Watching thousands of Swedish birds

TWO OF Europe’s greatest bird-watching spectacles are getting under way: raptors cranes and storks are converging on Gibraltar and the Bosporus strait before crossing the sea for Africa, where they will spend the winter.

These locations are justly famous. However, the continent’s largest concentrations of raptors are to be found much further north. At this time of year, Sweden’s southern province Skåne, pronounced ‘Skow-nay’, has more raptors than anywhere else and offers some of the best bird-watching in Europe.

Each autumn, tens of millions of Swedish birds are joined by others from Finland and northern Russia. As the nights lengthen and temperatures fall, the birds head south towards Skåne, the apex of a funnel which becomes a gigantic bottleneck.

Land birds hate flying over water and won’t venture out over the sea unless forced to do so. At its narrowest point near Helsingborg, the Öresund, which separates Sweden and Denmark, is just 10km wide, but such is their fear of the sea that most birds pass up the opportunity to cross here and continue along the coast until they reach the peninsula at Falsterbo. There they can go no further. Huge numbers build up at potential crossing points as birds wait for the right conditions before moving to the islands of southern Denmark.

Anders Ekstrand, a senior forest officer with Skåne’s planning and environment department, estimates that at least 50 million birds pass through his area each autumn. On a peak migration day, up to a million songbirds may make the sea-crossing. There can be a quarter of a million wood-pigeons on the move. During five days in 1994, almost 20,000 jays passed through, an unusual occurrence for so sedentary a bird, and probably caused by failure of the acorn crop.

It’s about 25km from Falsterbo to Denmark. To songbirds, such a crossing is straightforward and only if the winds are from the wrong direction will they linger in Sweden. For the large birds of prey, however, it’s another matter. Eagles, buzzards and kites are the ultimate energy savers when it comes to flying. They must, of course, flap their wings to get airborne but, once aloft, they rely on rising air currents to lift them high into the sky. Then they glide: a large bird of prey may travel 10 to 15 metres horizontally for every metre dropped vertically.

There are no updrafts over the ocean, so sea-crossings are a problem for soaring birds. They need the right weather conditions if they are to succeed and it is this which makes the south of Sweden such a spectacular raptor location.

When the winds are favourable and the weather is clear, the land heats up. The updrafts at sea cliffs, and the warm air rising from hills, create thermals on which the birds spiral higher and higher until they have sufficient altitude for a wind-assisted glide to Denmark.

On several days each autumn, according to British ornithologist John Gooders, at least a thousand raptors make the crossing and over 14,000 have been recorded on a single day. The range of species is not as great as at the southern locations but is still impressive. Common buzzards are joined by their rough-legged and honey buzzard cousins. Ospreys, harriers, kites and the occasional eagle mingle with the throng.

In Sweden, as elsewhere in Europe, birds of prey were persecuted in the past and lethal pesticides took their toll. In recent decades, however, raptors have staged a comeback. There were only 22 white-tailed eagle pairs in Sweden by 1922 but numbers have recovered. According to Anders, eight pairs bred in Skåne this year. Around 10 pairs of golden eagles also nested. Red kites, too, have done well.

Sweden used to be regarded as an expensive country, compared to Ireland, but now prices there are much the same as ours. The Swedish infrastructure, however, is superior. Public transport is excellent, there is accommodation to suit all pockets and almost everyone speaks basic English.

‘Allemansrätt’, which means ‘everyman’s right’, is an old Scandinavian custom. It gives everybody the right to roam freely in the countryside and cross private lands, provided no damage is done and farm animals are not disturbed. Camping is allowed on rough ground when there are no houses close by.

I have concentrated on the raptors, but Sweden has much more to offer nature-lovers. This is a land of lakes and forests, spectacular wetlands and some of the finest gardens in Europe.

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