Had a great day in the field today. Kicked off with a look for a few things that may still be lurking on the hill. Lya Ljunghed failed to produce any stonechats but spring was in the air with whinchat and cuckoo singing lustily away. Taking the road through Tvehöga produced a few singing wood warblers but a quick check for red-breasted flycatcher failed too. In Östra Karup a grey wagtail joined me going down the road.
Klarningen produced the first year-tick of the day with a high honey buzzard over north. Also here one male shoveler and 40+ eider south! Otherwise quiet, recent rain has put the water level too high for passage waders! The ducks are breeding though with fluffy mallard, goldeneye and coot available.
High honey buzzard north over Klarningen
Next task was to check a few sites for the black stork that was present during my last tour. I checked the road between Frestensfällan and Baramossa. No joy although Baramossa (just off-patch in Laholm kommun) did produce a nice young family of whooper swan. Typically when I stray out of BK there is a reminder to return to the fold and this time it came in form of an SMS from Mats Ljunggren - he had a firecrest in his garden at Glimminge. As this was one of my most-wanted BK birds I was interested but did not exactly dash over. I checked a few more sites and then headed home for lunch and a look in my garden. I think it is the bible that it states that one should not look at birds in another person's garden until one has thoroughly checked one's own...
Over lunch I was stunned to hear an
Acrocephalus warbler singing from one of the hedges. A reed warbler! Superb and totally unpredicted addition to the
garden list. Things were even better in Mats' garden in Glimminge plantering. The firecrest put on quite a show but I totally failed to secure a good image. Also here a honey buzzard over.
The best I could do with the firecrest but what a great bird and a superb find by Mats
Mats' garden was also busy with redstarts.
A walk around Glimminge and Vasaltsheden produced Slavonian grebe (1, full summer-plumage), two little terns, a couple of male red-backed shrikes and a singing icterine warbler. The latter two my first of the year.
A quick look at the pond at the Mäsinge end of the plantation produced a damselfly year-tick -
Enallagma cyathigerum and
a big grass snake.
Last stop of the day with some kids in tow was fantastic. We went up the hill to Hålehallstugan and the sun shone down. The carpark must have had 150
Cordulia aenea sheltering in it and down by the lake edge we found a good number of
Coenagrion lunulatum. Overhead a male honey buzzard displayed with a frog grasped in it's talons. A nice end to a superb day in the field.
Cordulia aenea
Honey buzzard displaying with a frog dangling from it's talons