Photos: Hawk Owl on a kill; Hawk Owl with mouse; a Hawk Owl larder; Golden Eagle; and Golden Eagle with Red Kite (click to enlarge)
A business meeting in Malmo on Friday afternoon was the perfect excuse to stay an extra day and do some more birding in southern Sweden. I had heard about another HAWK OWL at Krankesjon, just a few minutes drive east of Malmo, so that was my first stop. Arriving on site at 8am there was only one other birder present but, over the course of the next 5 hours around 40 birders came and went (including two car loads of Danes). The owl performed extremely well and was completely fearless in the company of man, as is often the case with this species. The weather was perfect - very still, sunny and cold, with a hard frost overnight. Food is obviously plentiful and I saw the owl catch 4 mice, two of which it ate and 2 of which it stored, as can be seen in the third photo.
A real bonus was an immature GOLDEN EAGLE that circled low over the site late morning in the company of a RED KITE, shortly followed by a WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. The Golden Eagle shows the classic profile of a long-tailed aquila eagle and can be aged as an immature (probably a 'first-winter' bird) as it has large white patches in the outerwing and is very white in the tail with a prominent dark trailing band.
Does birding get any better than this?
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1 comment:
Terry, I am coming to Copenhagen for the Climate Congress in a few weeks (the tune up for the December UN meeting). I am a birder, and I'd love to go out with you sometime if you are in town and have the interest. I am at 966 species for my life list, and while I imagine it might be tough to get 34 in winter, I do not really have any European birds, so it's actually fairly possible. Please email at kvanhou@emory.edu. My name is Kyle. Thanks!
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