Sweden

Photo above: Hawk Owl habitat at Valinge, Halland (can you spot the Hawk Owl?)

Just back from a very enjoyable trip to southern Sweden to look at a selection of the good birds that are wintering in the area. The weather was excellent - one of the best weekends all winter with mostly clear skies, light winds and lots of sunshine. Temperatures were down to -9 at one point in Vastergotland but, with no wind, it didn't feel that cold. Highlights included 2 HAWK OWLS (absolutely stunning birds), a GYRFALCON (a real monster of a falcon, positively dwarfing the Peregrine that was making pathetic attempts to scare it off), ORIENTAL TURTLE DOVE (obviously lost but, amazingly, returning for its 4th winter in a row on a suburban housing estate in central Sweden) and a PYGMY OWL (very cool) with a supporting cast of ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD, MEALY REDPOLLS, WAXWINGS etc. Some photos below. More to appear shortly (courtesy of Peter who managed much better photographs than me).

The Hawk Owls are just class - they have almost no fear of humans and, at one point, the Valinge Hawk Owl dived from its perch to catch a mouse just a few feet away from me (the end result of the swoop in the photo below). We had the pleasure of spending 5 and a half hours on Sunday watching this Hawk Owl, allowing study of its habits and behaviour. During that time it caught two voles and a mouse and coughed up a pellet (which I collected and aim to study later - don't tell Libby!). Most of the time it spent sitting, sentinel-like, atop a larch or pine tree, constantly turning its head at every sound. They clearly have incredible hearing. At one point my tripod squeaked a little as I adjusted it and, even though it was sitting on the top of a tree probably some 750 metres away at that time, its head spun round in a shot, its piercing yellow eyes fixed on me for a few seconds until another noise distracted its attention. A truly awesome experience to spend time with this arctic owl.

The other real highlight for me was the GYRFALCON. Having arrived at Getterons reserve on Saturday afternoon about an hour before dusk, we were hoping it would put in an appearance as the geese came into roost on the small patch of unfrozen water. The reserve visitor centre affords excellent views over the estuary and the warden told us that this was the best spot from which to view the falcon, which was a regular visitor during the early morning and just before dusk. So we ordered a cup of tea and sat looking over the spectacular vista.. Just as was taking my first sip, I caught sight of a HUGE falcon coming in low over the estuary from the north. Without lifting my binoculars I instinctively called out "GYR" and then, when I did get my binoculars onto the bird, I saw just how big it was - a Peregrine was mobbing it and it looked TINY in comparison. This GYR really was a beast. It scared the living daylights out of the local wildfowl and promptly sat on the saltmarsh to preen and bide its time before selecting which species of local duck or goose it was going to have for supper. It treated us to several passes, each time prompting much respect from the local ducks and geese, before finally settling on a wooden fence post some 400-500 metres out from the visitor centre. WOW.

Photos below (click to enlarge): Getterons Naturreservat at dawn (where we stayed at the observatory on Saturday night for GBP 11 each!); Hawk Owl at Valinge; Hawk Owl swooping for prey; Hawk Owl (Peter Ransome); Oriental Turtle Dove (Peter Ransome); and Pygmy Owl.