23rd April 2017
Staff: Daniel Wade (DWE), Bo Nielsen (BNN)
Weather: Pleasant though cold first off.
Projects: Wetlands Census, Marsh Harrier
This morning started with DWE finishing off the Wetlands Census at Fräknabotten as BNN conducted some Harrier nest finding over Rysjön then we both went to Åslaholmen to try for Harriers there.
Fräknabotten
Greylag Goose: 7
Mallard: 1 pair
Gadwall: 3 pairs + 4
Lapwing: 11
Snipe: 11
Green Sandpiper: 1
Blacl-headed Gull: 4
Crane: 6
From Rysjön tower, 2 new nests were found; 1 on Rysjön and 1 on Nyängen. From Åslaholmen, 5 new nests were found, 1 in Källviken (where another nest was confirmed), 2 on Åslasjön (only males building so far) and 2 out on Kvinnestasjön which might be hard to locate more accurately.
The slight increase in temperature seems to have brought most of the displaying pairs into a nest building mood, though there is likely more still to arrive. It is interesting to observe that the nests seemed more spread out than in previous years, something we will keep monitoring in due course.
Some nice extras today were a 2nd cy Pallid Harrier female along the edge of Rysjön at first light and BNN having a Great Egret fly briefly into Fräknabotten whilst DWE was looking in the wrong direction! Nevermind hey!
DWE