Marsh Sandpiper; quite amazingly, my third this month, having ticked the species a fortnight ago!
Work has interupted my birding this week, I finished at 4am on Sunday morning and grabbed six hours sleep before heading for Angarn. A
Red Footed Falcon has been present here for the past three days, I was hoping it would hang on and made straight for the observation tower, alas no sign. I knew the bird had been seen from 03.30am-06.30am, it was 3pm. by the time I was thinking perhaps the increasing wind had made feeding difficult and wondered whether to move on. Then came the news, a
Marsh Sandpiper had been found 500 metres from where I was! So it was that I hastily strolled onto my third
Marsh Sandpiper this month, it showed well for a few hours on the open pool at Byskberget and I managed a few record shots...
Not great photos but still clearly recognizable as Marsh Sandpiper in these record images...
After a while I set my sights on photographing
Swifts, many of them were hawking over the reserve, After an hour or so I had taken 400 shots and had a single good image and was close to being demented.
Yellow Wagtails were all about me but not showing well enough to photograph. An obliging male
Marsh Harrier flew past soon afterwards...
Marsh Harrier; a nice male bird....
Jackdaw in flight
Swift, a lot of time and frustration involved in getting this shot. Eventually resorted to manual focus for these amazingly fast birds. Several pairs were seen to mate on the wing!
Little Ringed Plover in flight....
Somedays things fall into place, somedays they don't. A few hours had passed and I had enjoyed views of several nice birds,
Wood Sandpipers feeding, dispalying
Little Ringed Plovers and best of all were a pair of
Hobby over the reserve hunting insects on the wing. At 5.10pm it apperaed out of nowhere on the far side of the reserve, a second year male
Red Footed Falcon, which gave good views through the scope as it hunted insects in the air for 15 minutes or so. A very agile bird, though not quite possessing the aerial prowess of a nearby
Hobby. The bird occasionally hovered briefly in mid air, which
Hobby never does. The bird then went to ground in the woods and was not sen again before I left. What a result, I was well chuffed with myself! As it turned out a very good days birding indeed, my first swedish
Red Footed Falcon as well as a big bonus bird in the form of
Marsh Sandpiper.
First approach, the young rise from the inside of the nest chamber...
She feeds the first chick to reach her...
Food is inserted into the throat of the young bird...
Thr female fed a second chick at this stage before waiting at the hole to see if any faeces needed to be taken away...
She eventually departed to find fore food after about 30 seconds. Visits to the nest were about ten minutes apart by both adults, both feeding the young dilegently. Three chicks look to be doing very well and look healthy, all should fledge soon...
