Paradise in Sweden? Sunday 24th May
With our flight back to the UK scheduled for the late afternoon, we just had time for a brief birding stop on Oland before heading back to the mainland. Lars and Ingrid took us to a very special location, this time on the east coast of Oland, and home to Christian, the birder with the highest Swedish list. And we could see why, since half of them must have turned up in just his garden. On a piece of land that juts out into the Baltic, Christian has a combination of shoreline, a small isolated patch of scrubby woodland, fields, a small manmade pool with reedbed, a vast horizon and a lighthouse from which to scan it. Christian has recorded a staggering 293 species in and around his garden, proving what a wonderful migration hotspot this is. Truly a birder’s paradise! Just a few of the amazing birds we encountered in our brief visit included singing Marsh, and Reed and Icterine Warblers, Pied and Spotted Flycatchers, Red-backed Shrikes, Common Rosefinch while on the shoreline we had Grey Plover, Greenshank, Avocet and an Osprey fishing just offshore.
It was with great reluctance that we tore ourselves away as Ingrid very kindly drove us back to the mainland to catch our train to Copenhagen airport for our flight home. We’d like to say a huge thank you to Lars Rydgren and Ingrid for their kindness in welcoming us into their home and looking after us so well, taking us out birding and making us feel so welcome in Oland. We have made two very special friends, and we would love to be able to repay their kindness with a visit here to show them the birds of North Wales.