birds

The Swedish trip recedes swiftly into the past, but digital memory lives on! Here are a few of the birds I managed to get photos of:Great Tit (Parus major) at a Swedish-made bird feeder in the Botanical Garden in Copenhagen. This angle does not show the black streak running down the GT’s breast, so here’s…

Ah, the White-breasted… wait a minute?Who the devil is this? These large, distinctive ducks were spotted all over Copenhagen.Took me a minute to figure out what I was looking at, later confirmed by our bird guide in Sweden. What do you think?

A juvenile male Bearded Reedling (Panurus biarmicus), known as skäggmes to the locals, at the Flommen banding station.The adult males have black markings down the sides of their face, the “beard,” rather more like a full mustache. This species has also been called Bearded Parrotbill and Bearded Tit. It seems to be in its own…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…