A Day to remember

Recently back home, from a week in Scania, the southernmost province of Sweden and once part of Denmark. At the south-westernmost tip of Scania lies Falsterbo, one of Europe’s prime bird migration sites, where I was hoping to see a good selection of Common Buzzards and Red Kites, the prime targets on this trip.
I’ve visited Falsterbo on several occasions, since around 1980, but so far I have never managed to hit a “big day” yet in terms of migration. I’ve had days with a few hundred Common Buzzards and Sparrowhawks, but on a peak day the site has more to offer. To increase my chances I opted for a full week, rather than a long weekend, as I’d done previously.
On arrival, at 0930 am on Sep 30, the weather was perfect with blue skies and a fresh easterly blowing, not the best wind direction for the migration here, but it could have been worse. Raptors were clearly on the move and Common Buzzards, Red Kites and Sparrowhawks were all heading west driven by a good tail-wind. In the end it was a great day and the official survey, conducted from the southernmost tip at Nabben, tallied a total of 235 Sparrowhawks, 349 Common Buzzards and 117 Red Kites for the day - a good start.

Adult Red Kite over Falsterbo

Adult Red Kite over Falsterbo

The next two days were dull with low cloud and the occasional shower and with nothing moving. Instead I headed inland for local raptors and major concentrations of roosting gulls and geese. When the rain finally stopped in the afternoon of Oct 2nd and the sun came out, I managed to re-locate and document a Greater Spotted Eagle, which had been observed in the area previously.

3rd cy Greater Spotted Eagle over Ljungen, Falsterbo

3rd cy Greater Spotted Eagle over Ljungen, Falsterbo

The morning of October 3rd kicked off with a major wave of Chaffinches and Bramblings at Nabben, where the official count ended at 150 000 birds heading southwest! Although the weather looked OK very few raptors were moving, so I decided to retrace my steps inland to look for local buzzards, kites and eagles.

Flock of Lapwings moving between pastures

Flock of Lapwings moving between pastures

The next day was very windy with gale force westerlies and a grey sky, not good for migration but perfect for eagle watching. And indeed, White-tailed Eagles clearly enjoyed the strong breeze, and at one point I had a group of seven birds playing together in the updrafts in the hills near the village of Börringe; nearly 20 different White-taileds during the day.
The morning of Oct 5th was again overcast with rain across the sea in the west over Denmark. Despite the “bad” weather finches were really on the go, and the official numbers for the day ended at a staggering 485 900 Chaffinches and Bramblings! No raptors moving.
Friday the 6th of October was my last full day. Hopes were soaring, as the weather forecast looked promising and the previous days had been dull and grey with no migrating raptors. And, indeed, all my expectations were exceeded, even beyond my wildest dreams, and this turned out to be a day to remember.
The morning started rather quietly in terms of raptors. Quite a few Sparrowhawks were passing at the Golf course and higher up the sky was dotted with flocks of pigeons, finches, geese and corvids. Birds just everywhere, from ground level to as high as one could see. This was clearly one of those days, which earned Falsterbo its fame as a major bottleneck for bird migration.
It was not until 10 am. before the larger raptors started to appear. But once they got going, there was no end to the stream. The wind was in the northwest, which meant a side-wind for birds heading southwest. In the morning the first groups of buzzards and Red Kites came quite low fighting the wind, but as the sun got warmer flocks were soaring higher and higher. The biggest buzzard flocks were several hundred strong and at times there were two or three of these in the sky at the same time. During the day I probably saw more Red Kites than I have seen in my entire life before, and the number of Common Buzzards was definitely my highest ever daily total (not including the migration of 130 000 Steppe Buzzards in Eilat, Israel, 2nd of April 1986).

A few out of the 6000+ Common Buzzards seen on Oct 6th

A few out of the 6000+ Common Buzzards seen on Oct 6th

The official raptor count at Falsterbo, 6th of Oct 2017:
-Common Buzzard 6128
-Red Kite 1032
-Sparrowhawk 983
-Rough-legged Buzzard 23
-Black Kite 2

Mind you, these official numbers include only birds, which were seen leaving the country. At the end of the day hundreds of buzzards and kites were going down to roost on the peninsula, and these are not included in the above figures.
What a day!

PS. Saturday 7th Oct was grey and wet with very few raptors. However, on Sunday 8th of Oct hell broke loose and a new all-time record of migrating Common Buzzards was set -16 000 birds! It seems I still haven’t had a “big day”.

A juvenile light morph Common Buzzard, a fairly common sight in southern Sweden

A juvenile light morph Common Buzzard, a fairly common sight in southern Sweden


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