Monday, January 23, 2017

Nautnes 23 January 2017 - Best weather yet this year BUT...

Calm, sunny and mild.

Cracking weather but work and taking my youngest to the dentist meant I couldn't make anything of it. However, a short walk from the house produced a relatively good bird - the first Treecreeper trekryper of the year. Treecreeper can be a hard species to see in Øygarden (though undoubtedly under recorded as they prefer the areas least visited) - I checked it on artsobs and got the following:

Treecreeper trekryper occurrence in Øygarden by week number
(One could argue that the peak in the autumn is due to observer effort with most birders putting the effort in during the peak rarity season but when I check my own records a very similar pattern is shown.

...and by year. Prior to 2010 it wasn't even recorded annually - this may well partly be a feature caused by when observers have started using artsobs. Either way you get the idea - there are not many seen out here.

Among other things seen here were a flock of at least 30 Common Crossbill grankorsnebb feeding in the woods, several Crested Tit toppmeis and a couple of  White-tailed Eagles havørn.

The trip to the dentists produced another local first for the year in the form of a roadside Collared Dove tyrkerdue at Tofy. Generally a spring and early summer migrant in most of Øygarden there is a small resident population in the south of the district.

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