) young lad with his newly bred juvenile! 
JanJ
hi all,
the next journey after the tour in romania was our family summer holiday at gotland, sweden. as most of you probably know gotland is a big island in the baltic sea with a n-s-length of about 100 km. and it is quite a good place for birding, which i managed to do on most days, usually from 4:30 in the morning till about 9:00. we stayed at a beautiful stone house, 18 km south of klintehamn and only 200 m from the beach (western coast). so i birded mainly in the southern part of the island with one excursion to the north (asunden, furillen and fårö-island) and a one night stay on the famous stora karlsö island.
i had a total of 150 species in the 18 days which is a good number this time of the year for the island, but i haven’t had any real rarity among them. e.g. i missed a singing blyth's warbler by 3 days...thus only one lifer, black guillemot.
for me the island was a very pleasant experience with its easy going and a bit separatistic thinking people (“the real goths…vikings”), almost mediterranean character (stone walls, extensive agriculture, stony coasts) a lot of orchid species, not to forget the ~ 100 romanic churches, etc.. many bird species that got rare in the german south with its industrialized agriculture are very common on the island. opposed to the mainland scandinavia whith its granite ground, gotland “consists” of lime stone.
this is dan and lou in the garden of our domicile, eager for the afternoon walk along the coast ("ekstakustens naturreservat"). well, dan is probably more eager for his afternoon nap...
and this are the 150 observed species. bold are the ones recommended by the gotland RC to be reported (some matching the breeding records or seasonal rarity criteria) and red the ones which i considered somewhat interesting from a central european or british view. comments in a later post.
Mute Swan
Whooper Swan
Canada Goose
Barnacle Goose
Greylag Goose
Common Shelduck
Gadwall
Eurasian Wigeon
Common Teal
Mallard
Northern Pintail
Garganey
Northern Shoveler
Common Pochard
Tufted Duck
Common Eider
Velvet Scoter
Common Goldeneye
Goosander
Red-breasted Merganser
Grey Partridge
Common Quail
Pheasant
Red-throated Diver
Black-throated Diver
Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Red-necked Grebe
Slavonian Grebe
Great Cormorant
Grey Heron
White-tailed Eagle
Marsh Harrier
Sparrowhawk
Common Buzzard
Golden Eagle
Kestrel
Merlin
Water Rail
Spotted Crake
Corn Crake
Eurasian Coot
Crane
Oystercatcher
Pied Avocet
Ringed Plover
Grey Plover
Northern Lapwing
Red Knot
Dunlin
Ruff
Snipe
Eurasian Woodcock
Black-tailed Godwit
Eurasian Curlew
Spotted Redshank
Redshank
Common Greenshank
Green Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper
Common Sandpiper
Ruddy Turnstone
Red-necked Phalarope
Little Gull
Black-headed Gull
Common Gull
Baltic Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Caspian Tern
Sandwich Tern
Common Tern
Arctic Tern
Little Tern
Guillemot
Razorbill
Black Guillemot
Rock Dove
Stock Dove
Wood Pigeon
Collared Dove
Common Cuckoo
Common Swift
Black Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
Wood Lark
Skylark
Sand Martin
Swallow
House Martin
Tree Pipit
Meadow Pipit
Rock Pipit (littoralis)
White Wagtail
Winter Wren
Dunnock
European Robin
Thrush Nightingale
Redstart
Whinchat
Northern Wheatear
Blackbird
Fieldfare
Song Thrush
Redwing
Grasshopper Warbler
Sedge Warbler
Reed Warbler
Marsh Warbler
Icterine Warbler
Blackcap
Garden Warbler
Barred Warbler
Lesser Whitethroat
Whitethroat
Greenish Warbler ?
Wood Warbler
Willow Warbler
Chiffchaff
Goldcrest
Spotted Flycatcher
Collared Flycatcher
Bearded Tit
Coal Tit
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Nuthatch
Eurasian Treecreeper
Red-backed Shrike
Eurasian Jay
Magpie
Jackdaw
Rook
Hooded Crow
Raven
Common Starling
House Sparrow
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
Chaffinch
Greenfinch
Goldfinch
Siskin
Linnet
Redpoll
Crossbill
Parrot Crossbill
Rosefinch
Bullfinch
Yellowhammer
Reed Bunting
Nice Lou, Gotland is fine, as are Öland. Very nice to see the (responsible ) young lad with his newly bred juvenile!
JanJ