Sweden... Part 1

I’ve been on Öland for almost a month now, and I don’t know where to begin! I’ve been kept pre-occupied with birds, birds and birds (and maybe a snake or moose hunt!) so I guess blog writing has taken a back seat.

Ryd, our local site. Great pond for dragonflies and amphibians!

So, what am I doing here?

My first Collared Flycatcher!

Our target species are Pied and Collard Flycatchers, and we are checking 15 sites across the centre and southern end of the island, which vary from 25 to 200 boxes (a BIG step up from Aber last year with 50!). When we first arrived, we had to sort out the house and second kitchen aka lab. There are many different ongoing projects this summer, and each one requires different set ups, so the first few days were busy doing not much birding! Once that was all sorted though, the real work began!

Vickleby - quite beautiful at the start of the season!

The fieldwork is varied, despite having a strict rotation on sites (every four days we revisit the sites to check for new nests and eggs). The first few visits I’m sure we all felt like we’d be constantly lost in the woods, but now I certainly feel a lot more confident and am getting to know the routes between the boxes. And obviously, the woods are a great place for watching wildlife! It’s very difficult sometimes to stay focussed on checking boxes when you have the allure of wood anemones and marsh marigolds pulling you away from the path, the dancing butterflies (most of which I have no idea on species!), barking deer, following mysterious tracks and trails through the undergrowth (still to see a moose!)

Haltorp North - never seen quite so many buttercups before!

Most of our sites are deciduous woods, with some truly awesome trees (one site has ginormous oak trees that are over 900 years old!). It’s hard to imagine the lush carpet of wild flowers, grasses and mosses not being ever-present, but during the winter the area can be under several foot of snow! Many of the sites have areas where snow melt collects, and these are great for checking out footprints – moose, deer and boar, as well as hare. The terrain is mostly flat (as is much of Sweden, to my surprise!), but with the majority of the areas being in nature reserves, the fallen trees and branches are left to decompose naturally, making finding boxes a bit more challenging when you have to step over or duck under the fallen debris constantly. I’ve given up brushing my hair and am pretty sure I may have dreadlocks by the end of the season; I’m always finding twigs tangled up in it!

Ekerum - famous for these old trees!

Because we work 7 days a week all through the season, we make the most of any time off we get, usually in the afternoons once all the sites have been checked, maps updated, data entered and any odd jobs that need doing on the various ongoing projects (top secret but VERY cool!). We usually spend the afternoons chilling around the house, reading, listening to music, watching films or sunbathing. We also take turns cooking the evening meals, so there are usually a couple of people who will go to the shop nearby to pick up dinner ingredients. When we have a bit longer, we go for “adventures”, which have included a couple of trips down to Ottenby Bird Observatory at the southern tip of the island, a visit to a Nature Book store on the east, and an all day trip to the north, including some paddling in the Baltic, troll trees, limestone stacks and the northern lighthouse. And obviously, birds are always present and admired!

Ottenby and "Long John" Lighthouse! Great birding here, especially on sunny days!

At the start of the season, we checked each site for nests, with anything NOT a flycatcher (aka Tits) being marked so that we didn’t disturb them again. In flycatchers, males arrive before the females and establish territories, so we also did some behaviour studies on territoriality and aggression between males (no males were harmed). Once the nests had eggs, we had to enter the information into the database which then plans out our schedules for future days work. Each day we update the maps for each site too, which I enjoy doing (always loved maps!)

Behavior trial using a dummy male and playbacks. This guy wasn't too bothered!

When I first arrived, I started a list of birds I’d seen – after 3 days it was already outdated and I’m afraid I’ve lost count of the species I’ve seen. A few notable ones are Cranes, Red Kites, Terns (Little and Common), Yellowhammers, Hawfinches, Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Thrush Nightingales and of course, Pied and Collard Flycatchers! In addition to the birds, I’ve spotted several snakes, including a few giant Snoks (Grass snakes) and a few lizards scurrying in the undergrowth. There are also plenty of deer, mostly Roe and Red, as well as Hares, of which there are the Forest (Swedish) and Field (German) variety. There are plenty of interesting insects too, with a number of them being rather annoying to us field workers (ticks, mosquitoes and wasps!) Some of the sites have dense undergrowth, and whenever we return to the car we do a count of the little friends that we have coming to the “bug ball” – mostly caterpillars which we release back for our flycatchers. A number of the sites include areas of grassland (sometimes grazed by over-friendly cows!) which are fantastic of orchids. We visited a local archaeological site nearby where I counted at least 8 species! Definitely something I can see me getting more interested in when I get home.

Wouldn't want one of these as a pet - they're quite clingy!

And that is pretty much it for now – been here a month already and feels like 5 minutes but at the same time a lot longer, due to the amount of work we’ve done. Looking forward to the next 4 weeks when we’ll be working long days and measuring all the babies!

Lilla Hult - super friendly cows!