Fieldnotes
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Birds in Hand III
Spotted Crake (Porzana porzana).Småfläckig sumphöna. Our Sora is in the same genus.They netted another, this one substantially smaller than the first, so it had some chowing down to do before taking off for Africa. These birds eat insects and other aquatic yummies found in marshes. [The birds are weighed and checked for body fat, which…
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Raptor Wednesday
Within three hours of New York City, there are a number of places where you can spot soaring and south-bound migrating raptors this time of year. The most famous is the farthest away: Hawk Mountain in PA. I’ve been once; it was a pretty slow day for hawks. That’s always the gamble: are the weather…
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Birds in Hand II
The Flommen reedbeds, just north of the lighthouse, are also set up with mist nets by the folks at the Falsterbo Fågelstation. Here’s a Grasshopper Warbler (Locustella naevia) they netted just before we visited. Gräshoppsångare is more likely to be heard than seen. This was a first netted example for our guide, Evan, who worked…
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Galls
You may know of my fascination with galls, the structures created by plants in response to insects. In the Botanisk Have in Copenhagen and in the Alnapsparken at Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet, the Swedish agricultural college, I found these lovely knopper oak galls. They were growing on acorns of Quercus robur, the great oak of Europe, which…
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Birds in Hand
We attended a ringing demonstration at the Falsterbo Fågelstation. Karin, a volunteer at the observatory located at the Falsterbo fyr (lighthouse) also works there, reporting the weather every three hours. She has a molting Robin (Erithacus rubecula), or Rödhake in hand. Largest size ring here is for swans. A rather smaller one goes on the…
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A Cacophony of Corvids
Malmö’s landmark Turning Torso, with Hooded Crows, Rooks, and Jackdaws on the fence. Add the Magpie, and even urban areas in Denmark and Sweden are well represented by the members of the Corvidae.A Rook (Corvus frugilegus) — råka — with some leucristic feather action.Hooded Crow (Corvus cornix), gråkråka, and Magpie (Pica pica), skata.One of the…
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The Butterfly International
Was it my imagination or where the (Red) Admirals in Sweden redder? Vanessa atalanta is found all around the northern hemisphere and is often the last butterfly seen flying in the fall.This birch sap leak was attracting them all at the edge of the ljung (heath). We also saw our old friend the Cabbage White…
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Bufo bufo
The Common Toad of Europe, I think. Vanlig padda in Sweden, where we found these two on a path near lake Krankesjön. Sweden has 13 species of amphibians (including two vattensalamander) and six species of reptiles.Being in the land o’ Linnaeus, we kept coming across the doubled binomial: Porzana porzana, Buteo buteo, Anser anser, Ciconia…
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Raptor Wednesday
This is the all-Swedish edition. We saw twelve species of raptors on our trip. Here are some of the highlights: Tornfalk or Eurasian Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus). These were seen every day, often in multiples. For instance, one morning there were five over fields with a scattering of cattle who had clearly whirlwinded up some insects…
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Snigel
We had wet weather in Sweden, and slugs like nothing better. Rather more so than birds, that’s for sure. Arion vulgaris was everywhere. These seem to be the invasive — “the Spanish slug”– but it gets complicated. Arion lusitanicus has also been used for this species. This journal article suggests it’s actually native to Central…
Backyard and Beyond 