The Black-browed Albatross, Diomedea melanophris (svartbrynad albatross) seen this afternoon at Hovs Hallar, northwest Scania, SW Sweden will be the first record for Sweden (and surely it will be accepted,
most of the rarities committee was there, and the chairman, Nils Kjellen was the second man to see it...).


The bird was spotted 1.30 p.m. (19 May 2001) and seen down to 300 meter, but most of the time very far out, and last sure observation was from around 4.30, seeming to go north.
The locality is a big bay, Laholmsbukten, between Scania and Halland, and maybe the albatross had problems to get out from the bay against the strong westerly wind, that's probably the reason why is was flying back and forth in the bay.
The bird was a bit darker underneath than an adult it was claimed, so maybe it will be recorded as a subad.

Recently the rarities committee deleted the species from the Swedish list, when it was shown on detailed maps and detaled info about the position about the record of the species from 23 dist.min. NW Väderöarna, N. Bohuslän 10 April 1990, that the bird was definitely not on Swedish waters, but probably on Norwegean waters (via Uno Unger today at Hovs Hallar).

I just deleted it from the Holarctic List at my web site last week, but now it will soon be added again, and the Swedish list will increase from 467 to 468 species.

(Now I will drink some Laphroaig and celebrate; this species is the one people in Sweden have been talking about for decades on long seabird watching sessions when the ocean is empty !)

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About rarities reports:


I have problems with the rare bird reports to EBN, due to lack of compiled info from the Club 300 hotline center (their own web site is not updated since April 19). But I talked to Mikael Nord at Hovs Hallar today, and maybe I can get access to the info directly in the future. But until that is fixed I have no detailed info to send out but will have to wait for Mikael Nords compilation. But some rare birds from the last week are;

Ross's Gull, Rhodostethia roesea (rosenmås) Still today in north Halland.
Surf Scooter, Melanitta perspicillata (vitnackad svärta)

EBN-Sweden;
http://www.pheromone.ekol.lu.se/eurobirdnet.html
Holarctic list;
http://www.pheromone.ekol.lu.se/hollisteng.html


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