Not much activity from my part here lately... I'm almost done with sorting through and editing the padjelanta pictures. A proper post is probably not more than a day away. Jackdaw (Corvus monedula)
I meant to post a summary of this week's birding today, but I didn't get around to it and now I have to go to bed because we're starting out for Halland at 4:30. I will post a proper post when I get home tomorrow. Have a Blue Tit on the house while you wait :)
Since I earned quite a lot of money, by my standards, for the job I did in Stockholm, I decided to get a new spotting scope. I decided on a Focus naturescope WP85 a long time ago since it's really a lot of scope for that kind of money. Usually it costs around SEK 5000 bunched with a decent tripod, but yesterday I saw an ad offering a 20% discount. Acting quick is not my trademark move, but I did today :)
This blog was recently mentioned in a list of random Gothenburg themed blogs in a newspaper here in Gothenburg. It was brought to my attention several days later by a friend who wasn't sure which paper and again by a friend who remembered which paper but not which day. Fortunately Metro (the newspaper) offer back issues in PDF-format. Metro, Gothenburg edition, April 18 2008, p. 12
This makes me wonder if I also have any regular readers ( I know of a few). Please comment and let me know what you think of my rants :)
We took another trip to the nature reserve where the two Three-toed Woodpeckers are still frolicking around. No luck this time either, although we got a nice dose of primary forest with rather good weather. The sun didn't help much at forest floor level in terms of sufficient light for photography though, but I still managed to get a couple of decent shots of a Red Squirrel.
Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)
2007 has been my best birding year so far, most categories. I got 95 new life ticks, advancing the total count to 215. I got 210 year ticks, missing three semi-hard mostly alpine species (Long-tailed Skua, Dotterel and Bluethroat), one rarity (Spoonbill) and, rather embarassing, Garganey. There are not too many common birds left to tick now, but primary targets for the next months will be typical winter species such as Lapland Bunting, Snow Bunting, Twite and Rough-legged Buzzard. I will also try to catch up on geese, falcons and owls as fast as possible. There's also of course the Oriental Turtle Dove, one of which for a couple of years has taken winter residence in a smaller city about 150 kilometers from the coast.
So far, 2008 has only two year ticks, Blackbird and Robin, the first within a minute of midnight and the other on the walk to the first morning tram. My january list currently contains only 24 ticks. I hope to get twice as many at the very least this year.
All bird photography so far has been with either analog SLR, digiscoping through bad scope or with a borrowed camera. Not anymore! Me and my boss girlfriend combined our wallets and as a result a moderately used Canon EOS 300D with battery pack is in the mail, probably arriving thursday. And since I already have a 28-300 mm EOS-lens, I can start right away :)
Today I decided to make a list of birds that I aim to tick this year.
Primary targets
White-fronted Goose
Manx Shearwater
Rough-legged Buzzard
Jack Snipe
Purple Sandpiper
Kittiwake
Little Auk
Bearded Reedling
Nutcracker
Twite
Parrot Crossbill
Pine Grosbeak
Lapland Bunting
Secondary targets
Tundra Swan
Pink-footed Goose
Bean Goose
King Eider
Grey Partridge
Black Grouse
Leach's Storm-petrel
Red Kite
Hen Harrier
Merlin
Pomarine Skua
Great Skua
Sabine's Gull
Puffin
Eurasian Pygmy-owl
Short-eared Owl
Kingfisher
Wood Lark
Shore Lark
Snow Bunting
Quite a list... Wish me luck!
We went to Smithska udden today, just as the two previous saturdays. Not an overwhelming amount of birds today. New spot-ticks for me were Wigeon, Grey Wagtail, Black Woodpecker and Long-tailed Tit. Also got very good photographs of the resident Goldcrests.
Goldcrest (Regulus regulus)
Edited to add: Also got a good shot of the local squirrel (probably one of many there) commonly known as 'the assistant' since it's accustomed to humans enough to go within two feet of people in case there is food to be had.
The winter feeding has now officially begun. The day after I put the equipment out there were a load of Tree sparrows, Blue tits and Great tits. After scattering some bread on the ground outside I also got Blackbird, Fieldfare and for a moment or two a pair of Redwings. Last winter's feeder list also included Nuthatch, Robin, Greenfinch and Pheasant. In November, we're moving to a new apartment where there's a lot of park forest just outside. We also have a balcony there, so the feeding project will probably be a bit more ambitious. When we went to inspect the new house last weekend, in 30 minutes I found 8 Great Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Robin, Great tit, Blue tit, Siskins and a Goldcrest.
As indicated in my 'about me' text my goal for this year was to reach 200. Seemingly impossible in April when had about 140 ticks but I actually managed to do it. With extras and cherries :) Caspian Tern got the honors of being tick no 200. Nice, since Caspian Tern is only seen a few times per year at home but almost common along the east coast.
I guess it would be silly to hope for 250 before the end of the year, and I don't dare hope for 300 in a year from now, but we'll see how good the autumn gets. A load of auks, shearwaters and migrating passerines to tick.
On monday we went to Hönö in the morning to get the materials for the shelter together and transport it and the constructed sections to the location to get it ready for assembly. A very hot day, a lot of board and plank carrying. At last the helicopter came and carried all the equipment and materials in four lifts in less than an hour. Very practical.
I know June is considered a summer month, but usually there's some warmth at the end of May so we can adjust a bit. But no! End of May, 15 degrees C. Start of June 30 degrees C.
The House Martins around here are nesting everywhere now. Two weeks ago there were six nests on my house and none on the other ones. Now there are at least ten on my house and I haven't counted the others. Also a lot of Swifts flying around but I doubt that they are nesting right here. Maybe over at the old barracks. There are high and pretty old buildings over there.
I just started adding some recordings of calling birds. Since they are recorded with digital camera, the easiest way was to upload the video files to Youtube. The embedded video thingies should be easy to spot :)
26 year old birder from Gothenburg, Sweden.
My goal for 2007 was get above 200 life-ticks. I managed 215 and will attempt to get to 250 in 2008. A lot harder!
Jackdaw (Corvus monedula)
Blue Tit (Parus caeruleus)
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) Help protect birds worldwide! Join RSPB!
Metro, Gothenburg edition, April 18 2008, p. 12
Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)
Goldcrest (Regulus regulus)
Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)