Bat Woodpecker

A new species of woodpecker just appeared outside my window! Because of it's habit of hanging upside down under branches I have named it the Bat Woodpecker (Dendrocopos chiropterus). It is superficially similar to a male Great Spotted Woodpecker, and its prefered diet seems to be the ants that crawl on the branches of its chosen tree. Unfortunately the woodpecker flew off after about ten minutes, so no more is known about it yet. Luckily I got a few photographs of this intriguing woodpecker, which I am sure the science world would love to know more about.

Nah, of course it's a Great Spotted Woodpecker. The first one I see from my window, new window/balcony tick!

Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major), adult male

On a completely unrelated note, I frigging HATE this new blogging editor. It centers stuff I don't want centered and refuses to change it, it puts text where I don't want it, it's annoying to work with and it's just so much worse than the old one. Stop making things worse!

ARGH! Went back to fix a small detail, and it erased one of my photos! And refuses to put my captions where they should be (I don't want to use that new caption function because it is UGLY), and my text just keeps moving across the page.. this is worse than an old version of Microsoft Word.

Editing again. Reverted back to the old editor to fix stuff. Works now. Dreads the day when they remove the old editor and I'm forced to use the new useless one.

Buff-breasted Sandpiper

A few days ago a Buff-breasted Sandpiper was found in Ledskär. Didn't go for it then, because 1) it was already getting dark and 2) I've already seen one a few years ago. Anyway, yesterday it was refound, and since I didn't have anything else planned today I decided to go for it. Since I really like Ledskär I figured it would be an okay day even if the sandpiper wasn't there anymore, lots of other birds to see.

Drove up there, met some happy people at the car park who informed us it was indeed there, and walked out to the tower. The two people in the tower were looking at other things when we arrived, so they weren't sure exactly where it was now. No worries, after a few minutes I found the bird and we could study it nicely. Some more people arrived, and the sandpiper was most obliging, even though it was at a distance. Got slightly cramped in the tower for a little while, it is not very big.


A few people in the tower watching the sandpiper

Only bad thing was the wind... it was absolutely howling! Scope shook so I could hardly see anything at times. Decided to go down and stand behind the information sign next to the tower instead, less wind but a little harder to see the birds. The sandpiper was very active, running to and fro and often hiding behind some grass.


The star of the day: Buff-breasted Sandpiper (Tryngites subruficollis)

Apart from the sandpiper we saw Golden Plovers, Grey Plovers, Coots, Wigeons, Pintails, Dunlins, Ruffs, Bean Geese, Barnacle Geese and a few Cranes, just to mention a few. All in all a nice day.

Hjälstaviken again

Been a little bit jealous at the people who's been going up to Holmögadd and the White-winged Lark there... but then again, apparently the boat ride to the island is just bloody horrible, so I would probably just have gotten sick if I went.

Instead it was back to Hjälsta again to check if the somewhat bad weather had pressed down anything interesting. Cold day, and rather windy, but some good birds were seen. Not that many geese around, think most were out on the fields grazing. A few thousand Barnacle and some hundreds of Greylag and Bean Geese, with eight Lesser White-fronts were all today. Quite a lot of Pintails though, at least 35, very nice! I really like those elegant ducks. About 250 Dunlins were the most I've seen there for a while, and I don't see Grey Plovers every day in Hjälstaviken, but today four graced us with their visit.
The birds took to the air several times, but it took us a while to discover why... but then two Peregrines swooped down and gave great views. The adult one flew off, but the juvenile one landed right in front of the tower and sat there for a while. A huge bird, surely the biggest Peregrine I've ever seen!


Peregrine (Falco peregrinus), 1cy female. Very windy and a bit dark so it was difficult to get a good photo.

Wasn't entirely over even then, because as we walked back to the car sometime later I suddenly saw a falcon hunting some gulls, and sure enough, it was the young Peregrine... flying so very fast and snatching a Black-headed Gull just like that. Wow! Then she sat on the ground with it for a little while before flying off with the gull in her claws...

New patch tick

If I could be said to have a local patch, well, it has to be Årike Fyris. It's the part of Fyrisån (River Fyris) and the surrounding areas just south of Uppsala, a great place so close to the city. Best thing is it's just like a minute or two by bike from uni, so it's easy to go there on lunches and bird a bit.
Anyway, yesterday a Knot was found there, and the fun thing with patches like this is that even birds that are easily seen elsewhere become fun. Last time a Knot was reported there was back in 1978, so naturally I had to go see it. The supporting cast of Little Stint wasn't bad either, since it too was a new Årike tick for me. :)

Didn't bring my camera, so no pictures. Instead here's a few pictures from Årike I took this spring. (Apparently I haven't really taken any pics there since then! Tssk, bad Nina.)


The boardwalk out to the platform. Lots of snow in winter meant really flooded meadows in spring!


Flooded meadows in april.


Female Kestrel (Falco tinninculus) in the nestbox where they nest every year.


Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava flava), male, a common bird at Årike.

Geese!

Went out to Hjälstaviken last weekend. Most waders have left by now, with only the occasional Spotted Redshank, Dunlin and Ringed Plover left. Oh, and a few hundred Ruffs. No, this is the time of the geese. Maybe 5000 Greylags, 6000 Bean Geese and 3000 Barnacle Geese could be seen, and amongst them we could pick out one or two White-fronted Geese and Pink-footed Geese. Also 33 Lesser White-fronted Geese, of which 7 were juvenile, were a nice sight. Unfortunately the one breeding with a Barnacle is still at large, producing more hybrids. Six such hybrids have been seen this year.


Mixed flock of geese (mostly Barnacle) being scared into the air by the Peregrine or an Eagle.

An adult male Peregrine hunted for several minutes in front of the bird tower, very nice. Didn't see that many White-tailed Eagles this time, the weather wasn't the best for them.
Bluethroats seem to have passed by as well, only saw one on the way out. Tried to find some Red-throated Pipits or Lapland Buntings, but no luck. Lots of Goldfinches though.


Barnacle Geese (Branta leucopsis)

Hmm hmm

Ho hum, seems like I'm not really good at this whole "post regularly" thing. Whoops.

So, Autumn has arrived, and with it the Bluethroats. Lovely little birds! Spent two weeks this summer up north ringing quite a few Bluethroats, great fun. Would be really cool if I could spot one I ringed down here now... albeit not very likely.


Juvenile Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica), ringed by me. Ånnsjön, 8/8-10

Led my first field trip about two weeks ago as well. Was a bit nervous, but it was really enjoyable. Did help that the participants were nice, weather perfect and birds very obliging, so we got to see several White-tailed Eagles, loads of geese including a Lesser White-front and to top it all, a brilliant Peregrine swooping in scaring all the birds.


White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla), Hjälstaviken, 28/8-10