Saturday, November 02, 2019

Skogsøy 25 October - Little Auks on the move!

Gale force WSW with some showers.

The drop down windows work fine although they are a bit on the narrow side

Out of the wind and rain, I'll be making the most of this in future storms...

I used the new "hide" at Skogsøy for the first time today. This construction is ideally placed for those days when it blows hard from the south through to west and when raining. The windows are on the narrow side for seawatching but it is considerably better than the alternative of sitting exposed to the elements. The hide did shake a bit in the wind but probably less shake than the wind would normally give on a scope tripod.

A few Kittiwakes krykkje

Great Northern Diver islom

A couple of hours or so of seawatching gave some great results - over 500 Little Auks alkekonge battled their way south as did 60+ other auks, 19 Gannets havsule, 45 Kittiwake krykkje, 8 Long-tailed Duck havelle, a Great Northern Diver islom and a Red-throated Diver smålom. A Woodcock rugde feeding out by the lookout was an unusual place to see this common autumn migrant.




Long-tailed Ducks havelle at Tjeldstø

Sometimes the Little Auks head down the fjord in greater numbers than offshore so I checked Tjeldstø quickly. No auks but a couple of Purple Sands fjæreplytt, a nice pair of Long-tailed Duck havelle and a Common Scoter svartand turned up.

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