Return to trip reports.I have just returned from a short trip to Sweden. The main reason was to attend a family wedding, and we got roped in for an enormous amount of hard work which cut down on bird time!
However....The restricted time meant a restricted area, so this may have some value as an observation in a very small area in a short time. From 1300 hours Thursday 25th June to 1000 hours Monday 29th June I was on the island of Tynningö, which for non-Swedes is in the Stockholm archipelago and lies between Varmdö and Rindö and we live at the North of the island overlooking the town of Waxholm. In the time I went over perhaps an eighth of the island, and all the observations are of birds seen on or over the island or, from the shore, on or over the sea.
The island is about 8 km long and perhaps 3 km wide at its widest part. It has a vik (miniature fjord) penetrating about 1 km into the widest point. In the middle is a fresh water lake which supports crayfish and has a water level about 8 metres higher than ordinary sea level. On the island the habitats include rocky shores, reed beds (brackish and fresh water), marsh (fresh), open pasture land, scrub, forest. The predominant trees are birch, pine, alder and oak, but also occurring are wild cherry, sycamore, chestnut and larch. There are numerous shrubs - rhododendron, acacia, lilac etc which are both cultivated and gone wild. Ground cover varies with a lot of blueberry, lingonberry and mosses as well as lichens. There are plenty of wild strawberries and raspberries as well as a wide variety of fungi.
Among the wild-life to be seen is roe deer (so many they have to be culled), elk (from time to time), hare, otter (saw one last weekend) and mink (escaped and a pest) and two varieties of snake including adder.
The island has few permanent residents but a lot of summer houses. Some of these are well established e.g. ours has been in my wife's family for over 100 years and has an area of land ("tömt" in Swedish) of 47,000 square metres (about 11 acres) of mainly woodland which we keep as wild as possible.
Over the short time I was there this time I saw the following birds under the rules I have outlined above. Names are given by date first seen, so later dates are as others were added and do not mean I necessarily saw very few on the later days. names given in English - Swedish [no umlauts] - Latin:
Hooded Crow - Gra kraka - Corvus corone cornix
Jackdaw - Kaja - Corvus monedula
Lesser Black-backed Gull - Silltrut -Larus fuscus
Swallow - Ladusvala - Hirundo rustica
Hose Martin - Hussvala - Delichon urbica
Mute Swan -Knolsvan - Cygnus olor
White Wagtail - Sadesarla - Motacilla alba alba
Herring Gull - Gratrut - Larus argentatus
House Sparrow -Grasparv - Passer domesticus
Goosander - Storskrake - Mergus merganser
Blackbird -Koltrast - Turdus merula
Nuthatch - Notvacka - Sitta europaea europaea
Pied Flycatcher - Svartvit flugsnappare - Ficedula hypoleuca
Chaffinch - Bofink - Fringilla coelebs
Greater Spotted Woodpecker - Storre hackspett - Dendrocopos major
Woodpigeon - Ringduva - Columba palumbus
Redstart - Rodstjart - Phoenicurus phoenicurus
Goldeneye - Knipa - Bucephala clangula
Swift - Tornsvala - Apus apus
Whitethroat - Tornsangare - Sylvia communis
Great Tit - Talgoxe - Parus major
Magpie - Skata - Pica pica
Goldcrest - Kungsfagel - Regulus regulus
Black-throated Diver - Storlom - Gavia arctica
Common Gull - Fiskmas - Larus canus
Greater Black-backed Gull - Havstrut - Larus marinus
Black-headed Gull - Skrattmas - Larus ridibundus
Mallard - Grasand - Anas platyrhynchos
Tree Sparrow - Pilfink - Passer montanus
Green Woodpecker - Grongoling - Picus viridis
Blue Tit - Blames - Parus caeruleus
Treecreeper - Tradkrypare - Certhia familiaris
Greenfinch - Gronfink - Carduelis chloris
Fieldfare - Bjorktrast - Turdus pilaris
Mistle Thrush - Dubbeltrast - Turdus viscivorus
Tree Pipit - Tradpiplarka - Anthus trivialis
I shall be going back at the end of July for nearly 3 weeks when expect to catch up with Three-toed Woodpecker, Black Woodpecker, Crested Tit etc -- all of which I have see there before but not this time. Also, unusually, this time no terns (have seen Caspian there before) and no raptors.
I can really recommend to anyone that the medium to larger island of the Stockholm archipelago are an excellent place to go birding.
I was in Sweden again from 25th July to 11th August 1998 and stayed for the vast majority of the time on the island of Tynningö -- See Part 1 which has full details of location, topography, habitat etc and ground rules for observations.
Over the time we were in Tynningö this time the weather was "variable" -- some few good hot days -- some rather wet but mostly about 20 to 22°C and a mixture of sun, overcast and showers. Winds were normally brisk. The sea water temperature was an unhelpful max 16°C. My tan is much more ascribable to wind than sun but there was a really good lot of mushrooms (svamp), blueberries (blabar), raspberries (hallon) and wild strawberries (smultron), so time was spent profitably.
Black Woodpecker - Spillkraka - Dryocopus martius
Black-headed Gull - Skrattmas - Larus ridibundus
Blackbird - Koltrast - Turdus merula
Blackcap - Svarthatta - Sylvia atricapilla
Blue Tit - Blames - Parus caeruleus
Buzzard - Ormvrak - Buteo buteo
Canada Goose - Kanadagas - Branta canadensis
Chaffinch - Bofink - Fringilla Coelebs
Common Gull - Fiskmas - Larus canus
Crested Tit - Tofsmes - Parus cristatus
Eider - Ejder - Somateria mollissima
Fieldfare - Bjorktrast - Turdus pilaris
Goosander - Storskrake - Mergus merganser
Great Tit - Talgoxe - Parus major
Greater Black-backed Gull - Havstrut - Larus marinus
Greater Spotted Woodpecker - Storre hackspett - Dendrocopos major
Green Woodpecker - Grongoling - Picus viridis
Greenfinch - Gronfink - Carduelis chloris
Grey Heron - Gra hager - Ardea cinerea
Greylag Goose - Gragas - Anser anser
Herring Gull - Gratrut - Larus argentatus
Hooded Crow - Gra kraka - Corvus corone cornix
House Martin - Hussvala - Delichon urbica
House Sparrow - Grasparv - Passer domesticus
Jackdaw - Kaja - Corvus monedula
Jay - Notskrika - Garrulus glandarius
Lesser Black-backed Gull - Silltrut - Larus fuscus
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker - Mindre hackspett - Dendrocopos minor
Magpie - Skata - Pica pica
Mallard - Grasand - Anas platyrhynchos
Mute Swan - Knolsvan - Cygnus olor
Pied Flycatcher - Svartvit flugsnappare - Ficedula hypoleuca
Nuthatch - Notvacka -Sitta europaea europaea
Osprey - Fiskgjuse - Pandion haliaetus
Oystercatcher - Strandskata - Haematopus ostralegus
Raven - Korp - Corvus corax
Robin - Rodhake - Erithacus rubecula
Scaup - Bergand - Aythya marila
Siskin - Gronsiska - Carduelis spinus
Swallow - Ladusvala - Hirundo rustica
Swift - Tornsvala - Apus apus
Tree Sparrow - Pilfink - Passer montanus
Tufted Duck - Vigg - Aythya fuligula
Velvet Scoter - Swarta - Melanitta fusca
White Wagtail - Sadesarla - Motacilla alba alba
Willow Warbler - Lovsangare - Phylloscopus trochilus
Wood Pigeon - Ringduva - Columba palumbus
Wren - Gardsmyg - Troglodytes troglodytes
We went on a day trip to the islands of Utö and Alö (in the south-eastern part of the Stockholm archipelago), and this yielded the following extra birds:
Black-throated Diver - Storlom - Gavia arctica
Cormorant - Storskarv - Phalacrocorax carbo
Great Crested Grebe - Skaggdopping - Podiceps cristatus
Sand Martin - Backsvala - Riparia riparia
Sparrowhawk - Sparvhok - Accipiter nisus
Yellowhammer - Gulsparv - Emberiza citrinella