2011
Birding in 2011
Broängarna early spring
Finally decided to take a trip to my local nature reserve and see what birds had made their way here. Almost all of the snow has now melted except the odd deep patch of snow here and there. The ice has begun to melt now and there was 4 small patches of water on show, all the ducks, geese and swans gathered giving me some easy birding.
Started off at Bro IP and walk down to the viewing tower then circled around to the main parking area for the reserve and back around (I will upload a map of the area and my path).
There were many Teal, Tufted Duck, Wigeon, Goldeneye and Goosander.
Looking from Västraviken over towards Bro-hof Golf Course is one of the areas of water at the moment, as many as 10 pairs of Goosander took rest there and for the first time I seen male Smew’s, 3 males and several females, they stayed for about 10 minutes and then flew off.
On the way to the viewing tower I was surprised to see a Goshawk sat up in a tree, as soon as he seen me he called out and flew off over the lake towards the reserve parking.
Moments before I watched an Osprey look down over the pond at one of the golf holes before drifting out over the lake.
I got some nice views of a Barnacle Goose flying in, turning and flying back out over the lake.
Other birds in the areas surrounding were:
- Goldfinch
- Greylag Goose
- Canada Goose
- Grey Heron
- Mallard
- Cormorant
- Lapwing
- Skylark
- Reed Bunting
- Yellowhammer
Map of my walk and some areas for good views of the birds
Tibbleviken, Kungsängen
Yet again another trip out in hunt of a Peregrine Falcon, this time with some success. Out over Tibbleviken well over 70 Lapwings and some Skylark and Starlings took off and split in all directions – based on a description given the day before of a Peregrine scaring off exactly those birds at roughly the same time of the day as I was there I’m confident it was there, unfortunately I couldn’t see it no matter how hard I tried. This happened 2 times whilst I was there but still no Peregrine.
Attack of the Peregrine
The trip was not a waste even though it was cut short due to my daughter being sick at daycare. I managed to finally see my first Snow Bunting (30-40+of them) take of during one of the Peregrine attacks. Lots of Whooper Swan present in the fields with quite a large gathering of Greylag Geese and 10+ Bean Geese. There was also 14-16 White-fronted Geese in the area split up in smaller groups.
Whooper Swan moving down the field
Plenty of Skylark chasing each other around giving me some rather nice views of the bird.
Included in the list of birds seen today was my first Reed Bunting of the year, 2 Goldfinch feeding on some reeds next to the field, 10+ odd Mallards and a Grey Heron flying by.
The lake was still completely frozen and giving off a really harsh cold wind.
Photos coming soon…
Hjälstaviken
Back out again in hunt for the missing the birds, this time with fellow birder Alan Dalton (http://blogbirder.blogspot.com), still didn’t get to find/see the Hen Harrier or Peregrine Falcon. Missed the Hen Harrier by 2 hours which was a real shame.
On the walk up from the bus to Kokullen got to see a Black Woodpecker, first of the year for me so that was a nice treat.
This time did manage to see not just one but several White-tailed Eagles which cause quite a stir among the geese in the area. Giving us quite a treat and a great chance to get the geese and eagle in flight.
Greylag Geese – Canada Geese – Bean Geese
White-tailed Eagle
Several Buzzards in the area flying off in the distant.
Feeling rather warm in the face, might just have gotten an early tan this year. Rather cold wind still but it was still really nice.
Here is a complete list of what was seen (map to follow later):
• Whooper Swan
• Canada Goose
• Greylag Gose
• Bean Goose
• White-fronted Goose
• Mallard
• Skylark
• Wood Pidgeon
• Common Buzzard
• White-tailed Eagle
• Grey Heron
• Crane
• Black Woodpecker
• Jackdaw
• Hooded Crow
• Raven
• Greenfinch
• Blue Tit
• Great Tit
Birding in Stockholm 