get by with a little help

Been busy of late. Wednesday I was working and picked up at least three two-barred crossbills at Hov again. The next day I was working nearer Torekov at Varan and had my first rough-legged buzzard of the autumn through and a jay was knocking about here too. In the evening I took the kids for a quick walk along Ranarpsstrand and kicked up two jack snipe.

Yesterday we dragged a load of bedding and food down to Grytskären and spent the night in the shelter there. We have been promising the kids we would do this all summer so we decided to get it done before things get too cold! It rained overnight but this did not produce any birds in the plantation in the morning, apart form a single goldcrest and great spotted woodpecker. A flock of 11 parrot crossbills that dropped in very briefly were my first for a while though. Luckily reinforcements were in the field to help me out. Mikael Olofsson relocated the Lapland bunting at Lervik for us (as well as gripping me off with a Caspian gull...).

 A typically confiding Lapland bunting, my first of the year.

Later  Håkan Johansson texted in a red-throated pipit on the beach at Vejbystrand, so we checked Storahultsstrand on our way to checking it out. Then exhausted by our overnight activities we returned home to chill out! A goshawk burst out of a roadside hedge in Lervik as we headed home. Good session but not my own work!

It was better than this in life - honest. Red-throated pipits on the deck are always welcome.

Swedish tick in BK!

This morning (another sun-drenched affair) we took our annual outing to Hallands Väderö, we had been on the island for all of 15 minutes when the phone rang, it was Martin Åkesson telling me that there was a hoopoe at Burensvik (back on the mainland and a much-wanted BK tick for me)...

En route to Torekov and the ferry to Hallands Väderö with Team Benstead I had a single house martin at Västra Karup, my first of the year. The mirror-calm sea allowed views across to Vinga Skär from the mainland before we got on the boat. Many auks loafing off the end of the island or standing about on shore, including guillemot (20), razorbill (20) and black guillemot (25). From the boat we had a close view of Vrenen which had a massive 70 black guillemot around it.

After an SMS from Martin Åkesson almost as soon as we got on the island, telling us of a hoopoe at Burensvik, we only had time for a walk up to the lighthouse and back along the Tångakärret trail before taking penultimate boat off the island. Hallands Väderö is a magical place, no doubt, and of course there must have been some mega lurking somewhere but we did not find it. Instead we enjoyed the clamour of the gulls, the spring bird-song, the 12 grass snakes sunning themselves along the edge of one of the pools and the glorious views and weather. There were few surprises but it was nice to see rock pipit (they vanish from the mainland in mid-April) and a woodcock flew past us near the lighthouse. I tried not to fret but it was great when the ferry hove into view and we could get back to have a crack at the hoopoe (after buying ice-creams...).

Håkan Johansson had kindly been keeping me updated on the hoopoe's movements and whilst flighty it sounded nailed down to a particular area. I arrived just as the gallery was starting to break up and everyone was drifting off back to their cars. They pointed me in the right direction and I snuck up on the bird. Fantastic and we all enjoyed the next hour and a half searching it out and watching it feed. A ring ouzel was calling occasionally from the juniper but I never saw it.

My first BK tick this year and what a beauty!