Sweden - Hemavan

Simeon and James

During half term we had the fabulous opportunity of a skiing holiday in Hemavan in the north of Sweden. On condition that Orjan, our host, acted as Hemavan's "Turistprast" (tourist priest - fairly self explanatory) for the duration of the holiday, we could borrow a house next to the church!

We packed our binoculars dreaming of hordes of Nutcrackers and Siberian Jays, but unfortunately the reality was almost more surprising. There weren't any birds! The total number of species seen on the whole trip was about 10...

Magpies and Hooded Crows were the only regular birds. Great tits were fairly common, averaging about 5 individuals per day! Pistewatching (not a recommended activity) produced only Raven, whilst snowballfightwatching delivered a lovely flypast by a male Black Grouse - the star bird of the trip!
A very tantalising "owl sp." made an brief appearance for James; he thought it was a very small Barn Owl, before realising that Sweden has no Barn Owls, and decided it was probably Tengmalm's. Simeon heard a distant call which was possibly a Hawk Owl.

Perhaps the best birding was when we sat in a ditch and watched someone's bird feeders! Blue Tit, (Northern) Bullfinch and several gorgeous Willow Tits were added to the list before we resorted to burying each other.

Capercaillie, Black Grouse, Willow Grouse and Ptarmigan were all seen stuffed in various cafes.

Still, despite the lack of birds we had an amazing holiday with some great friends!

Ring-billed Gull

Welney, 27/01/08, James and Simeon

Secretly hoping that I wouldn't have any work to do so that we could spend the day plover watching, Simeon and I arrived at Welney at 2:00. As usual Sarah wasn't there, so after making sure everything had already been done I went over to the observatory for my 'last resort' job - assisting with Guide in the Hide (ie. bird watching!). There was very little at all, so that after about 5mins everybody had seen pretty much everything there was to see!

We were off the hook, so we made a speedy getaway. Unfortunately our tactics were in vain because, once again, no plovers were to be found. Feeling somewhat peeved we thought it might be worth going back to Ten Mile Bank to inspect a flooded field full of gulls. Simeon predicted boredom and failure, and therefore sat in the car keeping warm. As I got out of the car the whole flock took to the air! Perhaps Simeon had been right. Nevertheless I waited impatiently for them to settle, muttering to myself about Simeon being the world's most annoying birding companion. It appeared that most of the big (ie. interesting) gulls had made off, leaving a pile of Black-headed Gulls. Just as I was giving up hope, I struck gold! At the back of the flock stood an adult winter Ring-billed Gull (I could be certain of this thanks to the lack of birds at Welney which had driven me to gen-up on gulls, in particular Ring-billed!). The light wasn't particularly cooperative, but the bill was diagnostic; a lovely bird indeed! I got Simeon out of the car to get a second opinion, and the look on his face made my day! Who wants to see an American Golden Plover anyway?