postcard from Öland

The last weekend in April saw us all on a long weekend in Öland. I love this island in the spring. Things were fairly quiet for us however, although a few days before a Caspian plover had been present... The best bird we had was a pectoral sandpiper. Number 1 and I did a pre-breakfast bird walk one morning and driving back we overtook this excellent red kite.

Wrynecks were singing at a few locations, we found this one whilst searching unsuccessfully (again!) for smooth snakes.

 We stayed at Stenåsabadet, which was quiet for migrants in the rather bitter NE wind but we did find this female collared flycatcher on the last morning.

On our way off the island we stopped at a small reservoir near Skogsby and enjoyed the Sympecma fusca.

we visit Öland and I join Club 300

 The long-staying male firecrest at Stenåsabadet was joined by a female on the 10th - I was kindly shown this bird by Markus Tallroth before he stalked off to find more birds...

10th May
Slept fairly badly due to it being the first night of camping and also because of the incessant racket from a horny black-tailed godwit which seemed to circle above the tent all night. Being a fairly unfamiliar bird vocalisation it disturbed me greatly! Great to get out early and work the campsite whilst the rest of the team slept on. Managed better views of the male firecrest and was also shown a new-in female by Markus Tallroth at one point. The photo above does not do it justice sadly. Two different male red-breasted flycatchers were singing too, one an absolute corker, the other a drab 2K trainee. My first swifts of the year cruised overhead.

 Our first day produced a flock of 26 dotterel at Mörbylånga. Eighteen of them are pictured poorly here!

Having scraped the team together our first stop of the day was nearby at Mörbylånga where a fine flock of 26 dotterel fed right beside the road. Superb. Driving south and unashamedly twitching we headed for the turtle dove at Kungsgården (Ottenby), which sat in a tree looking miserable. My first Swedish tick of the trip though! We gave Ottenby a brief drive-through but I did not subject the team to a tedious Kentish plover stake-out. This regular over-summering male was my nemesis during a previous visit to Öland with Terry Townshend in 2010 and I knew it could be tricky to pin down. No sign of it this morning so we headed north again away from the crowds.

Spent the remainder of the day checking a few sites for smooth snake but only turning up a single but very large adder and a singing wryneck. Last stop of the day was one of my favourite sites on the island - Beijershamn. Here we enjoyed a pair of garganey (FOTY) and some great waders, including FOTY spotted redshank (5) and grey plover (1). Beijershamn saved the best for last though, as we were ambling back we jammed into a superb male citrine wagtail that had just been re-located. Swedish tick number 2, which brought up the 300! [I mentioned this to Håkan J at Ottenby and he smiled sweetly and pointed out that 300 was a respectable year-list total...]

 One of the top birds during our long weekend was this fantastic male citrine wagtail

11th May
The easy highlights of my morning session around the campsite were long-eared owl (1),garden warbler (male singing, FOTY) and good views of the male firecrest feeding low down in between bouts of singing.

The sun shone so we spent the middle part of the day in an amazing limestone pavement hazel coppice area looking in vain for smooth snake again. Flushed at least three nightjars here though and heard yet another wryneck. Later on we drove north picking up three amazingly close and just mind-blowing Montagu's harriers. Last thing we headed south again to Näsby near Ottenby for our Twitch-of-the-Day - a fine lesser grey shrike that performed admirably. Nearby an ortolan bunting was a nice bit of padding to the growing list.

A highlight on 11th May at Stenåsabadet was my first owl on Öland - this cracking and inquisitive long-eared

Almost got a good photo of the male firecrest this morning, a tricky subject and the learning curve remains steep

This male ruff beside the road at Ottenby was begging to be papped

Lesser grey shrike - Swedish tick number three on this busy mini-break

12th May
On our last morning I tore myself away from Stenåsabadet and headed south bright and early to Ottenby to have a go at the Kentish plover. Here I was lucky enough to fall in with the Helsingborg's Peder Winding and Klas Rosenkvist and they found me the Kentish in fine style. Thanks guys! Swedish tick number 4 and a ghost laid to rest.

Packing up the tent we headed towards the bridge stopping at a small reservoir near Skogsby for a look at Sympecma fusca and then heading for Beijershamn for a last look at this fabulous site. We found the reported broad-billed sandpiper easily enough and were just about to leave when someone kindly asked if we had seen the spoonbill!! I dashed off to the far north of the site, walking for nearly an hour there-and-back managing just two minutes on the bird. Swedish tick number five and a great way to end the trip.

Sympecma fusca - predictably kicking off the Odo year for me here in Sweden and my first on Öland

birthday birding

Our campsite on Öland was infested with red-breasted flycatchers

Started the 9th of May with an early session around Gröthögarna and then relocated for a long weekend on Öland. The morning session produced five BK year-ticks in the shape of sedge and reed warbler, icterine warbler, spotted flycatcher and rather embarassingly redpoll! A reasonable showing and a small fall evident but no big surprises.

Travelling to Öland took up the remainder of the day and we arrived at our campsite at Stenåsabadet in time to put up the tent and connect with at least four red-breasted flycatchers and a singing male firecrest. A peregrine flew low overhead as the sun dipped towards the horizon and the coast revealed a year-tick turnstone. Stenåsabadet is located on the east coast and has a few clumps of trees that pull in the birds and is set to become a favourite location of mine when visiting the island.

Hat-trick on Öland

We all went to Öland for three days and it was fab!

The main drag through the Ottenby reserve down to the southern tip of Öland is excellent for getting close views of stuff - this fantastic grey grey shrike stopped us in our tracks as we headed down for the accentor on Day 1.

The star of our long-weekend was this MEGA black-throated accentor! It stayed just long enough for us to get amazing views down to two metres on the Friday and then disappeared overnight in time for the Saturday crowds (sounds familiar...). Team Benstead does not twitch much but this bird was truly splendid.

We rounded off Day 1 by finding this skulky reed warbler (in October!) at Sebybadet. The weather had gone wrong for continuing arrivals of Sibes sadly but the family appreciated the incredible blue-sky birding.

Sebybadet also produced my first waxwings of the autumn, they should be on-patch now too I reckon.

The highlights of Day 2 included my first Swedish dusky warbler (Triberga läge) and also my first steppe eagle (here with a white-tailed eagle). After ignominiously dipping one in Skåne with Terry on New Year' Day, it was a wonderful moment when this sub-adult bird appeared overhead with four white-tailed eagles at Ottenby.

Other highlights included a strong supporting cast of stuff at Ottenby including a good red phalarope, purple sandpiper, black redstart and bearded tit, an Arctic redpoll at Kapelludden and rough-legs were on the move throughout the island. We also saw more birders than I have seen all year. Great trip!

Farewell Terry!

Terry bagged this shot of today's star bird, a singing male river warbler just outside Kalmar.

Kicked off our last morning session of the trip with another very early start at Ottenby. Terry hammered the woodland doing well for barred warbler and golden oriole. I checked out the KP area again but to no avail. Did pick up three long-tailed duck and at least four goosander, as well as the regular flock of seven black-tailed godwits and the usual waders. We cruised slowly north, Ottenby had not been over-kind to us and it stuck the knife in nicely with both bee-eater and white stork after we left today! Our drive north up to Beijershamn was interupted by stops for two or three rosefinches, a nice male Montagu’s harrier, a single grey partridge, golden plover (3) and redwing(1).

Biejershamn in a quick visit produced grey plover (2), dunlin (14), and an incredible 36 spotted redshank. Whilst here Mrs B rang in to tell us that there was a river warbler across the bridge in Kalmar. We asked a local birder for directions to the site and before we knew it we were enjoying bright sunshine, warmth, great views of a close and often obliging river warbler and also a cracking proper-red singing male rosefinch. It almost felt like a holiday… Drove on home seeing surprisingly little, although my spotter was rather tired. We just had time to visit Dömestorp before Terry’s train. The plan was to jam into the singing the red-breasted flycatcher and actually see it. It was not to be. I dropped an exhausted Terry off at Båstad and just had to hope he would not fall asleep and wake up in a siding somewhere in Copenhagen in the middle of the night. A great trip despite appalling weather.

A spring (?) day on Öland

What a monster! I haven't got a new camera this is one of Terry's. This singing male barred warbler was one of the highlights of the trip - an exciting first for both of us, despite our long collective history of seeing this species in the UK in autumn. Perched by the road we successfully stalked it down to ridiculously close-range in the car. A great moment.

A rather trying day weather-wise again today with very little rain but a very strong south-westerly winds that had Terry and I pretty frazzled by the end of play. First up was a trip to nearby Norra Lunden (Ottenby), where at least we could get out of the wind. Here we quickly got onto a superb male collared flycatcher and followed it up with a singing red-breasted flycatcher, which gave a few snatches of song and then shut up. We never saw it. Also here woodcock (1), lots of spotted flycatcher and about 8 common crossbills.

Moving to Södra Lunden we went for a short walk and heard a rosefinch. Just as we were despairing of seeing barred warbler and discussing the fact that we had not even heard a call, one rattled away behind us. It popped up briefly, a female. I looked for the Kentish plover again but thorough searching revealed nothing in the KP line but plenty of other waders; grey plover (5), black-tailed godwit (7), turnstone (3), spotted redshank (2) and knot (14). Also here barnacle goose (1), little gull (2 2K) and a few alcids and common scoter going past. Terry elected to chase more barred warblers and have another crack at the red-breasted flycatcher but the weather was not kind.

A short stop at Seby produced more knot (7), dunlin (2) and a moulting adult curlew sandpiper (with one leg). Also one little gull here. Next was the excellent little wetland at Hulterstad where we had at least four black terns, as well as our first gadwall (6) and pochard (1). Möckelmossen was windy with just a few more black terns (3) and our first whinchat. Driving on we had a rapid hobby past at Resmo, one of two today.

Beijershamn was ridiculously windy (Terry slept) but looked good for a (hopefully) quieter look tomorrow. At least 25 spotted redshanks here were a highlight but also impressive numbers of Anas ducks; wigeon (30), teal (70), gadwall (25) and shoveler (25). Also dunlin (2).

Driving south Terry’s rest had done him good as he plucked first red kite and then three cranes from the skies. Back at Ottenby we dipped the KP again and then heard of a possible steppe eagle around Kastlösa and dragged ourselves round on a rather pleasant circuitous transect. First up was a surprise goshawk and the red kite again at Kastlösa. We had an epic encounter with a male barred warbler at Gösslunda that saw the bird about 3 metres away from the car at one point. At Triberga we heard another rosefinch and we lastly we took the Lindby loop for a nice male Montagu’s harrier.

Road trip

With 'Birding Copenhagen's' Terry Townshend soon to be transferred to far-off China, it was time for a farewell tour. We have not got together much over the last two years but when we do it is always enjoyable. This trip to Öland was no exception, although we had to battle some rain and a lot of windy weather...

On the way down to pick up Terry at Lund I stopped at Saxåns mynning. Here the ruddy shelduck performed briefly in the light rain just after dawn, obligingly flying in out of the mist to land in front of the bird-tower and then off again. Kosher? Who knows? Also here a pair of avocet, but not much else spotted in the grim conditions and short time available.

Picked up a bleary-eyed Terry and headed straight for Ravlunda firing-range, the military were using it in the afternoon, so we were under a slight time constraint but had a fantastic four hours. Ravlunda was amazing, superb habitat and the rain stayed away. Walking in from Road 161 to the small pond we had a close encounter with a super little singing male firecrest. Breaking out into grassland with scattered trees we could hear singing woodlarks, golden orioles (2+ heard, one seen eventually) and mistle thrush (1). A splendid male Montagu’s harrier hunted the heathy grassland areas around the range during our visit. Green woodpeckers were frequently encountered and out on the heath we heard the whinging 'song' of a wryneck. A single golden plover flew south. Searching for tawny pipit and barred warbler took up most of our time; splitting up to search more of the large potential area proved disastrous for Terry when I connected with a fly-through bee-eater. Heard calling initially, I spotted it circling briefly before trying (and failing) to get Terry’s attention by a number of increasingly desperate methods. The bird slipped away north and Terry dipped. The whole debacle 'harshing my buzz'! What a shame. On the walk back we finally scored a pair of tawny pipits but we had to abandon the barred warblers and hope that we levelled the score on Öland. A calling lesser spotted woodpecker by the car was the last of a hatful of year-ticks at this wonderful site.

We headed for lunch and a chance of serin at Kivik but the rain came and hampered our efforts and in the end we elected to head for Öland. Only one bird of note on the journey - a single white stork near Viby.

As we approached Ottenby the mist and rain returned. Nevertheless after tea we headed out for a wet and gloomy session along the access road to the lighthouse. Here we searched hard for the Kentish plovers reported recently but failed. Some good birds though with whimbrel (2), bar-tailed godwit (2), black-tailed godwit (5), turnstone (1), ruff (1) and little gull (2 2K). A long day but rewarding.