This month included a shorter trip to lake Yxningen for a crayfish party and two weeks in Österlen in the south of Sweden. I will have to apologize for the quality of some pictures as I had the camera on people identification after I photographed the soccer team of one of the grandkids. Changed it to bird id as soon as I noticed, but e.g. the Common shelduck, Wood sandpipers, Sparrow hawk and Western marsh harrier didn’t turn out as expected.
Tag: Större strandpipare (Charadrius hiaticula; Common ringed plover)
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.
April, 2025
Spring is well on its way and I have been a bit more active on the bird photography front.
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.
Summer and Fall, 2024
My seven months old Windows computer died early September and was returned for service. After almost three months without the repairs getting completed, I received a new one through the guarantee. (Don’t ask me about my experience trying to have a dialogue with support!) My other excuse for not posting here is that we’ve been busy since early August trying to find an apartment so we can sell our house. It’s now finalized, even though the actual move is a couple of months away.
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.
July, 2023
A month that started out windy with a trip to the island of Gotland. Continued relatively cool with a stay at Färingsö and ended with heavy rains.
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.
April-May 2022, Alvesta & Österlen
Another trip down to fair Österlen via Alvesta. Spring is still late, but a number of late migrants started to arrive on the last days.
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.
Tavi's Birds 