A Short Report of a Long Weekend in Sweden in February 2008

At the end of this report is a systematic list of the birds that we saw on the trip

19th February 2008
This trip began the way of so many others – an early morning start, driving in the dark and getting lost on the way to Pete’s house. After eleven telephone calls and as many miles in the wrong direction I pulled my van up outside Pete’s house, transferred my kit to his van and an hour later we were at Stanstead.
Flying, for those of us in steerage, is generally an unpleasant experience but the Ryanair flight to Västerås was better than most as there were only thirty or so passengers on the plane.

We met at Västerås airport by guide Daniel Green. Daniel runs Bird Safari Sweden and is also editor of Fågelvännen, the magazine of theSveriges Ornitologiska Förening (SOF), the Swedish equivalent of the RSPB.

The group on this trip the previous week had managed to clock up 40 species, so it was game on as Pete and I decided that we could crack this figure.

The first birds came at the airport; Hooded Crow (whilst still on the plane) and then Jackdaw, Magpie and Herring Gull (the only gulls of the trip.

The first two days of this trip would be spent in the region of Svartådalen (literally translated as the Black River Valley) an area a couple of hours north west of Stockholm. Our first stop was at a feeding station (one of several run by Daniel through the winter) at Ekliden where, in beautiful light on a clear, cold, crisp day, we were treated to close range views of several Hawfinches and a small flock of at least 7 Bullfinches as well as Siskin, Fieldfare (3), Great, Blue and Marsh Tits, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Yellowhammer, Goldfinch and Pheasant. We were also entertained for a while by an agile Red Squirrel.
Daniel brought out coffee and some excellent cheese and red pepper sandwiches that were appreciated by all. The first of the culinary delights of this trip.

Stopping briefly in the village of Sårna, en route to Fläcksjön (Lake Fläck – sjön being Swedish for lake) we added Tree Sparrow to our list. It is always a delight to see these little birds that are now, sadly, much harder to find back home.
On the lake itself we saw our first few Whooper Swans as a White-tailed Eagle circled overhead.

We then moved on to a feeding station in the forest at Skillberg to the NW of Fläcksjön. At this feeding station, in the forest as opposed to the first which was in more open farmland with scattered trees, we added Willow and Coal Tits to our list, though there was no sign of the Nutcrackers and Grey-headed Woodpecker that has been present earlier according to a Swedish birder we met there. He said they had been scared off by a Sparrowhawk that made a couple of passes at the feeders – the feeding station obviously also an attractive place for a Sparrowhawk to feed.

We then drove north to another lake, Hörendsjön, where we found a flock of about 58 Canada Geese as well as 38 Whooper Swans. Near the lake we also found our second mammal species of the trip, three Roe Deer, feeding in a field.
By now the afternoon sun was getting low and the long dark evening would start to draw in so we headed to our spa hotel at Sätra Brunn that would be home for the next two nights. En route, near the village of Fläckbo on the shores of the lake we added Raven and Great Grey Shrike to our list.
At Sätra Brunn we dined well on a variety of seafood and shellfish including both salt and freshwater Crayfish. All washed down with a couple of bottles of good Chilean red wine.

20th February 2008
It was light by 7.30a.m. and the thermometer showed minus nine degrees centigrade. A pre-breakfast walk around the grounds of the spa brought Nuthatch, Marsh Tit, Jackdaw and Hooded Crow.
Today we were joined by Leana Naslund, a journalist with Swedish Nature magazine.
Leaving the hotel en route for the day’s destination of the Färna Ekopark we found a Rough-legged Buzzard in a roadside tree being mobbed by Magpie and Jay.
Inside the Ekopark we were met by Mikael Rhönnstad, a woodpecker expert who also runs a Tengmalm’s Owl nestbox scheme. He lead us to an area of the forest that had been devastated by a mini-hurricane two years previously. A large number of trees had been uprooted or broken and this dead and decaying wood is attractive to woodpeckers due to the large number of insects that it harbours. (See photographs in the gallery section of this site). Here we had very good views of up to four Three-toed Woodpeckers. A female Pine Grosbeak flew briefly through the area and although I managed to get my bins on it Pete, who was looking at a woodpecker in the other direction, wasn’t so lucky.

From here we moved to another part of the Ekopark, a most extraordinary area of dead forest. A beaver dam had flooded a large area of forest to a depth of between 6-18inches of water and the constant waterlogging had caused the trees to die. Through the winter months the forest floor freezes over making this an area like nothing I had seen before. This forest had a magical feel about it, enhanced in no little measure by the shafts of sunlight filtering through the dead branches and the strange, surprisingly loud, sounds of cracking ice that echoed through the trees from time to time.

In this strange and remote area we were treated to more views of a very approachable Three-toed Woodpecker and also saw our first Treecreeper of the trip.
Reluctantly leaving this mysterious place we headed to another lake, Stora Kedjen where we saw Mallard,species number 31 for the trip.
It was on this lake that we had our first taste of walking across the frozen surface of the water – a feeling both fun and scary!

Daniel, who had been a chef in a previous life, cooked up a wonderful stir fry of reindeer meat and herbs over an open fire – a delicious lunch washed down with cold beer. Strangely, it was really good drinking cold beer out of doors on a cold day.

From here we moved up to a heavily wooded ridge from where we were able to get good views of three White-tailed Eagles (one adult) and a juvenile Golden Eagle as well as 7 Ravens and our first Crested Tits.

With the afternoon drawing to a close we moved to a large open area of the Ekopark surrounded by coniferous forest, near the village of Klömstorp in search of Pygmy Owl.
Daniel whistled the Owl’s call and within a few minutes an inquisitive male was perched on the top of a spruce Tree within thirty feet of us. This superb little bird showed very well for half an hour before the light failed and we returned to the hotel at Sätra Brunn adding Feral Pigeon on the way.

21st February 2008
Three Tawny Owls called loudly in the early hours of the morning, at least one of them very close to the hotel.
On a pre-breakfast walk Pete encountered a Brown Hare that approached within 6ft. of him before moving off again.
As we left the hotel after breakfast shortly before 9a.m. the thermometer showed minus eleven degrees and it looked as if it would turn out to be another beautiful day.
Driving north back to the feeding station at Skillberg some of us glimpsed our first Black Woodpecker of the trip as one flew across the road in front of the minibus.

Back at the station things were very busy with large numbers of Willow, Coal, Great, Blue and Crested Tits coming and going in a seemingly endless stream and regularly joined by Great Spotted Woodpecker and Nuthatch.
One of our group, Peter, remained at the station as the rest of us, in an attempt to get some warmth and life back into our toes, went for a walk with Daniel along the road at the side of the lake near Axhölm. We soon came across a couple of delightful Long-tailed Tits of the northern race, with much whiter heads than those we see in England. We also had clear but fairly distant views of half a dozen Nutcrackers. A calling Green Woodpecker brought the trip total to 40, equalling that of the previous group. With a day and a half’s birding left Pete and I were feeling confident of picking up a few more species, especially with a river visit coming up.
Back at the station a frozen Peter said that we had missed Grey-headed Woodpecker and Sparrowhawk and, although, I had not seen either, this brought the trip total to 42.

Leaving the feeding station we went on to the river Dalälven at Forsbo where, near a ruined mill that once formed part of the steel industry that was common in the valley a century or more ago, we saw Black-bellied Dipper as well as a flock of 17 Goldeneye.
Driving further along the river valley we encountered two large, though not yet fully grown Elk (Moose) by the roadside. The animals trotted across the road before vanishing into a small patch of woodland. We then stopped on a bridge over the river, marked Nedre Dalälven where we saw a flock of about 60 Goldeneye sheltering in a river bay together with 3 Goosanders and about 30 Mallard.
With the light failing we drove north to our guesthouse at Jädra Ås for the last night of our stay. En route we came across another Moose which ambled slowly off the road and into a patch of bushes about ten metres from the minibus. It was amazing how such a large animal could hide behind a leafless bush to such good effect that even from this close distance we had trouble seeing it.

22nd February 2008
From Jädra Ås we drove to another feeding station, this one two kilometres down a track in the woods at Ockelbo.
On the way to the station a Black Grouse flew across the road above the tops of the Spruce trees.
After a short wait at the station, where Daniel had put out some cut up hot dogs in the branch of a tree, we were visited by three Siberian Jays. These delightful birds visited the station several times during the next hour, usually arriving together and coming down one at a time to grab a piece of sausage and fly off with it.
After a while Pete and I though we would walk down the track a bit more as a Swedish birder had told us that he had had good views of a female Capercaillie there the day before.
After nearly a kilometre we saw a grouse fly up into a nearby Spruce tree and when we got our bins on to it we saw not a Capercaillie but a beautiful male Hazel Grouse.This bird obliged us with good clear views for twenty minutes or so before we decided to go back and call the others. We found them following us down the trail and luckily the bird was still there when we returned to the spot where we had found it and everyone in the group got good views of it.

Leaving Ockelbo, after a lunch of spicy sausages cooked on an open fire, we turned off down another track into the woods by a lake with a small group of summer houses on the shore – a spot Daniel said could be good for Black Grouse or Capercaillie. We got out of the bus and were scanning the treetops for Grouse when a Grey-headed Woodpecker came flying over, giving good views to all those of us who had missed the earlier bird.
No luck with the Grouse though until, as we were heading back down the track, a female Capercaillie flew across the roads into some trees on the lakes edge. We got out and although we did not see the bird again we found plenty of droppings underneath some of the trees indicating that this was a regular roosting site for them.
This brought the trip total to 49 species and although we spent half an hour hunting around a village for House Sparrow (!) we didn’t find any and so this list remained frustratingly short of the half century. We were further irritated to learn that the group the following week had seen 54 species!
All in all this was a wonderful weekend away and although we knew we should not see a huge number of different species the quality of the birds we saw, the wonderful weather and light and the beautiful scenery made it a place that I want to return to.

The following list is a systematic list of the birds that we saw on the trip with the place and date where we first saw them. It is not a comprehensive list of every species that we saw at each of the places we visited.

1 Whooper Swan Cygnus cygnus ~ Fläcksjön 14.2.08
2 Canada Goose Branta canadensis ~ Fläcksjön 14.2.08
3 Mallard Anas platyrhynchos ~ Stora Kedjen 15.2.08
4 Common Goldeneye Bucephala clangula ~ Forsbo 16.2.08
5 Goosander Mergus merganser ~ Dalälven 16.2.08
6 White-tailed Sea-eagle Haliaeetus albicilla ~ Fläcksjön 14.2.08
7 Rough-legged Buzzard Buteo lagopus ~ Nr. Sätra Brunn 15.2.08
8 Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus ~ Skillberg 15.2.08
9 Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos ~ Färna Ekopark 15.2.08
10 Eurasian Capercaillie Tetrao urogallus ~ Nr. Ockelbo 17.2.08
11 Black Grouse Tetrao tetrix ~ Nr. Ockelbo 17.2.08
12 Hazel Grouse Bonasa bonasia ~ Ockelbo 17.2.08
13 Common Pheasant Phasianus colchicus ~ Ekliden 14.2.08
14 European Herring Gull Larus argentatus ~ Västerås 14.2.08
15 Feral Pigeon Columba livia 'feral' ~ Nr. Färna Ecopark 15.2.08
16 Tawny Owl Strix aluco ~ Sätra Brunn 16.2.08
17 Eurasian Pygmy Owl Glaucidium passerinum ~ Nr. Klömstorp 15.2.08
18 Great Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos major ~ Ekliden 14.2.08
19 Three-toed Woodpecker Picoides tridactylus ~ Färna Ekopark 15.2.08
20 Black Woodpecker Dryocopus martius ~ Nr. Sätra Brunn 16.2.08
21 Green Woodpecker Picus viridis ~ Axholm 16.2.08
22 Gray-headed Woodpecker Picus canus ~ Nr. Ockelbo 17.2.08
23 White-throated Dipper Cinclus cinclus ~ Forsbo 16.2.08
24 Fieldfare Turdus pilaris ~ Ekliden 14.2.08
25 Long-tailed Tit Aegithalos caudatus ~ Axholm 16.2.08
26 Marsh Tit Poecile palustris ~ Ekliden 14.2.08
27 Willow Tit Poecile montana ~ Skillberg 14.2.08
28 Coal Tit Periparus ater ~ Skillberg 14.2.08
29 Crested Tit Lophophanes cristatus ~ Färna Ekopark 15.2.08
30 Great Tit Parus major ~ Ekliden 14.2.08
31 Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus ~ Ekliden 14.2.08
32 Nuthatch Sitta europaea ~ Ekliden 14.2.08
33 Treecreeper Certhia familiaris ~ Färna Ekopark 15.2.08
34 Great Grey Shrike Lanius excubitor ~ Fläckebo 14.2.08
35 Siberian Jay Perisoreus infaustus ~ Ockelbo 17.2.08
36 Jay Garrulus glandarius ~ Nr. Sätra Brunn 15.2.08
37 Magpie Pica pica ~ Västerås 14.2.08
38 Nutcracker Nucifraga caryocatactes ~ Axholm 16.2.08
39 Jackdaw Corvus monedula ~ Västerås 14.2.08
40 Hooded Crow Corvus cornix ~ Västerås 14.2.08
41 Common Raven Corvus corax ~ Fläckebo 14.2.08
42 Tree Sparrow Passer montanus ~ Svanå 14.2.08
43 Pine Grosbeak Pinicola enucleator ~ Färna Ekopark 15.2.08
44 European Greenfinch Carduelis chloris ~ Ekliden 14.2.08
45 Eurasian Siskin Carduelis spinus ~ Ekliden 14.2.08
46 European Goldfinch Carduelis carduelis ~ Ekliden 14.2.08
47 Eurasian Bullfinch Pyrrhula pyrrhula ~ Ekliden 14.2.08
48 Hawfinch Coccothraustes coccothraustes ~ Ekliden 14.2.08
49 Yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella ~ Ekliden 14.2.08