Lying between the Indian subcontinent and Africa, Oman has a massive potential for vagrants, which was evident also on this tour. Petteri hit the jackpot when he on Dec 6th found a Chestnut-winged Cuckoo (Clamator coromandus) at Ayn Hamran, a real skulker, which eventually was seen well by the entire group.  It was a first for Oman and in fact also a first for the entire Greater Western Palaearctic! This was a most unexpected find, since the nearest breeding grounds are in NE India, with wintering grounds scattered from S India and Sri Lanka through SE Asia. Another good find was a Black Heron (Egretta ardesiaca), a wide-spread African species, which turned out to be only the second record for Oman.

During our stay the weather was most unusual for Dhofar, the southern governorate of Oman, which usually offers blue skies and constant sunshine. Except for the last two days it was overcast, even in the deserts of the interior, and we even had some rain on most days. The weather was due to a cyclone to the southwest over the Arabian Sea, which passed close to the island of Socotra and eventually made landfall in Somalia. Maybe the increased cyclonic activity over the Arabian Sea this autumn explains some of the exceptional bird records in Oman. On our previous trip in October we had a Watercock (8^th for Oman) and a Stock Dove (3^rd record for the country), while now in Dec we had flocks of 7 and 5 Oriental Honey-buzzards in Salalah, with totals higher than ever before. Prior to our Dec trip other groups had seen Pied Stonechat and Asian Brown Flycatcher, both rare vagrants to Oman.

But, there is some less good news, too. Some of the classic birding sites have deteriorated or even been completely destroyed by earlier cyclones. For instance, Khawr Rawri and Al Mughsayl have both suffered severely from storms and floods over the past years and birding at these sites can no longer be compared to what it used to be. Khawr Rawri, which once was one of the best birding sites of the entire area, has lost most of its shoreline vegetation (and its birds), while Al Mughsayl completely lost its reed beds and its fresh water (and the main road to Yemen, too!) to cyclone Mekunu in May 2018 and is today a seemingly lifeless inlet of the sea.

Also the famous landfill at Raysut, on the outskirts of Salalah, is no longer working. When I visited it in Jan 2019 there was still a gathering of perhaps 1500 Steppe Eagles together with tens of Eastern Imperial and Greater Spotted Eagles on the dump, now we only saw a few stray Steppes in the sky looking for something to eat. The dump closed down last spring, so this autumn the returning eagles had to find somewhere else to go when they from memory returned to their old traditional wintering site. Luckily, some of the eagles carried satellite transmitters, which led the researchers to a new wintering site, a rubbish tip in Saudi Arabia, where nearly 7000 eagles were counted in November!

In desert conditions irrigated farmland works as a magnet on birds, so also in Oman. However, one of the two big farms in Salalah, Jarziz Farm, is no longer active, and the once irrigated alfalfa fields are slowly turning back to desert, since the irrigation stopped in 2018.  It still pulls in some birds, but the former farmland has been set off as a construction site, which means it will soon be lost forever as a birding site.

A juvenile Eleonora's Falcon practising its aerobatics near the eyrie

One of the juveniles still being fed by its father

In the Pyrenees our main targets were Lammergeier and Wallcreeper. Together with a few other wildlife photographers I had been invited to the launch of two new Lammergeier photo hides, run by my good friend Josele Saiz of Boletas Birdwatching Centre (www.boletas.org). We spent two memorable days in the hides looking at Lammergeiers, Griffons and Red Kites, surrounded by some of the highest peaks of the Pyrenees. Also here the autumn has been unusually warm so there was no snow around, but backlit birds against a backdrop of deep blue valleys guaranteed some incredible shots.

A young Lammergeier of this season is being harassed by a Carrion Crow

Adult Red Kite inspecting our offerings

On the last day we focused on wintering Wallcreepers at the impressive Mallos de Riglos, but it’s a challenge to get close to this tiny bird at this formidable site (if you haven’t been there check Google for images), but even so, also here we got something to take back home.

The Wallcreeper, a stunning creature, but so difficult to capture!

Thanks to Josele Saiz, Esther Diago and Daniel Cazo from Boletas for the excellent arrangements in the Pyrenees and to Markus Varesvuo, Minna Lindroth and Joachim Griesinger for good company.

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

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

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

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

Whoopers in the stubble

Last weekend I spent in the Oulu area on the west coast of Finland, some 600 kms north of Helsinki, where I gave a slide presentation on Saturday. The mornings and evenings I spent birding the low-lying fields and shores typical of this area. The Finnish west coast is arguably the best birding area of the country, particularly during spring migration, when big numbers of birds make a stopover in this area, waiting for spring to arrive in their breeding grounds further north. In northern Finland wintry conditions still prevail, with up to 70 cms of snow and with lakes still under ice, thick enough to carry a truck and with conditions still too harsh for northbound migrants.
This spring has been long and cold all over the country and nothing much has advanced for the last four weeks. During warmer spells the forests of southern Finland are filled with song from Chaffinches and trushes, but as soon as the cold weather sets in birds flock again and the forest goes silent. Around Oulu the situation was different. Very few migrants had arrived, mostly large birds only, and smaller birds, like Chaffinches where moving around in big flocks. Thrushes, Meadow Pipits and White Wagtails were very few on the ground and waders and ducks, for which this area is best known, were missing completely. There was still some snow lying in ditches and along the forest edge and all lakes where covered in solid white ice. Even the Baltic Sea itself was still covered by a thick layer of ice and fishermen drove out on the sea in their pick-up trucks. It was an unexpected sight to watch the first Caspian Tern heading north in these arctic-looking conditions, with no open water in sight.
But big birds were around, and in numbers. Practically every stubble field had flocks of geese, swans and cranes, often in mixed flocks, numbering in their thousands, all waiting for spring to warm up allowing them to move on to their breeding grounds. Some decades ago the first week of May used to be the peak season for these birds, but due to global warming they now arrive several weeks earlier. It was an amazing experience to stand by the frozen sea watching flocks of geese, swans, lapwings, cranes and Rough-legged Buzzards heading north along the coast, some very low, almost skimming the ice. Especially on Sun the 23rd of April conditions were perfect for migration, sunny with some light winds. The morning was dull and foggy but the sun soon burnt the mist away and the light conditions became superb for flight shots, thanks to the intense light bouncing up from the ice and patches of reflecting snow. For a bird photographer, at least for me, nothing matches the reflected light from expanses of snow and ice, although the desert light can be almost as good at times.

Taiga Bean Geese over snow

White-fronted Goose is seen less often in the area

Northbound Whoopers over the frozen sea

adult male Common Kestrel

Just back from a week-long tour to the upper end of Europe, to Finnish Lapland and coastal arctic Norway. This spring the weather has been milder than usual and the snow was all but gone from the lowlands, but lots still remain on higher ground. Many migrants had arrived in numbers, but the last ones to arrive in late May-early June are still on their way.

The vole situation has been exceptionally good all winter and spring and more Hawk Owls than ever have wintered in the area, but now suddenly things may be changing. Many of the Rough-legged Buzzard nest sites were already abandoned and groups of buzzards were migrating east along the coasts, a normal situation when vole populations have crashed. On the other hand I found six nests of Hawk Owls, with the birds still incubating and Common Kestrels were more numerous than ever. It appears that voles are crashing in some areas, while others still hold healthy populations. It will be interesting to see if these breeding raptors will find enough food to complete their breeding and fledge their young.

Below a few images from the trip

Adult Gyr Falcon

Male Rock Ptarmigan

male Ruff in full breeding attire

Great Skua

Hawk Owl

Every year millions and millions of migratory birds are shot, trapped and killed on passage when they reach the Mediterranean, most of the killings being illegal. The Turtle Dove, which used to be a common species throughout southern and central Europe, is one of the hardest hit. Help the Champions of the Flyway to stop this illegal massacre.

Turtle Doves roosting after having crossed the Mediterranean

It is eight years since my last visit to Estonia. A long time bearing in mind that the sea crossing between Helsinki and Tallinn takes only an hour and a bit and you can take your car along.

This time we went across for the masses of roosting arctic geese on the west coast and for some eagles in the south-east of the country.

On the 3rd of May Finnish surveyors counted 10 000 Barnacle Geese and 20 000+ Greater White-fronted and mostly Tundra Bean Geese in the meadows north of Matsalu Bay Nature Reserve on the west coast. We were there at the same time and experienced the masses, an incredible sight. The sight was especially memorable when the local White-tailed Eagles went in for a kill, turning the meadow into a chaos of beating wings accompanied by deafening cackling.

Upper shows the 5000+ grey geese that were flushed by white tailed-eagles and the one below is a detail of the former showing the density of the flock

We knew that the eagles, that is Lesser Spotteds, were going to be late this season, for unknown reasons. Something delayed their spring migration, and many satellite-tracked birds were still in Africa in April, when they should have been back in their breeding areas. Anyway, we found one pair displaying near a territory I knew from before, but the general feeling was that they were fewer than expected. I also saw and photographed a presumed Greater x Lesser Spotted hybrid, which joined the displaying pair for a while, all three circling together. A surprise was to notice that also “our” female Lesser Spotted was carrying a satellite transmitter, but at the time of writing I don’t know any further details.

When Estonia opened up to visitors some 25 years ago, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Finnish birders were quickly there. It was like a travel through time, to conditions prevailing in Finland 50 years earlier. The farming was primitive and small-scale and the forests were untouched, it was a birding wonderland for us. But times change. Now Estonia is a member of the EU and money talks. The farming is large-scale with modern machinery and the primary forests are fast disappearing. Estonia is rapidly catching up with the rest of the west and nature is paying the price. This all became very obvious to me personally, as I tried to locate some of the eagle territories I used to know ten years ago. I just could not recognize the places, until I realized that entire forests had disappeared!

Once home from Estonia I visited a lake for Black-throated Divers. It was a foggy and still morning, with visibility just down to 100 m. But, after a wait of nearly an hour, eventually a gorgeous pair appeared from the mist and started to preen and dive just were I was sat. Surely, the adult BTD is one of Europe’s most stunning birds!

just as the mist is clearing

it is purple- not black-throated! Notice the lines of water pearls in the face after a recent dive.

In Copenhagen on Aug 16th, arranged by the Danish Ornithological Society (DOF), on the id. of Aquila-eagles, Black-eared Kite and Amur Falcon. Check here for further details.
At Falsterbo Birdshow on Sep 5th in cooperation with Sveriges Ornitologiska Förening (SOF) and Swarovski Optics. A slide-show on the 10-year quest for images for the forthcoming book on raptor id. More details here.
In Varberg, on the west coast of Sweden, on Oct 5th. Further details later.
On Öland, for Club 300, on Oct 8th on some new aspects and useful hints when identifying raptors.
In Cyprus, on Oct 16th, for BirdLife Cyprus, on the id. , ageing and sexing of some raptor species with special regard to Cyprus. Details later.