Friday, May 31, 2019

Øygarden 23.05 - 25.05 Catch-up

I spent a few days R&R in Oslo 18-21.05 on my way back from Dubai and reunited with my binoculars I had a couple of very relaxed a pleasant walks with my better half and caught up with many migrants in the Oslo including Wood Warbler bøksanger, Swift tårnseiler, Redstart rødstjert, Tree Pipit trepiplerke, Common Buzzard musvåk, Black-throated Diver storlom, Garden Warbler hagesanger, Pied Flycatcher svarthvit fluesnapper and more. Other birds included Black Woodpecker svartspett and what seems to be the first Pintail stjertand away from the overwintering bird at Østensjøvatnet.

Back in Øygarden I found out I had missed out on all sorts including Ortulan Bunting hortulan, Bluethroat blåstrupe, Rosefinch rosenfink, Pomarine Skua polarjo , Corncrake åkerrikse, and much, much more. Now that I have effectively lost the best part of the spring it remains to salvage what I can and catch up with a few things....

Predictably there was not much time to get out but on 23.05 my terrace provided a string of local year ticks including Cuckoo gjøk, Common Tern makrellterne and Common Whitethroat tornsanger.

Pale-bellied Brent Geese ringgås heading north

Male Linnet tornirisk. As usual both Twite bergirisk and Linnet tornirisk are breeding at Skogsøy.

Rock Pipit skjærpiplerke

Southbound Shelduck gravand - failed breeders and thus the first of the autumn migrants?

White-billed Diver gulnebblom (or no-billed diver as they should be termed under such conditions)


I didn't get out at all on 24.05 but on 25.05 I managed just over 2.5 hours seawatching at Skogsøy. Here I was rewarded with a flock of 43 Brent Geese ringgås of the pale-bellied form hrota returning from my home turf back in north Northumberland to Svalbard. Other stuff passing included almost 50 Red-throated Diver smålom, a single White-billed Diver gulnebblom, four Shelduck gravand heading south, small numbers of Arctic Terns rødnebbterne, 18 Kittiwake krykkje, a couple of Black Guillemot teist and a Velvet Scoter sjøorre.

Back home at Nautnes it was back to work and chores but five minutes from the terrace showed that migration continued to well into the afternoon with a single flock of 16 Red-throated Diver smålom and at least 15 Kittiwake krykkje.

No comments: