Wednesday 3 September 2014

Falsterbo Trip Report - day 4

Day 4
The final day - another lightning trip, I like these. We elected not to go down to Nabben and instead checked out the sheltered side of the Obs compound, which in this instance was the eastern side. As this was with the rising sun, it was warm and pleasant. Note that you are on a fairway at this point, so it is best that if you want to check it out you do so early morning before the golfers turn up. That said, we didn't do this and a hugely polite man walked the length of the fairway to explain to us what to do if we heard "Fore" shouted loudly. Most impressively dealt with, in the UK we would have just been yelled at I expect, such are tolerance levels these days. But I digress, the birds were great. We had previously seen Pied and Spot Fly in here, as well as Redstart and Garden Warbler, but we really wanted Icky. This took a while, but eventually we had blinding views, and whilst searching another dodgy Osprey Buzzard flew over - this is where my photos came from. To be fair, when we got flummoxed and outdone by the first one, I did say it didn't feel like an Osprey, even if it looked like one. I think we saw four in this plumage, so if you think that on some days you can get over 1000 birds, the locals will see perhaps a dozen a day, so it really isn't an uncommon plumage variation. Indeed it's illustrated in the Collins. Including this bird, another 16 flew over, as well as an impressive 240+ Crossbill, typically in groups of 20-30. We actually recorded a much higher count that the chaps at Nabben on this day, mainly because the birds seemed to come across the Golf Course, over the Obs garden, and directly out towards Denmark. Birds this small could easily be missed at the far end.




We then walked north to Flommen to check out the reedbed. This was mainly in a pathetic attempt to get Reed Warbler onto the trip list, and as such was a great success with three birds found in very breezy weather. Little else though. Retrieving the galactic hyper-cruiser Nissan, we drove a short distance up the coast to Lilla Hamars (1 on map below), a small spit of land only a bit north east of the Falsterbo Canal. I have never seen so many Wagtails in my entire life, mainly all in a single field with livestock, it was quite sensational. Many Whinchat here also, quite a few waders, and then on an outlying island, a pair of Sea-eagles terrifying the local Greylag population. 



A spot of forest birding at Yddingesjön proved fairly unproductive, and with the plane looming we went out to Klagshamn (2 on map above), just below the Malmö bridge - another spit of land. This was a bit of dump to look at, but we secured some valuable birds for the list including a couple LBB Gull in the quarry and a Merg in the bay, and then Bearded Tit, Reed Bunting and Water Rail in the small reedbed south of the stables. Here another another bird tower afforded great views back towards Falsterbo, and allowed us to peer into corners of the reeds which would otherwise have been obscured. A few more HBs streamed through, and Bradders strung a Merlin to get us to 134. 135 when you count my Two-barred Crossbills!


Klagshamn. 4 - Quarry, 5 - nice sheltered glades, 6- Reed Bed, 7 - Bird Tower.
Another gnashing of teeth, wailing etc as we crossed back into Denmark. Hard to bear.

Trip List
Mute Swan - huge numbers around the coast between Malmö and Falsterbo
Greylag Goose - ditto, as well as Vombsanger.
Canada Goose
Barnacle Goose - on sheltered side of Varanger pensinsula
Shelduck
Mallard
Gadwall - many in the car...thankfully a proper flock at Krankesjön
Pintail - in the lagoon at Nabben
Shoveler
Wigeon
Teal
Garganey - single birds in two locations
Tufted Duck
Eider - small numbers off Nabben and elsewhere
Common Scoter - off Nabben occasionally
Goldeneye - Nabben
Red-breasted Merganser - Klagshamn
Pheasant - hyper-rare until we found a field of 50....
Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Red-necked Grebe - 2 family groups south of Börringe
Cormorant - gazillions off Nabben
Grey Heron
White Stork - a migrating bird from Nabben, and 8 ringed birds near Vombsn
White-tailed Eagle - numerous in the interior, a family near Skanorsljung
Osprey - common migrant (!)
Red Kite - numerous at Börringe
Black Kite - 1 Börringe, 1 Skanorsljung
Marsh Harrier
Montagu's Harrier - 1 at Skanorsljung
Pallid Harrier - 1 near Borringe
Common Buzzard - rare
Honey Buzzard - dirt bird, approx 350 seen
Sparrowhawk - constant migrant at Nabben
Goshawk - Börringe
Kestrel
Hobby - 3 near Trelleborg
Merlin (ahem)
Water Rail - said to be numerous in the reeds at Flommen. 2 at Klagshamn
Coot
Crane - 300+ at Vombsanger
Oystercatcher
Avocet
Ringed Plover
Grey Plover
Golden Plover
Lapwing
Knot
Turnstone - rare, only 2 seen
Dunlin
Curlew Sandpiper - always a few present in any Dunlin flock
Broad-billed Sandpiper - east of Skanors revlar
Temminck's Stint - near Börringe
Wood Sandpiper
Green Sandpiper
Common Sandpiper
Redshank
Spotted Redshank
Greenshank
Bar-tailed Godwit
Curlew
Whimbrel
Snipe
Ruff
Arctic Skua - 3 off Nabben
Black-headed Gull
Common Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull - Klagshamn
Little Tern - Nabben and near harbour
Sandwich Tern - Nabben
Common Tern
Arctic Tern
Caspian Tern - 14 at Krankesn
Black Tern - Nabben lagoon, and interior lakes
Rock Dove
Stock Dove - rare, be sure to check all those flocks of Woodies carefully!
Wood Pigeon
Collared Dove
Swift - constant passage
Kingfisher - Vombsn and Krankesn
Great Spotted Woodpecker - near Börringe
Skylark
Sand Martin
House Martin
Swallow
Meadow Pipit - rare, but some at Lilla Hamars
Tree Pipit
White Wagtail
Yellow Wagtail
Robin - 1 seen in four days!
Redstart
Wheatear
Whinchat
Song Thrush - 1 in Falsterbo Park
Mistle Thrush - 1 at Obs
Blackbird - uncommon
Garden Warbler
Blackcap
Whitethroat
Reed Warbler - Flommen
Icterine Warbler - Obs
Willow Warbler - most common Warbler
Chiffchaff
Goldcrest
Spotted Flycatcher
Pied Flycatcher - fairly common, especially in Falsterbo Park
Great Tit
Coal Tit
Blue Tit
Crested Tit -- woods south of Vombsn
Marsh Tit
Bearded Tit - reedbed at Klagsham
Wren
Nuthatch
Treecreeper
Red-backed Shrike - Falsterbo Park
Magpie
Nutcracker - 2 at Obs
Jackdaw
Rook
Hooded Crow
Raven - around Börringe
Starling
House Sparrow
Tree Sparrow
Chaffinch
Linnet
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Crossbill
(Two-barred Crossbill)
Reed Bunting
Yellowhammer





No trip report would be complete......


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