports on the web as the season swings around into autumn. Migration is sweeping the nation and we're basically missing the show.

This might very well be Claudia's last autumn around here for a long time to come, maybe forever. When the Wooper swans leave, she to will head south to spend Christmas with the family and then, if everything works out, move on to a post-doc in Kiel. It's great news, but lonesome times are sure to come.

Bird of the day:
Gräsand -- Stockente -- Mallard -- Canard colvert -- Anas platyrhynchos

Varied combatant

2008-08-31T21:54:00.005+02:00

"Varied combatant" is the naive translation of the French name for Ruff. As adults they indeed have a varied plumage, but the as young they are more similar to each other in appearance. We found this sub adult at Ågesta and managed to get some pictures in the early evening light.

The encounter rounded off a nice day out in the field. We spent most of it at Hjälstaviken, but finished at Ågesta, where we followed up on an old report of a Rustic Bunting (Videparv). We never found it, which wasn't a surprise really. The day had been great nonetheless, so we were happy anyway.

Bird of the day:
Ruff -- Brushane -- Kampfläufer -- Combattant varié -- Philomachus pugnax

Slovenia...

2008-08-29T14:30:00.000+02:00

Between forms, manuscripts and thesis drafts, I finally find the time to post a little something on Slovenia, Kranjska Gora, where I went to a conference 8th-12th of July. A great conference, by the way, both scientifically and socially, I really really enjoyed myself. On top of that: A lifer! And here it is, I proudly present the Yellow-billed chough (or alpine chough):

Photo: Natalia Kedishvili

Photo: Matthew Picklo

You realize that, of course, that particular day, I did not have any camera on me, not even my mobile. Therefore I had to nick pics from other people; thank you again, Natalia and Matt!

For a change, this one's actually from me:

Bird of the day: Yellow-billed (alpine) chough -- Alpkaja -- Alpendohle -- Pyrrhocorax graculus

Some birding at last

2008-08-25T10:58:00.003+02:00

Finally, in what seemed like the first time in ages, I managed to get myself out of the apartment and into the field, albeit close to Stockholm City. Early autumn signs a visible everywhere and you really feel the shift in the air by now. It has a fresh quality and the evenings are no longer warm from the heat of the day.

I took bus 69 to Blockhusudden and followed the shoreline north. After a while I took the small path to the left and walked around Isbladskärret and back to Blockhusudden again. Birdingwise, I got no surprises, but it was still a nice walk in the sun.

Close by the small café at the point of Blockhusudden, I found this Lesser black-backed gull and snapped few shots.

Lesser black-backed gull -- Silltrut -- Heringsmöwe -- Larus fuscus

Backyard birding

2008-08-09T11:11:00.004+02:00

Rain, gray skies and more rain is what we get these days. Claudia is accelerating to get her PhD finished, working long days all days. Me, I'm putting in extra hours as well. It's busy times and all birding is put on hold, except for the occasional glance through the balcony door.

The cherry tree is still a popular hangout for all birds and the other day I saw this young Great Spotted Woodpecker trying to get hold of some sweet cherry desert. Summer is gone now, so I almost long for fall to come already.

Bird of the day:
Större hackspett -- Buntspecht -- Great Spotted Woodpecker -- Pic épeiche -- Dendrocopos major

Watching the young ones grow up

2008-07-27T20:15:00.002+02:00

These days we barely do any birding at all. July is quiet around here and vacation is over, so we can't go anywhere else either. However, it's always a pleasure to sit on the balcony and follow the backyard bird families and watching the young ones grow up.

The Magpies have been successful this year and this one often perches in the Cherry tree next our balcony.

Bird of the day:
Magpie - Skata - Elster - Pica pica

Square 2

2008-07-13T21:05:00.008+02:00

Just from looking at the map we suspected that it might not be a whole lot easier walking Square 2, than it had been doing square 1 (see earlier post). Square 2 was located about 1.5km south-west of the Godu glacier and straddled two steep mountains, as well as a frozen mountain lake (click for map). No trees and swamps this time, but we still figured it might be a challenge to walk a straight line up there.

Getting there, our suspicions were more or less confirmed. Rocky, steep, hillsides, a frozen lake and cloud level walking all contributed to an interesting and challenging route. The open terrain however meant that keeping the pace wasn't a big problem.

After having covered about half of the square the weather got worse and we were suddenly engulfed by thick gray clouds. Balancing our way in a rock field at about 1000m and seeing nothing we decided to abort due to bad weather and started to head back to the tent.

As we made our way down the hillside we came across the badly savaged carcass of what used to be a reindeer calf. It wasn't freshly slain, but the bad visibility combined with the knowledge that another team had had close bear encounters on a mountainside last year made us feel a little bit uneasy with the whole situation.

In the end we made it back safe to the tent by the frozen lake. We also managed to get a couple hours of rest, before breaking camp and heading out again. As the rain started to fall, we began our walk down the Vistas valley. That's however a separate story and you know all about that adventure already and if you don't, have a look at our first longer post from this trip.

This post concludes our trip report from the northern adventure. Vacation is over, we're back at work and birding is slow during July. Migration season is however already under way and we'll start seeing waders in the coming weeks or so, and after that it's August and migration will begin in full force. :-)

Bird of the day: Long-tailed Jaeger -- Fjällabb -- Falkenraubmöwe -- Labbe à longue queue -- Stercorarius longicaudus

Going up the country

2008-07-07T11:12:00.008+02:00

After having covered square 1, we headed out the next day for a two-day hike to the next, and final, square. Square 2 was located in a mountain range in, the heart of the Abisko-Kebnekaise region and the only way to get there is by walking a couple of days, so we got our gear and headed out and up.

On the way we encountered both reindeer and Willow Ptarmigan/Willow Grouse (Dalripa) in the lower birch regions.

Abisko is at around 400 meters above sea level and square 2 was at around 850 meters above sea level, so walking there is more or less a matter of going uphill for two days straight. A fact which your legs soon bear witness to... it was quite exhausting. Carrying in excess of 20kg (44 pounds) on our backs added to the challenge for our office and lab life bodies as well I guess.

After a day or so we were above the tree line and the landscape shifted to a more tundra like landscape.

June is early in the season at this level and latitude, so the spring green of the valleys had not yet reached above the tree line. The lakes still had ice and snow covered the mountain sides and filled pockets that were protected from the midday sun. The temperatures ranged from around zero to around 8 degrees Celsius (around 46F).

Since the snow was melting quickly during the day the landscape had plenty of streams coming down from the sides of the mountains. The larger ones had bridges, but the smaller ones had to be waded which was an ordeal in itself, walking in the ice cold streams, carrying your boots around the neck and hoping not to slip and fall.

By the end of the second day of walking we reached the site of square 2 and could rest for a couple of hours, before getting up to start the census at 4am the next day. The weather was slightly better and the sun even shone for one of the few times that walk.

Bird of the day: Willow Ptarmigan (Willow Grouse) -- Dalripa -- Moorschneehuhn -- Lagopède des saules -- Lagopus lagopus