Ed Parnell came over for the weekend recently from Wymondham in my old home county of Norfolk and I promised him Aglia tau, one of two species of Saturnid here in BK. We only had to wait half an hour before this guy came blundering to our light trap in the dark beech woods above Klarningen. What a beauty.
Showing posts with label Tvehöga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tvehöga. Show all posts
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Monday, May 18, 2015
micro magic
Found this little micro (and I mean little) in the garden settled on a Salix leaf near our big birch trees. Apparently an Ectoedemia occultella, a leaf-miner on birch. May saw me start to pan-list in earnest and I have got my BK list to 544 already! What will the total be by the end of the year?
Spent most of the day in and around the house. Lunch time found me prowling the garden for my first Ectoedemia occultella - a really dinky micromoth. An afternoon session with Number 1 had us searching the beech woodland at Tvehöga for the singing red-breasted flycatcher. No sign but great to hear the wood warblers here. A quick look at Klarningen produced three ruff, two wood sandpipers and a common sandpiper. Recently-hatched goldeneye fluffies were on the water and a pair each of shoveler and gadwall were of note.
Thursday, May 15, 2014
epic garden birding
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.
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.
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.
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
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
caning the scarce
Not one but a pair of stonechats popped up at Lya ljunghed this morning. My third record and the kommun's fifth. The status of stonechat in Sweden was one of the big surprises when I moved here from the UK.
My run of good birds in the last two weeks continued today. After a quick listen along the ridge which netted nothing, I rocked up at Lya ljunghed hoping for whinchat and cuckoo for the year. Before I had parked up whinchat was on the list and I climbed out determined to scan hard for a possible early red-backed shrike. However the first bird I spotted was a very distant but unmistakeable male stonechat! A very scarce bird in BK. I halved the distance to the bird to try and get photos and was astonished when I realised it was with a female! A great record but Lya had not finished with me.
Back at the car I carried on scanning and found a female merlin on the ground, it eventually took off and flew past me on it's way north. A cuckoo called nearby and then I heard the distinctive call of a ring ouzel. A female, it perched up for 'scope views before dropping back down to feed out of sight. What a great hour!
Dropping down the hill to Klarningen I stopped at Tvehöga for singing wood warbler (another year-tick) and picked up a nice male black woodpecker. Klarningen was quiet but Patrik Stridh kindly pointed out a yellow wagtail flying through the site and out of view as we chatted away. Other notables were five wood sandpipers and at least five ruff and there were still three wheatears on site.
A female merlin was a late addition to my year-list and the icing on the cake of an incredible hour at Lya ljunghed this morning.
Sunday, June 2, 2013
morning glory
Found out yesterday that I had been searching for the corncrake in the wrong place and that it had been ringed whilst I was looking for it... So it was out again to Ehrenstorp last night this time to check the right area but no joy, the bird had moved on I guess and an hour here netted just nightjar, woodcock and tawny owl. I was more than a little pissed off...
After dipping I headed onwards into the night to check reports of a possible Blyth's reed warbler at Eskilstorp. After midnight I was installed and listening to Acros intently here (they all sounded marshy to me) and was completely stunned to find the harsh rasp of a corncrake intruding on my concentration. It was singing from a lovely herby, rough field near the golf course car park! Result. I moved into a better position to hear it and make sure it was not another birder using a tape and a male quail flew over calling! I never knew that they called in flight. What a morning.
Rolled back into bed and got out much later in the day to hear a few snatches of red-breasted flycatcher song at Tvehöga before the clutch cable on the car parted and left us stranded in the field. A day of mixed emotions then but corncrake is OML!
After dipping I headed onwards into the night to check reports of a possible Blyth's reed warbler at Eskilstorp. After midnight I was installed and listening to Acros intently here (they all sounded marshy to me) and was completely stunned to find the harsh rasp of a corncrake intruding on my concentration. It was singing from a lovely herby, rough field near the golf course car park! Result. I moved into a better position to hear it and make sure it was not another birder using a tape and a male quail flew over calling! I never knew that they called in flight. What a morning.
Rolled back into bed and got out much later in the day to hear a few snatches of red-breasted flycatcher song at Tvehöga before the clutch cable on the car parted and left us stranded in the field. A day of mixed emotions then but corncrake is OML!
Thursday, May 30, 2013
finally a full day in the field
Finally a day off and a chance to catch up with a few things that have been spotted over the last week. The day started well with an icterine warbler singing from the garden! Hit Tvehöga first and took about twenty minutes to track down the singing red-breasted flycatcher, difficult amongst the noise created by all the other songbirds in this nice patch of beech forest. A quick look at Klarningen revealed a singing marsh warbler near the tower and some fluffy moorhen chicks, but little else of note.
Driving through Hulrugered on my way to check some dragonfly sites I stopped for a roadside pair of cranes and again for a mistle thrush. Bränneslätt mire was very wet and full of Odonates, my first Leucorrhina dubia and Cordulia aenea of the year were long overdue and there were plenty of the former here as usual.
Next stop was the pools at Bösketorp, always good for Odonates, there was plenty to look at as usual. New for the year here were Leucorrhina rubicunda and Coenagrion lunulatum. Birds included my first little grebe for the year (!) and a single green sandpiper.
Driving through Hulrugered on my way to check some dragonfly sites I stopped for a roadside pair of cranes and again for a mistle thrush. Bränneslätt mire was very wet and full of Odonates, my first Leucorrhina dubia and Cordulia aenea of the year were long overdue and there were plenty of the former here as usual.
Leucorrhina dubia - my first of the year.
Next stop was the pools at Bösketorp, always good for Odonates, there was plenty to look at as usual. New for the year here were Leucorrhina rubicunda and Coenagrion lunulatum. Birds included my first little grebe for the year (!) and a single green sandpiper.
Leucorrhinia rubicunda - note the reddish pterostigma, completely yellow costa and the larger broader abdominal spots.
Coenagrion hastulatum
Coenagrion lunulatum
In the afternoon I searched Vysterborg again hoping for Sympecma fusca, I had one female here last year and have yet to repeat the feat in BK... Plenty of Odos though with Libellula depressa (male, first of year) and Brachytron pratense (ditto) taking the honours. Some bird breeding evidence here as well, with young coot and shelduck being my first of the year.
Brachytron pratense at Vysterborg
Last stop of the day was the pond at Lönhult, here there were two 2K whooper swans feeding on waste seed potatoes as well as more Coenagrion lunulatum and a single Brachytron pratense.
Whopper goose or whooper swan
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
a quick hour
Four days spent hauling firewood, stacking it in the basement and building a bed/den in Number 2's bedroom has left me exhausted. Today I did some gardening work and it felt like a holiday. The best bit though was getting out after some birds in the late afternoon. Chased after the weekend's big bird, a singing red-breasted flycatcher at Tvehöga but failed in a short listen (just wood warblers). headed next for Klarningen which was quiet during a 45 minute spell, just two greenshank of note.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Shrike attack
A grey dawn saw me watching a dinky little lesser spotted woodpecker drumming away madly at the Slottet nature reserve, near Förslöv. Drove over the top hoping for ring ouzels but no sign of any thrush flocks, might do better on the coast everyone else seems to be finding them at the moment. Did get a singing male hawfinch at Tvehöga though, before dropping down into Klarningen.
Klarningen was quieter; wigeon (2), teal (70), shoveler (4), marsh harrier (pair), moorhen (back in the pond by the tower), ruff (two males), curlew (5) and wood sandpiper (2). It started to rain as I left and this continued for the rest of the morning but did little to dampen my enthusiasm. Checked Petersberg next where the big surprise was five green sandpipers, there is no edge at this site so they must have been perching on reed stems. Also here water rail and green woodpecker called.
Walked the stretch of coast between Hemmeslövsstrand and the top of Eskilstorpsstrand for my final bit of birding and it was excellent. A huge total of 53 Slavonian grebes were counted, along with two red-necked grebes and 12 great cresteds. Hemmeslövsstrand also produced at least two jays and on the return leg I followed up some mobbing calls to find a nest-hunting great grey shrike in the middle of a pile of brash. It popped out and sat for photos before heading north into Eskilstorpsstrand and away. Nice end to a productive session.
We always get a little pulse of great grey shrikes in mid April, but this was my first on the Halland coast part of BK.
Klarningen was quieter; wigeon (2), teal (70), shoveler (4), marsh harrier (pair), moorhen (back in the pond by the tower), ruff (two males), curlew (5) and wood sandpiper (2). It started to rain as I left and this continued for the rest of the morning but did little to dampen my enthusiasm. Checked Petersberg next where the big surprise was five green sandpipers, there is no edge at this site so they must have been perching on reed stems. Also here water rail and green woodpecker called.
Walked the stretch of coast between Hemmeslövsstrand and the top of Eskilstorpsstrand for my final bit of birding and it was excellent. A huge total of 53 Slavonian grebes were counted, along with two red-necked grebes and 12 great cresteds. Hemmeslövsstrand also produced at least two jays and on the return leg I followed up some mobbing calls to find a nest-hunting great grey shrike in the middle of a pile of brash. It popped out and sat for photos before heading north into Eskilstorpsstrand and away. Nice end to a productive session.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Last day of thaw
A game of two halves today with sort session in the morning and afternoon. Checked out Axeltorpsravinen in the morning picking up a dipper year-tick, as well as siskin (2) and treecreeper (heard). Driving over the top to Klarningen I had my first grey heron of the year at Tvehöga - there are few on the coast at the moment and this bird was feeding in a very small stream. My first look at Klarningen for 2011 was predictably quiet - two mute swans were feeding in the large amount of ice-free water and a black woodpecker called from the riverside trees. A quick look at Eskilstorpsstrand rounded off the morning but the foggy conditions were not ideal and I left with just 23 tufted duck in the notebook. Still no scaup for me this year.
In the afternoon I decided to try for redshank at Segelstorpsstrand but skunked out. Did find a nice flooded field at Öllövsstrand though which had whooper swan (16), Canada goose (13) and mallard (200), as well as one grey heron. Looking south I could see a large falcon on Grytskären and so motored south to confirm that it was a peregrine. One day I will get a gyr...
Friday, October 29, 2010
Quick look outdoors
Not much time for birding today but got out in the morning and spent 45 minutes at Klarningen. Highlight here was a 1K peregrine sitting in the field to the north. Just one whooper swan today, 17 wigeon, 20 teal and one tufted duck.
On the way home stopped at Tvehöga by a flock of 40 redpoll (they vanished quickly) and 7 bullfinch. Bullfinch were obviously on the move today, had another 6 at Atteköp and could hear more from the garden, including one nasal 'northern' calling bird. The next patch tick is going to be finchy I reckon. Pine grosbeak would be nice.
On the way home stopped at Tvehöga by a flock of 40 redpoll (they vanished quickly) and 7 bullfinch. Bullfinch were obviously on the move today, had another 6 at Atteköp and could hear more from the garden, including one nasal 'northern' calling bird. The next patch tick is going to be finchy I reckon. Pine grosbeak would be nice.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Lazy Sunday
Took the team to the beach at Eskilstorpsstrand for a picnic lunch in a brisk easterly wind. The continuous flow of low pressure systems and the constant high winds from different direction each day is starting to get a bit tedious...
Eskilstorpsstrand was quiet but produced a black-throated diver (1), great crested grebe (1) and a kestrel that looked like it was migrating north. Walked the beech woods at Tvehöga for an hour listening for flycatchers but no joy. A quick check of Klarningen revealed a wheatear but nothing of great note.
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