James Dee Birding

This Richard's Pipit  had been around for a few days but I'd not had a chance to come look for it.  AT 3pm I arrived at the meadow known as Schäferiängarna at Ottenby headland.  There were a handful of people looking for it but no confirmed sightings since the morning. I zigzagged the meadow chatting with several birders not knowing the best place to look for it in what is a large grassy and marshy area.  Eventually, it flew out of cover with some Skylarks and called.  I could see by the size it was a candidate but when it called I was certain of the ID, so I waved to other birders to come my way.  We tried relocating for another 15 minutes or so and I could see they had doubts, but then one of them flushed it. It would fly and land in cover, running or walking most of the time.  That's when someone produced a thermal imager.  It was very hard to pick up and we had a few false positives before finally locating it and allowing  me to grab this...

 

On the 18th October, Gabriel, Robert and myself travelled to the North end of Öland, arriving after dusk.  Early the next morning we headed to the recent location of the bird.  It took about twenty minutes to first spot the Asian Desert Warbler , and another hour showing it to arriving birders and trying to capture a photograph.   We spent the rest of the day birding the Northern cape.  The highlight was 45 Twite,  1 Hawfinch and 2 Long-tailed Duck. On the 20th, we went to see the Desert Warbler again aafter a morning birding the far North cape.  Highlights included a R ough-legged Buzzard , with a Lesser-spotted Woodpecker  heard on a stop on the way home.

One of three Pallas's Warbler seen today around the Ottenby headland.  The max day count over this period was five or six!  They came amongst a fall of hundreds of Goldcrest.  Two Firecrest were also seen.