During a long period of hard North-eastern wind (brr... feels like it's straight from Siberia), spring kind of grinded to a halt for almost 2 weeks at the end of April-beginning of May. One nice aspect of this was that a large flock of Curlew (Storspov) took a few days of R & R at the areas around Kungsängen, Uppsala. When the wind took a pause in battering my area of Sweden, they took to their wings and continued their migration. Before that happened we spent some time watching them feeding along a long ditch between pastures (on April 20). The distance was quite long, so: not any eye-popping high quality videos, but it was a nice moment for us. The Curlew doesn't usually make migration-stop here in such big numbers, I think we counted to appr 200 of'em!
Eventually we continued to the other side of the creek, to Övre Föret, to check out the duck population at the flooded part. Still lots of ducks! Eurasian Teal (Kricka), Eurasian Wigeon (Bläsand), Mallard (Gräsand) and one pair ofNorthern Shoveler (Skedand). Plenty of Common Starlings as well. The Black-headed Gulls were around in large numbers, and we spotted a pair of Lesser Black-backed Gull (Silltrut). Other species noted: Eurasian Coot (Sothöna) and Northern Lapwing (Tofsvipa).
I made a second visit to Övre Föret on May 6, yet another day with a hard North-eastern wind. I parked at the good view-point and checked: the ducks were mainly gone. Instead I spotted a few shorebirds foraging the muddy bank. A few Ruff (Brushane), a Common Greenshank (Gluttsnäppa), a Common Sandpiper (Drillsnäppa), a Little Ringed Plover (Mindre strandpipare) and LOTS of Green and/or Wood Sandpipers huddled behind large grass-tufts, in lee from the hard wind.
Негізгі бет Eurasian Curlews rests at Kungsängen during bad migration weather & ducks at Övre Föret, April 20
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