Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Øygarden 14 February - I love SEAPOP

Indescribable weather! Calm and sunny - in other words perfect conditions for messing around in boats- which is just as well as today was the annual SEAPOP count - in other words counting seabirds from a small boat.

Most of this was done in Øygarden but with a brief foray into the neighbouring district of Fjell.

Black Guillemot teist

A common sight today - mixed flock of Cormorants storskarv and Shag toppskarv resting on the islands

Bachekor boys - an almost all male group of Eiders ærfugl. The lone female was getting rather a lot of attention....

Male Eider ærfugl

Male Long-tailed Duck havelle

....with a more typical shot - not easy trying to take pictures of moving birds from a moving boat




Purple Sandpipers fjæreplytt - this flock was of around 70 birds

Shags toppskarv - adult on the left, presumed 2cy bird on the right

Conditions were great even if the numbers of most of the seaduck were not. NO Velvet Scoter sjøorre seen and only TWO Common Scoter svartand seen from the boat. Numbers of Long-tailed Duck havelle and Eider ærfugl also seemed down on usual. Although I don't have the data from previous years I am pretty sure gull numbers were also much reduced compared to normal and with very few immatures.

However, Black Guillemot teist, White-tailed Eagle havørn and Purple Sandpiper fjæreplytt were around normal.

Dipper at dawn

Other stuff today included a Dipper fossekall near Alvheim and the first Black Guillemot teist I've seen from the terrace this year.

I also saw a distant flock of four grey geese (quite possibly Bean) flying north and apparently going down but I didn't see them on my way home.

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