Well this year's annual trip to Falsterbo is over. It has been said that 500 million birds pass through southern Sweden during autumn, and though you won't see all of them, it will certainly feel like it after a good day at Falsterbo for it is none stop birding from dawn to late afternoon. For most people, getting to Falsterbo will be easiest via Kastrup, the main airport at Copenhagen. From here it is cheapest to take the train into Malmø and hire your car there. Hertz have an office just around the corner from the railway station. The train costs about 200 Swedish Kroner return. You could of course hire your car at Kastrup, but then you would have to cross the bridge that connects Denmark and Sweden. This costs about 500 Swedish kroner return, so by taking the train you save about £30. Once at Falsterbo you have to decide what type of birding you are most interested in. You can either sit at Kanalen or Ljungen and watch all the birds of prey that past by as well as the odd Stork or Crane or you can sit and wait around the Falsterbo lighthouse and watch for raptors, passerines as well as what passes by out at sea. The last and best place in my opinion is Nabben. This is a point at the end of the golf course where you have all the excitement of watching birds of prey, but you have also a great lagoon in front of you with huge numbers of passing wildfowl, waders, gulls and a good chance of some interesting passerines, but be warned there could be hundreds of birders stood there on a good day. Once you have found your spot at Nabben, you soon realise that it is impossible to see everything that fly's past. You will see what I mean when you see my numbers compared to the official day counts on the Falsterbo website. These counts are in brackets beside my own figures. One thing I have to say about the Swedish birders/counters they are a dedicated lot and have been doing these counts for years. My first day was on the 30/8 a very hot and sunny day. I didn't arrive before 11:30 so I had missed most of that mornings movements and by midday it was really hot, not the best conditions for birding. I didn't see my first Divers until the 31/8 when a pair of Black-throated flew past. A single juv Red-necked Grebe was in the lagoon and seen most days. Great Cormorants and Greylag Geese are an episode for themselves. They just keep coming and coming. I wouldn't even like to estimate their numbers. Other than the Greylag Geese, the only other member of the Goose family that I recorded was 12 Barnacle on the 30/8. The lagoon is a favoured haunt for wildfowl. Common Shelduck, Eurasian Wigeon, Common Teal and Mallard are the commonest but there were smaller numbers of Gadwall, Northern Pintail and Northern Shoveler. In the deeper water both Tufted Duck and Common Goldeneye were recorded everyday in varying numbers. Behind the sandbank that forms the backbone of the lagoon you have the open sea. Here you find Common Eider and Red-breasted Merganser. During my time at Nabben I saw 1 Velvet Scoter and small flocks of Common Scoter. My highest count for Common Scoter was 7 on the 1/9 while the Swedish counters noted 1880 that day. Now here is where the fun begins - Birds of Prey. I will give you my highest day counts with the Swedes numbers in brackets for the same day. European Honey Buzzard 41 (587), Red Kite 2 (16), Eurasian Marsh Harrier 3 (97), Eurasian Sparrrowhawk 31 (2124), Common Buzzard 6 (381), Osprey 1 (22). The list goes on. As you can imagine, the Swedes can't shout out every single bird of prey that fly's overhead, but if anything special turns up they let everyone know. You don't even have to understand Swedish, when everyone starts looking and pointing up into the sky you know that something is about. This way I was able to see some of the more interesting birds of prey like Montagu's Harrier. My excuse for not seeing all the birds of prey is that I spend a lot of time watching the passing waders. Like waterfowl, most of the commoner waders can be seen, but the unexpected can turn up like the Red Phalarope on the 1/9. One of the other reasons my raptor counts don't tally with the Swedes is that I usually leave Nabben at about midday and head inland. The hardcore Swedes stay well into late afternoon. Once travelling inland there are several good birding localities around Skåne. From Nabben I usually spend some time at Ljungen. This was well rewarded on the 31/9 with a Pallid Harrier and a high flying Black Sork. When it comes to passerines during the end of August it is Tree Pipit and Yellow Wagtail that dominate the count sheet. On the 31/8, 1060 Tree Pipit were noted along with 2009 Yellow Wagtail. This is nothing compared to Barn Swallow on the 31/8 with a staggering 5685. Amongst all these thousands of birds there is always a good chance of something extra special passing by, or even better landing on the golf course. This was the case on the 31/8 when a Tawny Pipit and two Ortulan Buntings made a brief appearance. This time I decided to spend my afternoons at Krankesjøen and Nasbyholm, two entirely different habitats. Krankesjøen is a large lake surrounded by reeds and woodland while Nasbyholm is farmland and a well known locality for rarer birds of prey. Unfortunately it was very quiet when I was there except for the usual Red Kites, Buzzards and Hobby's. Krankesjøen however produced a great selection of birds and even though none were rare, they brought my trip list to 110 including Black-necked Grebe, White-tailed Eagle, White Stork and Kingfisher. Anybody that wants a full species list from this years trip can just let me know. As with most years there were a few classic dips. As I said there are several places to watch migration at Falsterbo so you can't be everywhere at once. This year's dip list include Lesser-spotted Eagle by five minutes, a Steppe Eagle by about half an hour, Red-footed Falcon by half an hour and a Golden Oriole that disappeared behind a bush before I got my bins on it. Ah well, there is always next year.
