Kimmo Kangasvieri

As I made my way to the old tree yesterday I spotted a guy with a tripod slung over his shoulder, walking past the now world famous Swedish Whitebeam. A few minutes later after I had taken my snap of the tree I caught up with him. This is Kimmi Kangasvieri from Tyresö. A very dedicated birdwatcher. He found this spot earlier this year and have been back a few times. He had already spotted the fox family that I have tried to photograph this Summer. Kimmi has 405 birds on his list. The record in Sweden is around 450 species. He had seen five owls here, ( I have the worlds worst photo of one of them). Kimmi had a very expensive Swarovski spotting scope with him. It costs more than twice what I paid for my full-frame Canon! The tripod was also of a very high quality, as was the binocular in his left hand. He told me that last year alone he spent more than 800 hours at Sandemar, a nature reserve a few miles from here that he has been visiting for five years now. Kimmi also informed me that he is one of those guys that will jump into his car and drive for a few hours if there's a report of an unusual bird somewhere in the country, that is dedication!

Big Garden Birdwatch

The past weekend saw the annual Big Garden Birdwatch in Sweden and a few other countries. I participated for the third year running. All you have to do is observe your feeding area for about an hour or so and write down all visitors. On my list this year was The Common Blackbird, March Tit, Blue Tit and Great Tit (have to love that name). We also noticed many Magpies, a few Eurasian Nuthatches and one example of the very photo shy Green Woodpecker. Not the outcome as I was hoping for. Some of the missing birds where the Great Spotted Woodpecker and The Greenfinch, but I'm sure they will be back soon.

Garden Bird Watch

From Friday to Monday was the Swedish Garden Bird Watch. During one hour you write down the number of birds that you notice in your garden. I've sent in a report. Did see quite a number of different birds. This is the most common bird, we like to call it Talgoxe. I did also see Woodpecker, Blackbird, Jackdaws and the Eurasian Nuthatch to name a few. Last year 10 000 people took part in this event. I made the collage using picasa.