Sweden road trip part 1 - birds

Got back last night from a week-long family trip to Sweden. Sweden is a wonderful country. We landed at Västerås and drove from there up north. First night we stayed near Sandvik, second near Bispgården and then we reached our destination - Luleå in the far north of Sweden. Lots of driving...
From a family point of view it was a great holiday - weather was perfect, we did lots of outdoor stuff and got to know special people. From a wildlife point of view I could have achieved more. At this time of year, best hours for birding are between 22:00 and 04:00. Because of all the driving I did, and long days of family stuff, I could afford only one night of proper birding. Other times when I was outdoors during hours when normal people are awake were rather quiet, and light conditions were horrible.
However, all in all, I saw some stuff and enjoyed the common birds Sweden has to offer.
I enjoyed seeing in good numbers migrants that are doing pretty bad in England. Red-backed Shrikes, Pied Flycatcher and Willow Warbler were present at almost every stop in the south and centre. Pied Flycatchers were breeding in almost every nestbox I saw.

Pied Flycatcher

Heading up north, a short stop at the lovely nature reserve Ålsjön was productive with breeding Whooper Swans and Slavonian Grebes.

Luleå is a special town, with lots of wildlife in it. Urban birding with Arctic Terns and Whimbrel can't be bad. 

Arctic Tern

Whimbrel - taken at 00:45 without flash...

On my final morning, before flying out, the kids had an hour at a play area in Västerås. I had time for a quick walk around Mälarpark which was rather nice with Icterine and Wood Warblers. The Icterine was singing from high up in the trees. 

Icterine Warbler

Up in the north I did have a couple of target species. I succeeded with one - more on my next blog.

High expectations, slim pickings

I left Norwich early this morning with Phil and Will, with soaring expectations: weather conditions could have not been better for a fall, and/or for something really good. Burnham Overy Dunes was our choice. We were surprised to be the first birders there. As we walked out, the White-winged Tern showed nicely, albeit distant and in bad light conditions. A bird I wouldn't twitch in the UK, but was still really nice to bump into:

White-winged Tern

We worked the dunes hard, again and again, from Gunn Hill to the woods. At first there were no migrants to be found at all; evidently there was no fall. In those moments of disappointment, someone always uses the useless phrase 'biggies always travel alone'. If there were any biggies around, we missed them. News started to pour in, of decent arrivals and scarcities elsewhere in Norfolk and along the east coast; this enthused us to do another circuit of the dunes, and another... Then we had to move on, leaving the dunes goodies to be found by others. Between our group of 4/5 (including James and Dave Appleton) we did find eventually singles each of Pied Flycatcher, Common Redstart, Tree Pipit, Whinchat and Cuckoo. There were also 3 Wheatears, presumably local breeding birds. A Little Ringed Plover flew by uttering its sad call over the saltmarsh, and a Merlin bombed around Gunn Hill. On the marsh the distinguished residents showed OK - Spoonbills and Great White Egret. Two Barn Owls hunted out in the open - always fun. On the way out, several Bearded Tits pinged from the reedbed, and among a distant group of lingering Brent we found a striking Pale-bellied. The total for the morning was 95 species (check my eBird checklist here) - not bad I guess. And if you read the list above it feels like a pretty good morning. However, my expectations were much higher, both for quality and numbers. But hey, better to look at the bright side and enjoy what we did see, which ain't too shabby.

Stonking male Pied Flycatcher

Pale-bellied Brent

Barn Owl

Some other fauna and flora included:

One of quite many Wall Brown

Female Muslin Moth

A scarce hoverfly identified by Phil - Scaeve selenitica

Southern Marsh Orchid

We then went to Titchwell for a quick visit. The Greenish Warbler was surprisingly vocal in the midday (relative) heat, and showed OK, demonstrating its very faint wingbars; sadly I failed to get a decent photo.

I sound-recorded its vocalisations with my phone. Song came out rather OK; I need to work more on the calls. James got similar results with his iPhone...

We drove back by Choseley, where we added Corn Bunting and Yellowhammer to our day list, bringing it up to 99. 

Thanks to Will for driving there and James for driving back; good day out - maybe there still is another chance for a fall or a biggie this spring.

East Hills

Nice day on East Hills today - another one of those sites I had heard so much about. Low tide was at midday so we were forced to a late start, which was a good excuse for us lazy and mildly hung-over birders not to make an early start. The weather was brilliant, too brilliant in fact - pretty strong easterly but sunny and warm, but no rain. We parked at Warham Green and had a look around - some migrants there, including 2 Pied Flys, Spotted Fly, Redstart and I also heard a Yellow-browed Warbler. Two Spoonbills were on the saltmarsh. We headed off towards East Hills and the walk was rather quiet, a few Wheatears and a Whinchat, and some Greenshanks in the creeks. East Hills themselves felt rather quiet, but eventually we picked up some migrants in OK numbers. Some of my UK friends called it a fall but it certainly didn't feel like one, birds were quite few and far between. Total migrant numbers were 10-12 Pied Flys, 20 Wheatear, 5 Redstart, 2 Spotted Flys, 1 Reed Warbler (sadly just an out-of-place Reed Warbler), which is alright I guess but not more than that. One Hobby flew over and on the way back I flushed two Short-eared Owls - they flew off with the wind directly into the sun, and all I managed was some distant record shots, but they were the highlight of the day.

Pied Flycatcher

Wheatear

 Common Redstart

Short-eared Owl

Many thanks to Keith, Reg and Dougal for the great company.

Spurn Migfest 2015 summary

Over the weekend I participated in the third Spurn Migration Festival, better known as Migfest. On Friday headed up there with Nick. When we drove past the Blackborough End Landfill near King's Lynn there were many hundreds on large gulls sat in a field by the road but we were in a rush to get to Spurn and did not stop. Of course on the way back Mr. Murphy made sure that there were no gulls there. 

We arrived pretty late in the evening, and jumped straight in to the opening event. On Saturday the weather was quite bad - very cold and blistering NW winds. In the morning I co-led a short walk to Kilnsea Wetlands, that was nice without real highs. Quite many Mediterranean Gulls, and one Whinchat was the only true migrant passerine. Because of the exceptionally high tide large numbers of shorebirds flew low over our heads to roost in all directions - impressive 'murmurations'.

2cy Mediterranean Gull (right) and Black-headed gull (left)

Mediterranean (left), Common (center) and Black-headed Gulls (right)

Then we went for a magical hour or so of seawatching - it produced Balearic Shearwater, 3 Sabine's Gulls, several Sooty and Manx Shearwaters, 2 Arctic Skuas and generally good stuff. In the afternoon went to track down some scarcities - there were 3 Barred Warblers around but I saw briefly only one. There were a couple of Red-backed Shrikes around, and a few drift migrants - Spotted and Pied Flys, Lesser Whitehtroats etc. 

Red-backed Shrike

Rather spotless Spotted Flycatcher - it chose such a beautiful perch

In the evening I gave a talk about how fantastic birding in Israel is - I really enjoyed the evening and hope I enthused some people to come birding in Israel. It wasn't difficult because Israel really is an amazing place for birding.

On Sunday the wind dropped and birding became quite pleasant. I spent the morning birding with MG around the Warren, checked the ringing, did some vis-migging, kicked the Triangle bushes and a few other bits and pieces. 

Pied flycatcher - ringed by Spurn Bird Observatory

Around the Canal Scrape hide there were three young Yellow Wagtails. I think they are siblings, but note how different they look like. I guess these are two females and a male (the brighter bird).

Before noon co-led another wader walk that was nice. There was a probable hybrid Med X Black-headed Gull - funny looking bird.

After lunch headed back home, exhausted but very pleased. It was a great event, brilliantly organized - the organizers and volunteers worked exceptionally hard to make sure all were happy. The birding was good, but for me what made Migfest so special is the people. Spurn attracts special people, and I was fortunate to spend time with old and new friends. Huge thanks to Martin, Rob and Andy who invited to to take part in the epic event.

Challenge Series team - Martin Garner and Ray Scally

The Red Underwing went for a walk...

Caracals!

This morning another very good atlas box south of Ezuz, with Avner, Eli and Shachar. Most action was in the mammal section. At first light we saw two Caracals - distant but very beautiful and elegant animals, as they walked across the wadi for a couple of minutes. This was my best ever observation of these majestic cats. They were complimented by a couple of Wolves, a fox, several Dorcas Gazelles and a Cape Hare.
There were some good birds about, with two male MacQueen's Bustards still dancing, a few families of Spectacled Warbler in their second breeding cycle, and four Crowned Sandgrouse. Good numbers of Hill Sparrows were logged - we had at least 15 singing males and a few more mobile birds, including several juveniles.
After the atlas box we did a very short ringing session at Be'erotayim park. A big surprise was this Hill Sparrow - a very worn male. Such a cool bird!

There were big numbers of flycatchers present. Many spotted, one collared, one semi-collared and three pied that we ringed - a 2cy male and two females.

Pied Flycatcher