LGRE Quick Update

Just a short note to say that I am back in Britain for a short time before my next trip and will endeavour to answer all emails/update life list and year list totals in the next few days. Not for the first time this year have trips cost me some excellent county ticks – this time in the form of Roseate Tern and Eurasian Spoonbill in Bedfordshire.

Scandinavia this year has been particularly difficult, so my 10-day trip there yielded mixed results. It has been a total failure this year on Lemmings and Voles, so many species were in very short supply. The highlight of course was a displaying male SWINHOE’S SNIPE on the Finland/Russia border, only the second record for the Western Palearctic and a new WP bird for me. Second to that was my first-ever WOLVERINE – a very difficult mammal to see.

In terms of owls, GREAT GREY and NORTHERN HAWK were readily seen, and a cute family of 4 fledgling TENGMALM’S still in the nest (one of only 7 nests in one district of Sweden this year) but both Ural and Pygmy Owls had fledged the day before we arrived. Woodpeckers were all missed, as were all 8 singing male Arctic Warblers and numerous River Warblers (the latter had all stopped singing).

A family of RED-FLANKED BLUETAILS was seen (some 32 singing males located in Finland this spring), along with BLYTH’S REED WARBLER and BOOTED WARBLER (we found a nest of the latter). Good numbers of HAZLEHENS were seen (in family groups), many COMMON CRANES, a singing male SAVI’S WARBLER, large numbers of calling CORNCRAKES and some excellent HONEY BUZZARDS. Both RUSTIC and LITTLE BUNTINGS were typically hard to find, but both SIBERIAN JAY and SIBERIAN TIT easier than usual (3 ringed adults of the latter were feeding 9 young in a nestbox at one location).

In the High Arctic, highlights included a fabulous male PINE GROSBEAK on a hotel bird feeder, GYRFALCON, STELLER’S and KING EIDERS, WHITE-BILLED DIVER, many WHITE-TAILED SEA EAGLES, LONG-TAILED SKUAS and my best-ever views of ‘summer’ BRUNNICH’S GUILLEMOTS.