all white? yeah I'm all white!

The great white buzzard of BK. This bird has been around for over 12 years now and it always amazes me how seldom I see it!

Worked quite hard today with little reward. Kicked off near Grevie kyrkby by having a look at the splendid leucistic buzzard that lives in these parts. Just a little brown on the nape, otherwise clean white. 

Spent two hours working the woods along the shoreline at Segelstorpsstrand. Bumped into a big flock of 40+ goldcrests and had one chiffchaff. Plenty of tits about too with 8+ long-tailed tits indicative of some movement (457 through Kullen this morning!!) and a few thrushes around too including my first redwing of the season. But I could not find anything good, just two grey wagtails to write about.

Tried Öllövsstrand next but same result here, the best bird a male blackcap, although a flock of 60+ tree sparrow, with a good number of chaffinch and brambling was nice to see.

After lunch I decided to try the stubble south of Klarningen, but a good boot around reveal a dearth of birds, just a few meadow pipits, reed buntings and skylarks. The flooded pools had ruff (1) and golden plover (2) and these attracted the attentions of a peregrine at one point, resulting in a tense three minute chase that had me on the edge of my seat. From the tower things looked quiet with wigeon (55), teal (55) and shoveler (3) the best of it. The lone shelduck remains on station, must be damaged.

Last stop of the day was a sunny Eskilstorpsstrand which produced four white-fronted geese and two long-tailed ducks. Winter is upon us...

One of two grey wagtails at Segelstorpsstrand this morning.

Twitching with kids

Magic birds grey wagtails, even when they are playing hard to get.

With Mrs B stuck in a meeting all morning, the kids and I went twitching to nearby Lagaoset. It's a beautiful spot and the kids always enjoy it here. The male stonechat behaved too, surrendering as soon as we had walked the short distance to the back of the dunes. The only other notable bird in our lightning visit was a/some crossbill heard in the pines.

On the way home we checked Klarningen of course, but it remains quiet, there were more snipe about though and the curlew total has hit five. Over on Eskilstorpsdammar were two grey heron. Woo-hoo! Did finally meet Jan Skidell though which was good.

In the afternoon the entire team accompanied me up Sinarpsdalen. It seemed 'quiet' on the way up, just one grey wagtail. But once I had waved off the team and headed back to pick up the car the place came alive with birds. Funny that! Kicked through a mixed flock of thrushes that refused to contain a redwing, but resulted in a flushed woodcock (my first of the year). Another grey wagtail flew overhead, and a line of cherry trees yielded a hawfinch. High in a birch a great grey shrike peered about and down in the valley bog (and the biggest surprise of all) I heard my first water rail of the year.