Sweden,
April 2001

April 7th

After arrival, we picked up our hire car and drove straight to a supermarket right by the airport, to get together our provision for the first few days. Hooded Crows and pseudo soemmeringii Jackdaws suggested we were overseas! We then drove north via Sala and Heby, stopping to make contact with Ulrik for tomorrow, and checked in at Östa stugby. Fog was closing in, and in the couple of hours we had before dusk, we birded locally by the campsite, picking up Goosander, singing Redwing and Fieldfare, and our first drumming woodpecker - just a Great Spotted!

April 8th

We met up with Ulrik and Niklas in dense fog at 0600 at the village of Enåker, and went straight into the forests in search of Pygmy Owl and woodpeckers. The weather was far from ideal, and our first couple of hours produced more tantalising moments than birds! We saw evidence of Grey-headed, Black and Three-toed Woodpeckers on tree trunks and wood and nests, and heard a Capercaillie flying off, Black Grouse displaying and a Black Woodpecker drumming. And yet we only saw some ghostly northern Willow Tits, Green Sandpiper displaying, some good sized flocks of Redpolls and Siskins, and a couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers. Ulrik's best efforts with the Pygmy Owl tape were having no apparent effect!

Our luck changed for the better in forest clearings north of Östervala. Just a few seconds of the Grey-headed Woodpecker tape were enough to lure a territorial pair up high into the bare branches of a small grove of mature aspens. They gave superb views for some minutes, though our attention was more than a little distracted by not one but three Black Woodpeckers materialising in response to the drumming! We were clearly on the boundary between two Black Woodpecker territories, as the birds engaged in lengthy and noisy flight calling, with a fourth bird calling in the semi distance. Fantastic stuff!

We then moved on to some clear-felled areas a little further north, where Ulrik has set up a feeding station for woodpeckers. We scored again with Black Woodpecker, this time with a female giving excellent perched views. Also a Great Grey Shrike showed well, if a little distantly.

By now, the weather was deteriorating, and we opted for some 'car birding' around Lake Tämnaren. Ulrik had been keeping tabs on the productive fields for some time, and very quickly we were watching large mixed flocks. Taiga Bean, Greylag and Canada Geese and Whooper Swans dominated, but we also picked out at least 4 Bewick's Swans, 3 Pink-footed Geese, 1+ Tundra Bean Geese, a White-fronted Goose and smaller numbers of dabbling ducks, including Pintail and Gadwall. Over 100 Cranes strutted and leapt about amongst the wildfowl, while flyovers included 2 Rough-legged Buzzards, several Common Buzzards, a pair of Smew, 2 Hawfinches and many Goosanders. Passerines were mostly limited to thrushes and finches, but a scattering of Tree Sparrows, Reed Buntings and White Wagtails enlivened proceedings.

We were fairly exhausted by now, and headed home for a bite to eat and some rest, but braved the rather gloomy conditions again later in an attempt for owls north of Östervala. Well, we didn't score at all! Nothing but silent, damp forests. However, we were rewarded with a few Woodcocks, and better still two Moose, crossing a small forest track just 30m ahead of the car.

April 9th

Acting on a tip from Ulrik, we headed for an area of spruce and adjacent clearfell a little north of Östervala, in search of Three-toed Woodpecker. We arrived by 0615, and the better weather and presence of drumming Black and Great Spotted Woodpeckers encouraged us. A pair of Cranes displayed noisily on a frozen lake, and a Goshawk showed briefly perched in a tree before vanishing silently into the trees. We searched diligently, tried the tape from time to time, and listened with strained ears - but nothing showed. A small group of Long-tailed Tits (of the gorgeous white-headed form caudatus) brightened up the trip south again, but we again dipped on Three-toed Woodpecker in another wet spruce forest later in the morning. Oh dear!

We flushed a female Capercaillie from beside the road on the main forest track near Djupa - the birds apparently come to the roads to eat gravel while the forests are still frozen up. It wasn't a great view, but at least Julia had it unblocked at last! A brief adult White-tailed Eagle over the trees was also a touch frustrating. We settled for still more excellent views of Cranes along the roadside, and some huge flocks of Redpolls.

In the evening, we rejoined the fray for Pygmy Owl, and tried the well known owl haunt of Hallarsbo, near Östa. After enjoying the spectacle of 150+ displaying Whooper Swans on Lake Hallaren, we silently trekked along forest tracks and wooded roadsides, trying the tape from time to time as the light failed. Success! But we only heard the bird call a few times - nothing would persuade it to emerge. And as night fell, our attempt for other owl species drew another blank - nothing but silent trees and distant Cranes.

April 10th

Back to yesterday's Three-toed Woodpecker site by the lake - it was a much brighter morning, and if anything even more woodpeckers were drumming. But again, despite two hours of searching, we dipped once more. We slowly made our way around various forest tracks again, and kept failing with the Pygmy Owl lure. Were we cursed? Was this species actually considerably harder than we thought? We returned to Ulrik's Grey-headed Woodpecker site, and saw the birds again, only in even better light and at even closer range. That lifted the spirits a good deal, but not as much as a blue VW estate stopped at the end of the track! It was Ulrik again - what a bit of luck to bump into him in these huge forests. With him were Prunilla and Albin, who has Grey-headed Woodpecker on his life list at the age of three months....and I've had to wait 30 years!

We told him our tale of woe, and he took pity on us, taking us to one of the Pygmy Owl territories where we'd failed on Sunday. But he had higher hopes now the weather was better. He played his tape at what seemed a deafening volume. Perhaps 30 seconds passed, and then there it was, perched up in the top of a spruce! Superb. The Pygmy Owl was having a hard time (as usual, apparently), surrounded by a halo of mobbing passerines. But he gave a fantastic display, flying about, calling, bobbing and weaving and waving his tail. A really brilliant bird!

With much raised spirits, we headed north to the Baltic coast at Ledskär, a lovely coastal inlet with expansive mudflats and grassy islands. We were soon seeing new species, especially waders, and two Arctic Terns which must have been fresh in. But the show was stolen by two giants - a cracking Caspian Tern (one of the first arrivals of the spring), and two White-tailed Eagles sparring over the woods. Add in Small Tortoiseshell butterflies for a touch of spring, and you'll understand why we enjoyed our lunch!

We briefly checked the Killskar area to the east (another adult White-tailed Eagle), and then headed south towards Uppsala (via another Eagle and considerable numbers of cranes, geese and swans moving north) to check in at Fyrishov.

After our evening meal, we drove back up to the Östervala area for yet another owl attempt. It was bitterly cold in the still forests, and again we heard no Pygmy Owls. But our target this time was to hear an altogether bigger species - Eagle-Owl. We waited patiently for what seemed like an age, until, finally, the male started calling, a deep booming hoot in the middle distance. There was, sadly, no possibility of seeing the bird, so we crawled home, exhausted!

April 11th

So of course we got up at 0500! We headed this time for Fiby Urskog, a wonderful but tiny remnant patch of ancient spruce/pine/aspen forest just west of Uppsala. We worked the woods really hard, but again Three-toed Woodpecker proved impossible, though we did have many Great Spotted Woodpeckers and several Black Woodpeckers drumming. With this site proving blank, we headed further east to the Pansarudden area, reportedly another good spot for Three-toed Woodpecker. We didn't find any! We were even frustrated by a flyover crossbill sp. - it was just too high to see properly, and the call left us in the dark as to its species.

We were, to be quite honest, feeling a bit down and bird free by now, so we headed further east still to the Baltic coast at Sennerby Haken for some guaranteed birds! We were not disappointed - the bay was full of Eiders, with a good scattering of Long-tailed Ducks, and a few Red-breasted Mergansers and Common Scoters for good measure. Eight summer-plumage Black-throated Divers migrated past to the north at close range, and an extra bonus came in the form of a cracking breeding plumaged Scandinavian Rock Pipit.

On our way back home, we checked out Olas Skifte, yet another wonderful little patch of old growth forest in a sea of lower quality woods. It looked fantastic - but could we find Three-toed Woodpecker inside? No! We retreated and saved our energy for the next day.

April 12th

We woke up to snow! Gamely, we battled on, and drove out to Olas Skifte for a second try. It looked even more beautiful in the snow, and a brief view of a male Hazel Hen along the access track kept us in optimistic mood. Great Spotted Woodpeckers drummed away, and Green Woodpeckers called...but guess what we couldn't find? You guessed right.

We followed the noise of rowdy passerines into the wood, hoping to find a mobbed owl - but it was just Jays picking a fight. Nevertheless, by a real stroke of luck, we did flush a Ural Owl at close range from a low spruce tree. The long-tailed look and milky coffee colouring showed well as it drifted off silently into the trees.

Down the road at Pansarudden, we again thrashed spruce patches and clearfells and windfalls and swamps, but still Three-toed Woodpecker eluded us. We did flush a Woodcock, and had excellent views of some more big Redpoll flocks, containing some really superb spring plumaged Mealies.

Back to Uppsala for lunch, and we spent an hour or so at Gamla Uppsala, the Viking settlement and group of burial mounds on the northern edge of town. We performed a gore-laden and bloodthirsty pagan ritual sacrifice of nine Uppsala university students to the mighty god that is Tretåig Hackspett, and invoked his appearance, booking him for the following morning.

We needed some birds to look at, and as the weather was getting still worse, we headed back to Lake Tämnaren for some wildfowl. Although the numbers were down a bit (except for Cranes - 250+) after the clear weather mid-week, there was still plenty to see in the blizzard, including 2 Bewick's Swans among the Whoopers, 2 Pinkfeet still present, now 2 pairs of Smew and a brief ringtail Hen Harrier. A garden feeder in the village of Viby was another highlight, producing swarms of finches, both sparrows and other passerines.

By now, the snow had set in again, and it was time for a retreat to our cabin and a big night in with MTV and pizzas. We had planned to spend this evening in a hide at a Capercaillie lek, but the conditions meant that that was, quite simply, off the agenda!

April 13th

It was even colder this morning, with black ice and lying snow. We headed off to Fiby Urskog, more in hope than expectation, and again thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful old forest, now dusted with snow. As we entered an old area of flooded spruce, a brief drum caught our ears up to the left....could it be our target, the elusive Three-toed Woodpecker? We had a brief glimpse of a woodpecker flying away up to a dead tree, and out of sight. We tiptoed around the back of the tree - the bird hopped out of sight to the other side. We paused, breath held.

It was a Great Spotted Woodpecker, of course. We never did see a Three-toed Woodpecker!

Time was pressing, so we headed on towards Hjalstaviken, an important wetland reserve between Uppsala and Enköping. Now it really was cold. There was an icy north wind blowing, and with wind chill the effective temperature was down somewhere around -18 or -20°C.....ouch!

Julia sat this one out, but the now frost-bitten member of the group went for it and braved the 1km walk to the hide. This turned up trip ticks such as Tufted Duck, Pochard, Shoveler and, more impressively, an Osprey and a male Marsh Harrier, both of which looked as though they'd rather have been back in the Med. or North Africa! Also, a huge adult White-tailed Eagle terrorised all the wildfowl on the lake into flight.

Time pressed even more, so it was time to pack the bins, and do a bit of 'ordinary tourism', at the ancient Viking burial mounds outside Västerås. Well worth a look on the way to the airport. And that was that, except.....

...on arrival back at Stansted (c.1930 UK time), we performed the ritual 'where's the car?', 'it's over there, isn't it?', 'no, it was by the ticket machine' routine. Until, that is, I dropped all my bags on hearing a sibilant little call from above my head. Surely not? I looked straight up, and there were four superb Waxwings perched on a lamppost! Unbelievable!