Thursday, May 14, 2015

Skogsøy 14 May 2015 - Pom record trashed!

Fresh northerly breeze and sunny

I got up at 0415 full of well-founded optimism - today was always going to be good - but little did I know quite how good it would be.

I sat alone from 05:40 to 06:50 but knew people were on their way. My text message at 06:40 was "Where are you? 44 poms" and probably set some records for how fast folk made it out to the lookout.



Note 2cy bird front right


Poms!

The first few flocks of Pomarine Skuas polarjo came by nice and close but soon the majority passed further out. Poms were far and away the most numerous species of the day and by 09:00 when I reluctantly had to head in again a massive 125 had passed! This beats the previous day record of 80 and is more than were seen during the entire 2006 season when there was daily coverage.

Dark phase Arctic Skua tyvjo

Pale phase Arctic Skua tyvjo

Barnacle Geese hvitkinngås

Great Northern Diver islom

White-billed Diver gulnebblom

For a bit more about Pomarine Skua migration at Skogsøy see this page.

Other stuff included a decent count of Arctic Skua tyvjo, a couple of Great Northern Divers islom, a White-billed Diver gulnebblom, a few Barnacle Geese hvitkinngås and a smattering of wader including some Turnstone steinvender,


Some happy seawatchers too busy counting poms to pose for the camera



Some totals for 3 hours and twenty minutes of seawatching:

Red-throated Diver smålom: 5N
Great Northern Diver islom: 2N (1ad,12K)
White-billed diver gulnebblom: 1N
Gannet havsule: 14N
Shag toppskarv: 15S
Barnacle Goose hvitkinngås: 3N
Long-tailed Duck havelle: 2N
Velvet Scoter sjøorre; 1N
Oystercatcher tjeld: 12N
Ringed Plover sandlo: 2N
Golden Plover heilo: 13N
Turnstone steinvender: 4N
Pomarine Skua polarjo: 125N
Arctic Skua tyvjo: 27N
Kittiwake krykkje: 11N
Arctic Tern rødnebbterne: 1N
Razorbill alke: 6N

At Breivik a singing Sedge Warbler sivsanger on the way to Skogsøy and a Carrion Crow svartkråke on the way home seem to be barely worth a mention.

Not much doubt about which side of the country was the right one today....

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