Friday, July 03, 2020

Øygarden 28.06- 01.07 2020 - Waders

On Sunday 28.06 I did not get out at all but I heard the first Greenshank gluttsnipe of the autumn fly over the house in the evening. A Lapwing vipe with two young at Husvatnet was not unexpected but the chicks were very small and obviously a second or even third attempt to get some young off to a start - elsewhere in Øygarden I saw some of this year's Lapwing fully grown and flying.....

Lapwing vipe sheltering a young one in the rain

The shower stops but the young one is reminded of clear and present danger.....

...but runs off to do its own thing anyway

....and ran off in the direction of one (perhaps the only one) of its siblings


The following day the best bird was a Green Sandpiper skogsnipe - again an evening bird flying up from a pool to the north of my house and heading south. The rest of the day was spent getting my car serviced - so, this being Norway, I now need to get offshore ASAP to pay for it. Probably for the rest of my natural life,

On 30.06 a Bar-tailed Godwit lappspove fed in the fields at Breivik - but looked like a young bird rather than an early returning adult - where a flock of 16 Curlew storspove was also present. Seven Lapwing vipe including some young birds - quite possibly young raised in the immediate vicinity fed in newly sown grass. Herdlevær produced the usual including an immature White-tailed Eagle havørn, a small flock of Twite bergirisk and Merganser siland with young.

Bar-tailed Godwit lappspove with Oystercatcher tjeld at Breivik


On 01 July the winds were strong and from the north so I squeeezed in 1.5 hours of seawatching. This produced little in the way of numbers but four Puffin lunde, three Whimbrel småspove and a Red-throated Diver smålom were among the birds heading north and a flock of four Great Skua storjo headed south.

Gannet havsule with rope stuck around it's bill. This bird sat on the sea for an hour before it took to the wing....

Lesser Black-backed Gull sildemåke

Whimbrel småspove

White-tailed Eagle havørn - a bird probably in it's third year

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