StuartReeves
Local rarity
After five years in Denmark I am in the process of moving back to the UK to take up a new job in Suffolk in December. One of the reasons I delayed my move until late in the year was so that I could get one more autumn with Falsterbo more or less on my doorstep. As the sharp point at the extreme southern tip of Sweden, Falsterbo is probably the best autumn migration watch point in Northern Europe. Its position at the end of Sweden means that large numbers of migrating birds are concentrated there before they have to cross the sea to Denmark to continue their migration. By mid October migration is dominated by Wood Pigeons and passerines, and it was this migration that I was anticipating, though there are often still good numbers of buzzards and Red Kites moving at this time of year.
On arriving at the Car park at Kolabakken, I had the good fortune to bump into Falsterbo’s resident BF member Greg McIvor. He greeted me with a rather heart-stopping sentence: “Have you heard about the Siberian Thrush?”, then added, almost as an afterthought, that an Imperial Eagle had just been reported at a little north of Falsterbo. Once I had recovered the power of speech, Greg explained that a probable Siberian Thrush had been seen twice as it flew out to Nabben (the southern tip of the headland), before turning back. It had been last seen apparently coming down to land somewhere in the trees near where we were standing. Quite understandably, he was planning to look for it. I however, was torn. I could see the attraction in looking for this almost mythical rarity, but I suspected the chances of relocating it were rather slim, and I really did want to give myself a chance of catching-up with that Imperial Eagle, if it should head this way. In the end I opted to head for Nabben, reasoning that this might be the best option, given that either of these goodies, if they tried to migrate, would probably pass over the point.
A digression. I have history with Imperial Eagles. Last autumn one appeared at Falsterbo on a number of days in succession, coming down to the point each day before chickening-out of the sea crossing, and returning north again. Heading over on the Saturday on a perfect day for raptor migration, I was optimistic of my chances, as were a number of Swedish birders who had travelled much further than I for a crack at this bird, but it was not to be. It was a good day, with a Pallid Harrier as fair compensation for a number of the Swedish listers, but the Imperial Eagle didn’t show. It or another immature Imperial Eagle then wintered a little further north in Sweden, but it evaded me on three separate visits that winter. After all this I was beginning to wonder if Imperial Eagle was set to be my bogey bird.
Walking out to Nabben under swarms of Common Buzzards and hesitant flocks of Wood Pigeons and Jackdaws, it was clearly going to be a good day whatever else happened. I arrived at the point just as a young White-tailed Eagle disappeared into the sun on its way to Denmark. Closer scrutiny of the almost continuous spirals of Buzzards making the same journey revealed the occasional Roughleg and Red Kite amongst them, and a Short-Eared Owl hunted low over the marshes for a while before heading out west over the sea. I had arrived too late in the day for the peak migration of small passerines, but there were still some flocks of finches, predominantly Chaffinches and Brambling, on the move, as well as a few small flocks of Blue Tit, which would drop into the rose bushes on the shoreline before picking up again and heading out to sea.
After an hour or so things has gone a little quiet, and to make matters worse one of my fillings had fallen out while I was eating a sandwich, and had taken half of the tooth with it. Depressed at the prospect of yet more expensive dental work, I was considering giving up for the day, when a wave of excitement passed through the Swedish birders around me, and I heard the word “Kejsarörn” mentioned a few times. Now my knowledge of Swedish is mostly restricted to the names of birds of prey, hence I recognised the significance of this. Noticing that all the scopes were pointed in the same direction, I asked the guy next to me where the bird was. Reluctant to take his eye away from the scope’s eyepiece to find any landmarks, he could only tell me that it was in the blue sky! Following the direction of the scopes, I finally got the bird in my bins and then my scope. And there it was, my first Imperial Eagle. The bird had the characteristic sandy plumage with contrasting dark flight feathers of an immature. It showed well, if distantly for the next half hour or so as it came down towards the point two or three times before turning back again. At one point I heard a lot of mention of “Kungsörn” around me, and dragged my eye away from the scope for long enough to see a dark shape immediately above me which was clearly the juvenile Golden Eagle that people were talking about. Not bad I thought.
Then it got better. While watching the Imperial Eagle as it gained height, the Golden Eagle appeared in the same field of view, not only that but it also mobbed the Imperial, diving at it once or twice. Then another bird also in the same field of view took its turn to mob the Imperial Eagle. Just as I was thinking “Surely that must be a Goshawk”, a call of “Duvhök” to my left confirmed my suspicions. Let me just rewind that moment. There were only three birds in my scope view; an Imperial Eagle, a Golden Eagle and a Goshawk, with both of the latter mobbing the former. Now that’s not something you see every day.
Eventually the Imperial Eagle gave up trying to migrate for the day, and after that things did quieten down, although a couple more White-tailed Eagles appeared and headed out to sea, and a single Kestrel brought my raptor day tally to nine species. Heading home, I couldn’t help but feel that if this was my last Falsterbo trip, for this year at least, it would be a pretty good note to end on.
As a post-script, I don’t think the Siberian Thrush was seen again. The official totals for some species migrating that day were: 1573 Common Buzzards; 18 Rough-legged Buzzards; 66 Red Kites; 28400 Wood Pigeons and 3970 Jackdaws. For more detail see: http://www.artportalen.se/birds/inventeringar/falsterbo_str.asp?lang=eng.
It really is quite a place.
Stuart
On arriving at the Car park at Kolabakken, I had the good fortune to bump into Falsterbo’s resident BF member Greg McIvor. He greeted me with a rather heart-stopping sentence: “Have you heard about the Siberian Thrush?”, then added, almost as an afterthought, that an Imperial Eagle had just been reported at a little north of Falsterbo. Once I had recovered the power of speech, Greg explained that a probable Siberian Thrush had been seen twice as it flew out to Nabben (the southern tip of the headland), before turning back. It had been last seen apparently coming down to land somewhere in the trees near where we were standing. Quite understandably, he was planning to look for it. I however, was torn. I could see the attraction in looking for this almost mythical rarity, but I suspected the chances of relocating it were rather slim, and I really did want to give myself a chance of catching-up with that Imperial Eagle, if it should head this way. In the end I opted to head for Nabben, reasoning that this might be the best option, given that either of these goodies, if they tried to migrate, would probably pass over the point.
A digression. I have history with Imperial Eagles. Last autumn one appeared at Falsterbo on a number of days in succession, coming down to the point each day before chickening-out of the sea crossing, and returning north again. Heading over on the Saturday on a perfect day for raptor migration, I was optimistic of my chances, as were a number of Swedish birders who had travelled much further than I for a crack at this bird, but it was not to be. It was a good day, with a Pallid Harrier as fair compensation for a number of the Swedish listers, but the Imperial Eagle didn’t show. It or another immature Imperial Eagle then wintered a little further north in Sweden, but it evaded me on three separate visits that winter. After all this I was beginning to wonder if Imperial Eagle was set to be my bogey bird.
Walking out to Nabben under swarms of Common Buzzards and hesitant flocks of Wood Pigeons and Jackdaws, it was clearly going to be a good day whatever else happened. I arrived at the point just as a young White-tailed Eagle disappeared into the sun on its way to Denmark. Closer scrutiny of the almost continuous spirals of Buzzards making the same journey revealed the occasional Roughleg and Red Kite amongst them, and a Short-Eared Owl hunted low over the marshes for a while before heading out west over the sea. I had arrived too late in the day for the peak migration of small passerines, but there were still some flocks of finches, predominantly Chaffinches and Brambling, on the move, as well as a few small flocks of Blue Tit, which would drop into the rose bushes on the shoreline before picking up again and heading out to sea.
After an hour or so things has gone a little quiet, and to make matters worse one of my fillings had fallen out while I was eating a sandwich, and had taken half of the tooth with it. Depressed at the prospect of yet more expensive dental work, I was considering giving up for the day, when a wave of excitement passed through the Swedish birders around me, and I heard the word “Kejsarörn” mentioned a few times. Now my knowledge of Swedish is mostly restricted to the names of birds of prey, hence I recognised the significance of this. Noticing that all the scopes were pointed in the same direction, I asked the guy next to me where the bird was. Reluctant to take his eye away from the scope’s eyepiece to find any landmarks, he could only tell me that it was in the blue sky! Following the direction of the scopes, I finally got the bird in my bins and then my scope. And there it was, my first Imperial Eagle. The bird had the characteristic sandy plumage with contrasting dark flight feathers of an immature. It showed well, if distantly for the next half hour or so as it came down towards the point two or three times before turning back again. At one point I heard a lot of mention of “Kungsörn” around me, and dragged my eye away from the scope for long enough to see a dark shape immediately above me which was clearly the juvenile Golden Eagle that people were talking about. Not bad I thought.
Then it got better. While watching the Imperial Eagle as it gained height, the Golden Eagle appeared in the same field of view, not only that but it also mobbed the Imperial, diving at it once or twice. Then another bird also in the same field of view took its turn to mob the Imperial Eagle. Just as I was thinking “Surely that must be a Goshawk”, a call of “Duvhök” to my left confirmed my suspicions. Let me just rewind that moment. There were only three birds in my scope view; an Imperial Eagle, a Golden Eagle and a Goshawk, with both of the latter mobbing the former. Now that’s not something you see every day.
Eventually the Imperial Eagle gave up trying to migrate for the day, and after that things did quieten down, although a couple more White-tailed Eagles appeared and headed out to sea, and a single Kestrel brought my raptor day tally to nine species. Heading home, I couldn’t help but feel that if this was my last Falsterbo trip, for this year at least, it would be a pretty good note to end on.
As a post-script, I don’t think the Siberian Thrush was seen again. The official totals for some species migrating that day were: 1573 Common Buzzards; 18 Rough-legged Buzzards; 66 Red Kites; 28400 Wood Pigeons and 3970 Jackdaws. For more detail see: http://www.artportalen.se/birds/inventeringar/falsterbo_str.asp?lang=eng.
It really is quite a place.
Stuart
