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recoveries
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ringed birds directly to the Swedish Ringing Centre.
Set cursor on images to see legend and photographer's name.
Old news - click here.
2 September 2010:
Coming up: Falsterbo Bird Show. Falsterbo Bird Show is a Bird Fair named after Falsterbo Horse Show
and actually situated at the Horse Show Stadium. It runs from 3rd ro 5th
of September. The aim is to increase interest for birds and bird
protection.
There will be lots of lectures about birds, there will be good food and
drink, there will be guides to help with identification of birds passing
over, there will be a photo competition etc. etc. You can read the full
program
here.
Additionally, guides will be situated at the Lighthouse, showing the
"Real Bird Show", that is the migration. Both on Saturday and Sunday,
P-G Bentz will be helping with the identification of passing birds. At
08:30 (both days) the Bird Observatory will have a special show of
ringed birds. All is free. The Lighhouse shop will be open from about
08:30.
And remember... then there is a Bird Show all autumn!
27 July 2007:
Aquatic Warbler ringed.
This
morning at 6 a.m. an Aquatic Warbler Acrocephalus paludicola was
trapped in one of the mistnets at Flommen (reedbeds). This was the ninth
Aquatic Warbler ever ringed at Falsterbo and the first one in nine years.
A record list can be found in the Species list.
There was a very funny incident in connection with the capture of this
rare warbler. One of the ringers judged the morning as "quite suitable
for an Aquatic Warbler" and on the next net round he got it! It is not
hard to imagine his smiling face...
24 June 2010:
"Transmission breakdown..."
Four Kestrel chicks were ringed in the Lighthouse nestbox today.
Unfortunately, the cable connected to the web camera snapped and since
it is a specially designed cable, we were unable to repair it. Thus
there is a risk that there will be no broadcasting at least until the
chicks have left the nestbox. We are very sorry about this...
12 June 2010:
Ringing in spring 2010.
A grand total of 3 406 birds of 53 species, was the result of the
standardised trapping this spring. It is about 400 birds below the
long-time average (1980-2004). Generally, small numbers were recorded in
short/medium-distance migrants while large numbers occurred in
long-distance migrants. The harsh winter conditions surely influenced
the small numbers in the first case. Maybe the opposite condition
favoured the wintering of long-distance migrants. However, the numbers
of bids stopping over at Falsterbo during spring migration is more
accidental and weather-depending than in autumn.
A bit oddly,
both the seasonal total and the total in European Robin were exactly 420
below average. Other short/medium-distance migrants recorded in small
numbers were Hedge Accentor, Song Thrush, Redwing, Goldcrest and
Chaffinch. The Blackbird total was near average while Winter Wren and
Common Chiffchaff were above (as usual).
Long-distance
migrants generelly were trapped in large numbers. All Sylvia-sångare
except Lesser Whitethroat exceeded their averages. medelvärdet. Willow
Warbler too
was quite numerous (about 200 above average). The same goes for Common
Redstart(2nd
highest total ever), Icterine Warbler and Spotted Flycatcher.
Thrush
Nightingale, Whinchat and Northern Wheatear were very few and Tree Pipit
wasn't even trapped.
Some species
not often ringed at Falsterbo were (number in brackets shows the
all-time total at Falsterbo): Common Kestrel, Euroasian Hobby(7),
Eurasian
Woodcock(4), Black Woodpecker, House Martin, Ring Ouzel (36), Barred
Warbler(54),
Firecrest, Short-toed Treecreeper(20) and European Serin (24).
2010-06-01:
Welcome to the world! Here is the first picture of one of the new-born Kestrel chicks (cf.
below).
You
can see the head of the chick at the bottom-left of the page. Photo: Arvid Löf.
1 June 2010: Hatching time in the Kestrel's nest.
The first young are hatched in the Kestrel's nest on the Lighhouse! Yet,
none of the new-born has shown up in front of the camera, but egg-shells
and the behaviour of the female surely indicate that there are
baby-Kestrels hatched.
If you are lucky to see one of the young, please press the
snapshot-button (just above the upper right corner of the video screen)
and mail the image to us. Thank you!
20 May 2010: Pigs in the pond?
During the last few weeks a Red-necked Grebe is kepping a territory
in the pond west of the lighthouse. It's "song", which is heard quite
often, is somthing you rather would expect to come from a pig than from
a bird.
Arvid Löf recorded the embedded clip - so just click and enjoy!
17 May 2010: More than 100 pairs of Pied Avocet nesting at Landgrens
holme, Skanör.
The late egg-laying period of the Pied Avocets at Landgrens holme,
Skanör, still brings an increasing number of nesting birds. The day
before yesterday, 80 nests were counted, yesterday there were 93 and
today (17 May) at least 106 nests. A second count today resulted in 119
nests , the highest number ever recorded in this colony!
This year's breeding season is 3-4 weeks delayed because of the cold
weather. Now the nests are spread on the higher parts of the islet, safe
from pools of water caused by heavy rain (like yesterday).
The electric predator protection fence works well so far. Mikael
Kristersson is keeping a close watch at it and thus it seems like the
Pied Avocets wiil have every chance of a successful breeding season.
27 Apr 2010: New shared webshop for SkOF and Falsterbo B.O. now
launched. We are happy to introduce a new extended webshop with more items
than before. There are own products like Where to watch Birds in Skåne,
Wings over Falsterbo etc. but also some other items like KITE binoculars,
Mikael Kristersson's films on DVD, litographies etc. Select "Webshop"
from the top menu bar to check in and have a look! Welcome!
20 Apr 2010-04-20: Kestrels at home.
Now you have the chance to visit the Kestrels living at the top of the
Falsterbo Lighthouse. A webcamera sends streaming video (no audio yet)
all day. The page will be modified later - we just couldn't wait.
To pay a visit - just click the Kestrel button above.
To cancel: Click any other button above
N.B. If too many visitors are connected at the same time, speed may slow
down or you may even be unable to contact.
You must also install
Quicktime Player (free) on your computer.
The web camera with all its accessories, including setup, is a gift from Wildlife
Garden Ltd.by owner Robert Nobel. We are very greatful for this
equipment which gives a golden opportunity to create our first real time
web page.
12 Apr 2010: "Curlew Treecreeper" no. 20.
Late this
morning a Short-toed Treccreeper Certhia brachydactyla was trapped
in the Lighthouse Garden. There was no doubt about the species since
this bird seemed to have borrowed a Curlew's bill. It was the
longest bill we have ever measured on a Short-toed Treecreeper (that's
why we suggest
the name in the headline instead...): 21.4 mm. In the common Treecreeper
it is at most some 17-18 mm.
The Short-toed Treecreeper was aged as 3cy+ on clear brown iris colour
and the pattern of the spots on the primary coverts. It was sexed as a
male on size. Not only had it the longest bill we've seen so far. Its
winglength equalled the longest wing: 67 mm.
This was the 20th ringed Short-toed Treccreeper (15 in spring and 5 in
autumn) at Falsterbo since 1983. Five birds were ringed in the
1980s, seven in the 1990s and 2000s respectively and today's bird was
the first in the 2010s. Additionally, there is a control of a bird
wearing a Danish ring from June 1988.
11 Apr 2010: Articles from the Photo
Project digitalised.
The articles on ageing and sexing of Tree Pipit, European Robin,
Whinchat, Eurasian Reed Warbler, Common Whitethroat, Pied Flycatcher and
Reed Bunting, published in Vår Fågelvärld and ANSER 1985-1993 are now
available as pdf-files in the Publications section of our website.
Select ageing as search word to get the full list. We regret the poor
quality in some of the colour prints.
A publication of the Photo Project with original photos are on the list
of future contributions to this web site.
9 Apr 2010:
Falsterbo B.O. contributes to map distribution of the Trichomonas
disease.
This spring, throat swabs are collected
from Greenfinches and Chaffinches trapped for ringing at the Bird
Observatory. The throat swabs are collected at the request of the
National Veterinary Institute, SVA, as a contribution to map the
distribution of the Trichomonas disease.
Trichomonas is caused by a single celled flagellum, Trichomonas gallinae.
This parasite lives on moist mucous mebranes and causes damage and sores
in the buccal cavity, the pharynx and the gizzard. Infected birds
cannot eat and drink properly. Thus they lose weight and finally die
from starvation, dehydration or additional infections. Since the summer
of 2008 an increasing number of sick birds, especially Greenfinches, has
been reported from all over Scandinavia.
The Trichomonas disease is spread at feeding stations or birdbaths where
many birds gather. It is probably also spread by infected adults feeding
their young. The parasite does not infect mammals (including humans).
21 Mar 2010:
Traditional start of the ringing season.
This year's standardised ringing startes today. It was almost to wet
with a dense fog and som drizzle. However, some nets were put up and as
expected only a few birds (7) were ringed. But you might also say: As
expected, one of them was a Firecrest!
Out of the fog bird sounds were heard all morning: Oystercathers, Ringed
Plovers and Redshanks. Two Mistle Thrushes sang. When the fog lifted
Wood Lark, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Linnet and Yellowhammer were heard or
seen migrating northwards.
18 Mar 2010:
SPRING IS HERE!!!
The morning fog lifted like a curtain opening - and what do you see? The
snow is gone! The ice has melted! The birds are singing! SPRING is here!
So it was really the accurate day for this week's counts of resting
birds. Lots of "spring species" were recorded: Shelduck (lots), Teal,
Pintail, Shoveler, Marsh Harrier (1), Oystercatcher (many), Pied Avocet,
Golden Plover, Lapwing, Dunlin, Curlew, Redshank, Skylark, Meadow Pipit,
White Wagtail (1), Starling and Reed Bunting. Also, five Cranes were
seen (P. Öhrström).
In the Falsterbo Canal more than 3,000 Tufted Ducks were counted along
with some Pochard and Greater Scaup. Check Counts of Resting Birds (at
the end of the week) for more numbers.
At dusk, Blackbirds were singing rounding up this memorable first day of
apring.
26 Feb 2010:
Like the turning of a page... After two months of cold, hard winter and then only one day with
temperature over zero, it happened: During today's count of resting
birds at Nabben, Common Shelduck (6), Ringed Plover (2), Northern
Lapwing (1) and some Skylarks were observed. Common Shelduck and Skylark
were also seen at Ängsnäset. Nice! There is hope!
13 Feb 2010:
Crested Caracara in Skanör! There was an e-mail from Bengt Grandin in Skanör:
"This morning I had a call from Åke Jönsson about a strange bird,
looking like a Caracara, was sitting just outside our houses. And yes -
in the pine trees along Båtsmansvägen was a Crested Caracara. I managed
to get some photos of it. The bird flew away towards Knösen but returned
and was last seen flying westwards towards Skanör town center."
The Crested
Caracara originates from Central and South America. This particular bird (we
assume it is the same) was seen migrating into Skåne from Denmark
already 8 May 2009. Since then it has been spotted on various places in
southern Sweden (Skåne and Halland). Without doubt, it has escaped from
a "Raptor park" somewhere (it has a strap around one tarsus, visible on
the photo to the right).
30 Jan 2010:
LOTS of snow!
Just when we
finished yesterday's counts of resting birds, it started to snow. It
then continued past midnight and at times it was quite heavy. At the
same time the wind increased and the snow piled up itself in
enormous drifts. The Lighthouse area became totally isolated from the
rest of Falsterbo and may probably stay isolated till Monday when the
staff at the Golf Club come back to work.
27 Jan 2010:
Coldest January in 23 years! The iron grip of this winter gets worse with every day: the open sea
is now freezing and lots of snow covers the ground. According to the
Danish Weather Office, this is the coldest January in 23 years and
probably the same goes for southernmost Sweden.
Today's
snowfall covered even more of possible feeding sites for wintering birds.
Therefore we saw an increasing number of birds at our bird feeding site,
which of course was kept clean from snow, but instead partly covered
with wader traps. Out of these we took 61 birds which all were ringed
(52 Bramblings). One was a Common Starling, a species very seldom seen
at the feeding site. Maybe another sign of lack of food in the
surroundings.
22 Jan 2010: Ringing at the Feeding Site. Despite the repugnant season right now, there are at least lots of
birds at our feeding site. This winter there is an extra addition of
quite many Bramblings around.
This afternoon four wader traps were set out on the feeding site. Two
hours later, 40 Bramblings and five Blackbirds were ringed, which is
quite a good number!
There were no sights of lean, emaciated, poor birds in the captures. All
Bramblings had fat score 5 (3 sp.) or more (6: 22 sp., 7: 15 sp.). The
same goes for all the Blackbirds except for one poor bird with fat score
1.
20 Jan 2010: Species list updated. Both species and records lists have now been updated up to and
including 2008 by Björn Malmhagen. There were three new species for the
Falsterbo Peninsula during 2008: Blue-winged Teal, Great Grey Owl and
Red-flanked Bluetail. Three totally new species in the same year have
not been recorded since the mid-1990s.
Some other
very rare species at Falsterbo recorded in 2008 were::
Cory's Shearwater (4th record).
Pectoral Sandpiper (5th record).
Eagle Owl (5th record).
Click on "Species"
in the top menu bar for more information.
11 Jan 2010:
Documentary films by Mikael Kristersson on DVD.
Now you can buy Mikael Kristersson´s highly praised and rewarded
documentary films on DVD in our web shop. Mikael's films are unique in
their way of setting humans as a part of nature and not as viewers from
outside. The imagery is quiet and contains many long uncut sequences.
Extraordinary well composed sound tracks makes the films "speaking by
themselves", leaving out all speaker voices and background music.
At present we
have Ljusår (Light Years, 2009), Falkens Öga (The Falcon's
Eye, 1998), Porträtt av en vagabond (Portrait of a Vagabond,
1993) och Pica pica (1987) for sale. Click on Sales above
and then select DVD-film for more information and ordering.
9 Jan 2010:
ICE AGE...? Very cold weather has dominated the first week of 2010. Temperatures
below -10 C were recorded in some nights. All shallow lagoons and bays
are frozen with ice thick enough to allow the rare opportunity of
skating for the residents.
After a few
more nights with strong cold and no wind the open sea will probably
freeze too...