First day of autumn

Male Sympetrum danae or black darter, quite a few still flying on Hallands Väderö this weekend.

Spent the 1st of the month with the team on our annual pilgrimage to Hallands Väderö, it is sadly too pricey to visit often but we always enjoy our day here each year. For a change nothing turned up on mainland BK to make us regret the journey. I think a light fall of common migrants may have taken place we certainly found spotted flycatchers and redstarts in every bush. Fifteen yellow wagtails were flying around the Kapelhamn area and that was about it. We spent most of our time looking for invertebrates but failed to find any brown hairstreaks. A painted lady was my first of the year though!

 I think this is Arion rufus, although the complex is tricky to identify.

Painted lady at last!

 Managed to identify this fly (Tachina fera), the larvae feed on noctuid moth caterpillars.

At the end of a long day walking the island the 'Nanny' was a welcome sight and somehow accommodated the huge number of people leaving the island on the last boat out!

Patch tick - great reed warbler!

Painted lady - new in on southerly winds that brought the patient birders of north-west Skåne the first stone-curlew for 53 years! [I did not go but after ten years without a stone-curlew I might be tempted]

An early start got me in the field before another DIY session on the house... Ripagården is always a good bet for migrants so I headed there as usual. Things looked quiet initially but when I got to the reedbed I quickly became aware that in amongst the reed warbler song was the testosterone-charged gruntings of a great reed warbler. A bird that may not have been recorded in the municipality before and was certainly a patch tick for me - result!

Spurred on I searched all the way to Hovs Hallar for other migrants but came up with nothing. A pair of red-backed shrikes have taken up residence though. Always great to see these birds.

Took the kids, Mrs B and the in-laws on a wild spoonbill chase in the afternoon to Trönninge ängar. The bird had flown and the other two potential year-ticks were nowhere to be seen either! Good birding on the beach nearby though with turnstone (1 - scarce this spring), 32 ringed plovers (migrants?) and great numbers of sea-duck offshore. Also here the first painted lady of the year. The best bird came as we drove away from the site and stopped to look at a migrating ringtail hen harrier (getting late for them here).

Nipped out in the evening for a quick look at Ranarpstrand and Glimminge, ignoring the news that a stone-curlew was 45 km away... Not much doing at either spot but as I drove home I stopped first for a long-eared owl being harrassed by a crow. Nice. Stopped again when a male merlin whipped in front of the car and wheeled about to give great views. It then headed for a female merlin that was carrying prey - do not ask me what was going on, I was astonished. Merlin do not breed on the patch so what were they up to? Do far northern breeders pair up en route? [Apparently merlin have a strong monogamous pair bond and have been recorded wintering together as pairs - these birds were presumably migrants stopping off en route north.] Great day.