Really cold!

The coldest morning so far this winter greeted me today. Nipped out to Ripagården for an hour but it was perishing cold and not much was on show, the woods had willow tit (1) and four bullfinch. Out in the open, somewhere that was rather unpleasant in the minus ten degrees when the brisk NE wind was factored in, I managed a snipe and a kestrel before heading home to defrost.

In the afternoon I drove around the Tursköp-Lönhult area hoping for a golden eagle but failing again. Did get white-tailed eagle, rough-legged buzzard, hen harrier and jay though. Last stop of the day was Sandön. At the river a big raft of 21 goosander was notable and there were more or the same out on the sea later. Roosting out on Själrönnen was a motley gang of barely visible waders including at least 25 dunlin, 25 curlew and five oystercatcher. I lasted half an hour before I headed back to the warmth of the car. It seems rather quiet at the moment.

Birding with Terry and Mikael

Terry and Mikael at Farhult, it is always a novelty for me to spend time in the field with people over five years old.

Terry came up again nice and early for a day out of Copenhagen. We met up at the train station at Ängelholm in the rain and headed for Rönnen, hoping for the gyr falcon. At first light we found a goshawk along the road in to the site. No joy with the big falcon sadly but we did meet Mikael Olofsson (bonus!). All three of us scanned about, finding a peregrine and three white-tailed eagles. Offshore three long-tailed ducks bobbed about.

Taking Mikael along with us, we next headed to Farhult. Plenty of birds offshore here. A big raft of tufted duck (170) and goldeneye (250), included a few scaup (6+) and pochard (5). At least seven Slavonian grebes here too and way offshore the male smew. As we watched another (or the same) goshawk (1K) flew in front of us, lightly mobbed by a hooded crow. It ended up down the far end, perched on a fence-post and as the rain had finally stopped, hung its wings down to dry. Also here another white-tailed eagle for the tally. The reedbed was alive with calls of water rail (2), bearded tit and reed bunting.

Dragging Mikael with us yet again we headed inland to look for golden eagles. Lönhult produced a rough-legged buzzard. But Mikael's knowledge of the back-roads here soon produced the goods when Terry spotted a fine sub-adult golden eagle flying along at Tursköp. Also here two more white-tailed eagles (easily my best ever day for these in NW Skåne) and another rough-legged buzzard.

White-tailed eagle high-jinks.

Love 'em! I have not got tired of seeing these guys yet.

After our successful inland mission we returned to the coast at Sandön - fairly quiet with Slavonian grebe (1), oystercatcher (11), and smew (redhead). Dropping Mikael off again at Rönnen we had time for another quick but unsuccessful scan for the gyr. It was not to be our day with this unreliable bird.

Our last few sites were on-patch. We headed to Torekov rev for purple sandpipers (9 - my first this month) and nearby had two shags on offshore rocks. A great end to the day [although when we got back we discovered that the gyr had been seen really well inland at Lönhult during the day, can't win 'em all!].