14 nets opened at 0400 in a strong NW wind which decreased through the morning so by the time netting finished at 1115 all nets had been in operation.

A total of 42 new birds of 10 species was better than expected given the wind direction and strength.

A guided talk at 1100 given by Pelle was attended by three adults and two youngsters.

All others at the Obs went to the Lighthouse for a migration watch, with 2 Ringtrast (Ring Ouzel) being of note, though all of the records will appear in Artportalen later.

Pelle, Henrik & Karl leave the island on the last ferry to give five at the Obs tonight: Chris, Kay, Janne, Bosse and Mats.

Thanks to Mats for bringing a new drill and screws (and Voltaren for Chris’s knee!!) last night, Bosse for bringing bird food and Pelle for fresh fruit!!

Two questions – one easy and one harder.

We will all know who the two characters in the picture remind us of – long time members of Landsort bird observatory!!

Question 1 – who do they remind you of?

Question 2 (much harder) – which is the one sleeping?

Answers please!!!!

17 nets opened at 0400 in a strong NE wind, but reduced to just 10 nets as the morning progressed and the wind increased to very strong.

Just 20 new birds of 7 species, with the first Sparvhök (Sparrowhawk) of the year caught.

Janne spent a very productive morning in the south migration watching, joined for the morning by Sven who, along with Lena are on Landsort for the weekend, travelling from Lapland. Jannes sightings will show on Artportalen later.

Pelle, Henrik and Karl arrived on the morning boat, with Bosse and Mats arriving on the last ferry, to give 8 at the Obs overnight:
Chris, Kay, Janne, Pelle, Henrik, Karl, Bosse and Mats.

All nets opened at 0400 and closed at 1200 with light winds, increasing slightly as the morning progressed, backing SE to E then NE.

A very pleasing total of 117 new birds of 15 species – a most welcome result after a poor April. Though mainly Rödhake (Robin) a good number of Gransångare (Chiffchaff) were caught along with the first (6) Lövsångare (Willow Warbler) of the year and the first Ängspiplärka (Meadow Pipit).

A single Ladusvala (Barn Swallow), migrating north was the first of the year and a Morkulla (Woodcock) was flushed from cover at first light.

Afternoon will be spent mending some holes in nets and cleaing the Obs ready for weekend visitors. As far as we know there will be three at the Obs tonight; Chris, Kay & Janne.

28 nets opened at 0415, with the last two opened about 90 minutes later when the sun had thawed the ice from them. All 30 nets then operated until 1100.

At last, a good indication of spring migration, with 46 new birds of 14 species. These included 30 Robin, the first Ärtsångare (Lesser Whitethroat) of the year, first Svarthätta (Blackcap) and an adult female Blåhake (Bluethroat), another first for the year and the earliest caught on Landsort by two days (29th April 2001).

Also caught was an adult male Stenskvätta (Wheatear) that was ringed on Landsort as a 2Y male in April 2014.

The afternoon will be spent replacing a number of old nets in Bredmar with the new ones that arrived last week and putting the final posters about public guided walks at North Harbour.

Public ‘pop-in’ talks are taking place each Wednesday and Sunday at 1130 from 3rd May to 27th August, so anyone wanting to join us to learn more about the work on the Observatory, facts about migration and hopefully see some birds being ringed is more than welcome.

Up at 0400 but overnight rain was still falling with a very strong wind, so we were not able to open any nets until 0600, with 13 opened then and a further one opened as the wind decreased slightly. All 14 nets closed at 1030 with heavy snow showers arriving.

Just 10 new birds of 6 species, which (finally!!!) takes the total for the month to over 500.

Between net rounds timber cut for making some Tornseglare nest boxes and some treads placed on a new boardwalk to reduce chance of slipping.

Need to do more work on the boxes and on the walls of the Obs before the boxes can be put up. Might do that this afternoon, but depends upon the snow showers stopping.

Just Chris & Kay at the Obs overnight.

Up at 0400 but far too windy to open nets, so a lie in until 0530. Still too windy and with a mix of snow/ rain showers all morning there was no opportunity to open nets in safety.

Morning spent catching up a paperwork/ washing etc before a public guided talk to 11 people, which went very well despite the lack of birds and produced many interesting questions and conversations about the importance of research, changing status of species, migration, ecology, bird behaviour etc. Resulted in a long chat of 90 minutes which was enjoyed by all.

Heavier and more prolonged periods of snow this afternoon will result in more paperwork!

Just Chris & Kay at the Obs overnight.

All nets opened at 0415 in a very light NW wind that increased slowly as the morning progressed and backed to the south. All nets closed at 1100. A total of 28 new birds of 12 species, including the first Stenskvätta (Wheatear) of the year, a couple more Sädesärla (White Wagtail) and a Rödvingetrast (Redwing).

Orre seen before 0600 flying over, the same bird that was seen at 0510 at the Lighthouse by Janne, who spent the morning there undertaking a very quiet migration watch.

Some nest box building in the cellar this afternoon, as the rain has now arrived and will be with us for the rest of daylight hours.

Janne leaves on the late afternoon ferry so it will be just Chris & Kay at the Obs tonight.

Update on yesterday, Mats did an excellent job on getting some repairs done the roof.

All nets opened at 0415 and closed at 1100, with the wind decreasing through the morning and it becoming more sunny. Temperature rose from 2 degrees at 0415 to 5 by 1100.

A total of 20 new birds of 8 species was welcome after the poor results of yesterday. Bosse & Mats went to the south, with their sightings appearing on Artportalan (the National Swedish recording database).

Kay flushed a Morkulla (Woodcock) from near the juniper nets at first light.

Think Mats might be trying to repair the roof this afternoon?

Not a lot else planned, but Kay & I might replace boardwalks at east SUDD, see how the energy levels are after lunch.

Janne arrived on the first ferry, with Bosse and Mats leaving at some stage this afternoon.

There will be three at the Obs tonight; Chris, Kay & Janne.

14 nets opened at 0530 with a very strong wind delaying opening by 1 hour and restricting which nets could be opened. Most closed at 1100 with some kept open for a further 45 minutes as Chris did a guided talk for three people.

So, the bad news can no longer be avoided!!! – for the first time since Kay & I started coming here in the autumn of 2013 we failed to catch a single new bird during our netting period. In fact, for the last 7 days there have been less than 10 birds caught per day, the only 7 day period in April during the last 30 years of netting that such a low number has been caught. This underlines the really slow start to spring migration that is being experienced on Landsort and in many other Swedish observatories!

There are positives however, the island is a fantastic place to live, the islanders make us welcome and help in so many ways, the organisation is getting stronger all the time and we know the birds will come!!!

Mats & Bosse arrived on the morning ferry and spent a frustrating time trying to find any sign of spring migrants. In the afternoon Chris & Kay spent a couple of hours building new boardwalks in the west gully at SUDD. Completed in a total of 4 hours including yesterday and should now be usable for at least 10 years. Mats needs to do some repairs to the roof tomorrow but may have time to help with re-building the boardwalk in east SUDD, another major task that is overdue.

Though there were few migrants on show C & K did manage to see a female Orre (Black Grouse), a not so common here, perhaps one or two sighting annually on good years.

There are four at the Obs overnight; Chris, Kay, Bosse and Mats.

0, Nil, Ziltch, Nada, NOL !!!!!

20 nets opened at 0430 in a strong wind that started in SW but moved to W and reduced slightly to allow more nets to be opened later in the morning. Kay left island to get shopping, so some nets closed then with the rest closed at 1100.

Only 7 new birds of 5 species, continuing the run of very poor capture days – 6 days now with less than 10 birds per day. On the plus side – and we have to keep making ourselves aware of these!!!- excellent views of a sub-adult White-tailed Eagle on a number of occasions this morning, quite close and being mobbed by a variety of gull species. Also had two Wheatear outside the Obs briefly, a sign of spring migration at least!!!

Timber for boardwalks arrived this morning instead of last night, so busy with that this afternoon. Met up with Lennarts and moved 8 planks down to SUDD and the rest up to the Obs. After Lennarts had gone I took the time to move the planks into position, all they need tomorrow is cutting to length, nailing in place and the old rotten timber taking to the fire gully. All done in only 90 minutes. SUDD should be a safer place this year!

So far as we are aware there is just Chris & Kay at the Obs. Funny how the birders turn up when the birds do – it’s almost like they know!!!

All nets opened at 0430 with a hint that the SW winds may have allowed some movement of migrants. Unfortunately it was only a hint, as there were just 9 new birds of 6 species caught!

Nets closed at 1100 with the wind increasing in strength.

Some more maintenance and repairs planned for the afternoon, with new planks for SUDD arriving on the last ferry we will be down getting them on site for an couple of hours later on also. I love these 0430 starts and 1800+ finishes. Keeps us busy!

Afternoon turned out wetter than forecast so some time was spent helping Anders by amending the computer map to remove the old power lines that ran North to South down the island when the map was done in 2005. Anders will be producing a new version for the board at the end of the lane.

Just Chris & Kay at the Obs tonight.

The attached file shows the first capture dates on Landsort for a range of commonly caught spring migrants, using data from 1988-2016. This evaluation is part of a longer term review of the Observatories data and therefore needs to be viewed as a ‘draft’.

For example, some of the early dates for species like Robin, Blackbird etc might well be of birds that were not on active migration but were over-wintering on the island. More work is taking place to determine to what extent we can account for over-wintering birds in future analyses.

More meaningful than ‘first’ dates of course are the mean dates and on-going analysis is evaluating this and we hope to have more information later this year.

Historically, and in particular in the mid to late 90’s and again in the period 2008-12 there were years when little, if any, ringing took place in April. Future analysis will take account of such bias, but for now it is hoped you find the raw data of interest.

In some previous years the first Ängpiplärka, Stenskvätta, Lövångare, Göktyta and Rödstjart (Meadow Pipit, Wheatear, Willow Warbler, Wryneck and Redstart) had already been caught by todays date, so they should be arriving with us any day now.

All nets opened at 0430 in a light NW wind, which gradually backed to SW during the morning and increased slightly to give 7 m/s when all nets were closed at 1100. Just 8 new birds again today, of 6 species. Included two new Sädesärla (White Wagtail) and the first Trädkrypare (Treecreeper) of the year.

Male Sparrowhawk hit the far north net and bounced out again.

New boardwalks ordered for SUDD and will hopefully be here by the weekend. This afternoon will be spent doing more maintenance and repairs around the Obs.

Just Chris & Kay overnight tonight.

Opening of nets delayed by 30 minutes as the snow that fell yesterday evening had partly frozen on the nets. Most nets opened at 0500 with the five in the reed beds opened later as the sun warmed this coldest part of the site. All nets closed at 1100.

Yet again, the birds largely failed to show with just 8 new of 6 species caught, including the seasons first Fieldfare.

Summary sheets on the information board in the hall updated to take account of the figures up to and including those from 2016. This afternoon notices will be placed in the village, at North Harbour and in the hostel about the series of public guided talks and lectures that are taking place. More notices will be placed in the leaflets available on the ferry and at other places.

Just Chris & Kay at the Obs tonight.

All except reed bed nets opened at 0430 with these nets opened later when the sun put some ‘heat’ in the day. Remained cold all morning, with 30 nets closed at 1100. Only three new birds of two species caught. A Jorduggla (Short-eared Owl) was seen flying over just after first light.

Tumble drier collected from the village, with thanks to the community for allowing us to have it. It will make a big difference to how life is here, for the Wardens and for keeping bird bags clean. Washing machine is due out soon!!!

Janne, Niklas and Bjorn were south migration watching but also had a very quiet.

Most leaving on the 1330 ferry to give just Chris & Kay overnight tonight.

Most nets opened at 0445 with those in the reeds opened a little later due to the temperature being lower in the reeds. Some nets closed as the wind increased with all remaining nets closed at 1100. Another quiet (terrible!!!) day ringing with just 7 new birds of 6 species.

Janne (who arrived on the last boat yesterday), Bosse, Niklas & Bjorn were out early for migration watching and also had a very quiet day. The only records of note were one Jorduggla in off the sea and another flushed in the south. Altogether a disappointing day!!!

A guided talk for two people was given.

Bosse and Lena leave this evening, with Niklas and Bjorn deciding to stay another night; just in case it gets better!

Will be six at the Obs tonight: Chris, Kay, Pelle, Janne, Niklas & Bjorn.

Up at 0445 but a temperature of minus 4 degrees delayed opening for bird welfare reasons. All but the reed nets opened at 0530 with the reed nets opened at 0630. All nets closed at 1100. Same old story – very few birds in the area with just 13 new of 8 species to give just 400 for the first half of April. This is below average captures for the period, measured over the years 1988-2016 but is consistent with experiences at other observatories in southern Sweden and as far south as the UK.

Two more boardwalks made by Kay for the area leading to the canopy and some timber added to the Lab to reduce wind blowing into it.

Three flocks of Storsporv (Curlew) totalling 56 birds flew east over the Observatory early in the morning.

Will be six at the Obs overnight: Chris, Kay, Pelle, Bosse, Lena, Niklas & Bjorn.

All nets opened at 0445 and closed at 1100. The morning started with light wind from the NE but as the morning progressed the wind increased. At around 0930 the first few flurries of snow were felt, with snow on and off for the rest of the session, but no volume and a dry snow.

Even fewer birds on the island now, with just 13 new birds of 8 species, but included 2 Sädesärla (White Wagtail) and another Vinterhämpling (Twite), the fourth spring bird ever caught, after the 3rd yesterday. Luckily for Kay & Chris, Pelle did the ringing so we can blame him for the poor captures instead of it being down to us over the last few days!!!!

During the quiet times of this morning Kay made a couple of new boardwalks to cover wet areas near the canopy net. Will measure boardwalks at SUDD this afternoon, ready to order new timber so that the site is ready for use by end of month.

Expected to be seven at the Obs tonight: Chris, Kay, Pelle, Bosse, Lena, Niklas, Jon and Bjorn – so that will be almost as many people as there are birds!! Jon was a ‘no show’; the meteorologist must have trusted the weather forecast!!!!

Snow still falling and a light covering on the ground, making it look more like Christmas than Easter!!

22 nets opened at 0445 with some more opened for a while as the wind decreased and moved more to the north, with 23 nets operating when the session finished at 1100.

Yet another quiet day with just 17 new birds of 11 species. Included in these was a ‘winter-pling’ (Vinterhämpling/ Twite), only the 3rd spring capture for the Observatory.

More work being done on sorting work plans this afternoon.

Probable that Pelle will arrive this evening to give three at the Obs overnight.

All nets opened at 0445 with a light south-west wind. Wind backed to south and then south-east with rain arriving at 0900 when all nets closed. Rain now forecast for the rest of the day.

Another very quiet day with hardly any birds in the area and just 10 new birds caught of 5 species.

Rest of the day will be spent reviewing old data and making further progress on workplans for the future.

Just Chris & Kay at the Obs overnight.