Tuesday, April 06, 2021

Breivik and Nautnes 05-06 April 2021 - Geese

 Strong northerly gales with snow and hail storms

On 05 April I only left the house for a couple of hours to get yet another COVID test, all clear again:)

A few White-tailed Eagles havørn, Gannets havsule, around 30 Long-tailed Duck havelle, displaying Curlew storspove and migrating Meadow Pipits heipiplerke were among the species seen from my terrace/ kitchen window.

On 06 April things were little better, a trip to the shops to pick up post and restock my fridge after having been in quarantine was the outing. Thankfully I live where I do and this meant that I ran into a party of of six Greenland Whitefronts tundragås (flavirostris). I don't think of Whitefronts as being particularly rare but there have actually been no records of Whitefronts in Øygarden since 2018! Albifrons is the normal race to see here with only a few records of flavirostris over the years. Today I added two more records of this sub species - the ones I found today and another I identified to sub-species level from photos taken back in 2004:)

On my way home I picked up another returning neck-ringed Greylag grågås at Tjeldstø in the form of UK3 - first ringed in 2019 in a moulting area south of Øygarden and subsequently seen in Øygarden in 2020 and now. In the autumns of 2019 and 2020 this bird was seen in Germany.


Greylags grågås at Tjeldstø - spring and winter within minutes of each other:)



flavirostris Whitefronts tundragås. This sub species breeds in Greenland and must have felt right at home here today.



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