Finches frenzy

26:th of November 2009
The feeding stations are starting to attract better numbers of birds. There´s been a few Siskins, Redpolls and plenty of Greenfinches lately, today about 100 and among them at least 7 Hawfinches! Not so bad since last winter they didn´t show much at all on this otherwise splendid site for them. They also got good company in the Common Crossbills that has been feeding in the nearby Spruce trees lately.

Looting Thrushes

25:th of November 2009
Despite this dark, grey, dull period there are some birds around to see. Large flocks af 1000´s of Fieldfares and Redwings have been around in the Black River Valley for a while, plundering the Mountain Ashes on their berries. Whole forest glades have been totally red with berries, but now they turn brown as the berries are consumed. Only a few Waxwings have been seen so far and we can only hope that the Thrushes leave some winter food for them. The regional difference is quite big though, down around Västerås, the berries are practically untouched and not many Thrushes are around.
A couple of hundred Whooper Swans, 50 Bean Geese and a male Hen Harrier is among today´s better birds as well.

Late Autumn Snake

22:th of November 2009
Finally a nice, sunny day after a long period of cloudy and rainy weather. On a walk on Björnön a little Grass Snake is crossing the path and I can´t resist holding him up for a little while. As you can see he gets defensive, but he was s very dozy and slow.

Autumn Swan migration

17:th of September 2009
Plenty of Whooper Swans have arrived to the area. On a little roundtour I see three flocks, the biggest holding 320 swans. Not to bad for an autumn day. The autumn migration is more outstretched and usually don´t produce any bigger concentrations of birds. Not at all like in spring when we have thousands of them in the valley.

First flock of Waxwings

17:th of November 2009
We´re in a dull, dark, wet period of the year and we can only wait for the real winter to come. Last week we had a little snowfall but it only stayed on the ground for a day. Some good winter birds are starting to appear though. My feeding station has got Hawfinches and Nutcrackers on a daily basis now. Today a saw the first flock of Waxwings, 30 of them flew over my garden in Fläckebo with their typical, ringing sound. A lovely taste of what´s to come, because this year there´s plenty of Rowan-berries, meaning there might be a lot of Waxwings this winter, hopefully also Pine Grosbeak. It´s now been 5 years since the last invasion.