2025-05-01–04 Öland with Henrik

A four day birding excursion from Stockholm to the sothern part of island Öland. We were around 25 people in a comfortable bus and stayed at the Ottenby hostel. As usual, many early mornings.

This kind of trip often have birds far away from where we are and really requires a spotting scope, but I don’t own one and my longest camera lens is 840 mm (with the tele converter). (If I understand this corretly, that is about 30% reach as compared to a scope with 60 times magnification.) As a result I often have to crop the images significantly. Another problem is that a few photos were shot through the bus window, that does not help either. So you will have to excuse the quality of some pictures.

Outer Hebrides, September 21-28, 2024

Took a trip with my old friend, Johan, via Edinburgh to the Outer Hebrides. We traveled with a rental car via the ferry from Ullapool to the isle of Lewis. From there went to the northernmost tip, Butt of Lewis. Then we drove through the isles of Harris, North Uist, South Uist, Eriskay and Barra. Lastly we returned with a ferry to Oban and continued back to Edinburgh.

This was not the best time for bird watching, but I managed to capture four new species. It was also a bit late in the season as some tourist attractions were closed (e.g. the Arnol blackhouse). Most food shacks and lunch restaurants were also closed (and they are not plentyful to begin with). As we stayed in pre-booked hotels, we were at least treated to good dinners and breakfasts. Most of the hotels seemed to end their season in October.

2024-05 Österlen de luxe revisited

Favorit i repris, en fågelexkursion i Skåne i slutet av maj. Det blev en härlig tripp med många identifierade arter (drygt 130) och fem nya bildkryss till min samling. Som vanligt blev detingen bild på Sommargyllingen, men vi hörde den igen.

2023-05-25–28 Österlen deluxe

A luxury four day trip to beautiful Österlen with single room accomodation and breakfast + dinner included. Led by Henrik W, we observed around 135 bird species, but I was of course not able to photograph them all. And as usual, some of the ones I did get, are not identifyable by the image – you’ll have to trust us.

June, 2022

A good month for capturing new species. I went on two boat exceusrions into the Stockholm archipelago and a family trip to Tuscany, Italy. The latter was a holiday, so I did not bring the serious camera gear, meaning the bird photos suffered. Sadly, I dd not get a shot of the Eurasian Scops Owl (Dvärguv), but we heard it every night.

April, 2022

A chilly Spring this year. I started attending a second Tuesday (early morning) club, out on the Mälarö islands (MOF in photo captions below). We also had a short visit to the island of Gotland over Easter. But now it’s time to start packing for the trip down to the Österlen in the south of Sweden for the next two weeks.

May (the 2nd half), 2021

In between heavy rain days, Spring has finally arrived and thus allowing me to visit a number of local bird sanctuaries.

April 2020

An unusually warm April got me out in nature a lot. Temperatures peaked at 20C, but now at the end of the month there is sleet. Here in Sweden we are encouraged to enjoy nature, despite the Corona virus, but to keep social distance – perfect for birding. The Tuesday club has been postponed, as has all other events.

029 – Snäppor, spovar, beckasiner, m fl (Sandpipers, snipes, etcetera)

Kustsnäppa (Calidris canutus, Red Knot)
Kärrsnäppa (Calidris alpina; Dunlin)
Småspov (Numenius phaeopus; Whimbrel)
Enkelbeckasin (Gallinago gallinago; Common snipe)
Storspov (Numenius arquata; Eurasian curlew)
Grönbena (Tringa glareola; Wood sandpiper)
Skogssnäppa (Tringa ochropus; Green sandpiper)
Drillsnäppa (Actitis hypoleucos; Common sandpiper)
Rödbena (Tringa totanus; Common redshank)
Svartsnäppa (Tringa erythropus; Spotted redshank)
Gluttsnäppa (Tringa nebularia; Common greenshank)
Brushane (Calidris pugnax; Ruff)