Nutcracker in snow

... and in the first snow. (courtesy of Niclas Lignell)

Just a red cottage

3:rd November 2008
Even just a little, red cottage by the road in Svartådalen – the Black River Valley can be beautiful in this light.

Sunny november

3:rd of November 2008
The first snow came during the weekend but didn´t last for longer than 2 days. Today it is mild and sunny again after a cold night. The mild sunshine makes beautiful colours even though the trees are stripped naked on their yellow leaves now.

Retro -phalarope

The weather wasn´t the best, but the birds where obliging. Lekking Ruffs, Long-tailed Skuas, Long-tailed Ducks and Red-necked Phalaropes in the same puddles on the high Alpine plateau at Funäsdalen. Glyn Sellors took this excellent picture on the 11:th of June 2008. See more about the Upland trips on birdsafarisweden.com

Wolf howling night

29:th of October 2008
The Scandinavian Wolf population is slowly increasing and recent good news include an immigrated male from the east (Finland probably) who have bred succesfully with a swedish female wolf in the south part of Lapland.
This is the first time that the Swedish/ Norwegian Wolftribes have received some new blood to their worryingly small DNA-base. They´re all (ca 150 animals) in fact descending from the same single pair of ancestors (!)
Even the 2 resident local pairs got puppies this year, so a night out in the wolf territories of Bergslagen shure seems like an exciting event.
We set off a group of 8 people and start with a good barbeque on some local hot sausages and vegetarian baguettes. After that we cruise the forest-tracks, stopping to howl and listen for answers every 5-10 minutes or so.
Unfortunately no Wolves where heard this time, but we shure had a good time together. Have a look at the oficial wolf-howling trips provided by Marcus Jonsson at Kolarbyn this winter!

Blurry yellowlegs

26:th of October 2008
In a small coastal lagoon on the Swedish mainland opposite from Öland, a Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes), have been sighted for a while, and since it is only a short detour for us, we take the chance to twitch it.
As we put up our tripods and telescopes the first bird to appear in view is the one. (Check my flow!)
It feeds in a tight and very busy flock of Dunlins, Grey Plovers and the more similar Greenshanks and Spotted Redshanks (the Yellowlegs stand sleeping between them on the picture, you can barely sense the yellow legs) on the shoreline. For once even I got a tick!
The bird was quite diagnostic with really tall, pale yellow legs and a body most reminiscnt of a Wood sandpiper. The bill was short and fine and the expression a bit open-faced, cute with pale lores and a short supercilium.
Excuse me the extremely poor picture quality, the light was terrible and I just digiscope with a small camera.

Barnacle bonanza

26:th of October
The last day on this little Öland visit is not as pleasant as yesterday, it´s grey, drizzly and windy. The Gyr falcon is still hanging around "udden" (the southern point of the island) and some White-tailed Eagles are flapping in the hard southerlies.
A couple of Caspian Gulls (Larus cachinnans) are identified on the westreef, but that´s about it. On our way back north, we can´t help stopping as we pass the favourite field of the Barnacle Geese. Impressive amounts and great looking, contrasting birds. No sign of the Snow Goose from yesterday.