2 juv Golden Eagles in the area lately. Lovely birds, only winter visitors here.

2:nd of December 2011
Last day´s birding for Matt and Lauren (US) starts with a Great Grey Shrike who´s eating from his own store, a vole staked up on a twig (quite a morbid but rare thing to see), followed by 2 White-tailed Eagles at Lake Fläcksjön. Near Stockholm we manage to see a day roosting Ural Owl in a very dense pine tree and a much more showy Water Rail at Råstasjön. I must admit I haven´t seen Water rail this good for many years. And what a tame bird. Max Green took the rail pictures. See more of his excellent work on http://skogn.tumblr.com/

Plenty of Waxwings around today. At least 300 birds in one flock fed on apples and Rowan berries.

Dusky Thrush remains
The Dusky Thrush near Stockholm remains true to the site. It was well watched today when the crowd was smaller and some better photographs where taken. From what I gather it´s a first year female.

Dusky Thrush – a first for Sweden
Yesterday it became public knowledge that a Dusky Thrush (Turdus eunomus) resided in a garden just outside Stockholm. In fact it´s been seen already a week ago according to unconfirmed sources, but wasn´t identified until yesterday. Being a new bird to Sweden it attracted quite a crowd today. Even if it was quite skulking it stayed true to the same spot most of the time and appeared in the open to feed on berries for short periods. Sometimes it sat more in the open or even treetops. Dusky Thrush picture by Zsombor Karolyi. See more of his excellent pictures on his own photo-blog!

It´s not every day you see Ural Owl hunting in daylight. Today was one of them. This bird (or maybe several) have been seen in the same area for some time and often in daytime. This might indicate lack of food (rodents), especially since 2 Ural Owls have been found dead in central Västerås lately too.

Close Wolf encounter
A couple of White-tailed Eagles perched in a tree on a felling lead us to believe that there could be a carcass lying around. We approached and walk over and over the open area and all of a sudden a Wolf runs off from just some 20 metres away from me. I draw my camera and get the Wolf in the frame on one shot before it disappears in the forest. We are so in awe!