Asköviken is a beutiful nature reserve not far from Västerås. It is a very good birding place with many different biotopes; large fields, water, different types of forests, and reed fields. This makes the place very comfortable for many bird species.
Here are a few I saw today (with a few other birders):
The black tern (below) is the symbol of the Asköviken nature reserve. 10-20 pairs are breeding here. They sometimes come closer than this, but I like the picture.
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| Black Tern (Chlidonias niger) 400mm, F/5.6, 1/2000, ISO-320 |
The ruffs (below) are not breeding here, they only pass by during the migration, when they move from Africa to northern Scandinavia and Russia in the spring. They offen migrate together, sometimes in hundreds. Today, we saw at least 200-250 of them. Notice the different colours of the males; yellow, red, white and black.
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| Ruff (Philomachus pugnax) 400mm, F/5.6, 1/1600, ISO-250 |
In the spring, the common snipes are very active. They fly high up, and then "dive" down, during which they "open" the tail, and the two outermost of the tailfeathers vibrate. This makes a very loud buzzing sound. Listen to it here:
http://www.virtual-bird.com/songs/gallinago-gallinago.mp3
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| Common snipe (Gallinago gallinago) 400mm, F/5.6, 1/2500, ISO-250 |
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| Marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus) 400mm, F/5.6, 1/1600, ISO-250 |
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| Common crane (grus grus) 400mm, F/5.6, 1/2000, ISO-250 |
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| Little gull (Larus minutus) 400mm, F/5.6, 1/2000, ISO-250 |
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| Greylag goose (Anser anser) 400mm, F/5.6, 1/1250, ISO-250 |
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| Greylag goose (Anser anser) 400mm, F/5.6, 1/1250, ISO-250 |
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| Barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis) 400mm, F/5.6, 1/2000, ISO-250 |
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| Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava) 400mm, F/5.6, 1/640, ISO-250 |
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| White-tailded eagle (Haliaetus albicilla) 400mm, F/5.6, 1/2500, ISO-250 |
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| Hen harrier (Circus cyaneus) 400mm, F/5.6, 1/2000, ISO-250 |
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| Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes) 400mm, F/5.6, 1/1250, ISO-250 |
