Thursday, April 01, 2021

Skogsøy 31 March 2021 - A decent movement

 Fresh northerly winds, clear and sunny for the most part.

I opted for a couple of hours pre-work seawatching and was not disappointed with this choice:)

Despite the wind Song Thrush måltrost, Redwing rødvingetrost and more were singing on my way out. 

It was a challenge to keep up with everything today - the gulls and waders were passing close in - some even overhead whilst Shags toppskarv were heading south a long way out making the most of the tailwinds by flying higher than usual in many cases. It felt like I was probably missing quite a lot - later confirmed with comparisons from Herdlevær where two observers were sitting, one with a scope and one keeping an eye on the gull passage.

The mainstay of the morning migration were Common Gulls fiskemåke, but also a few flocks of Oystercatcher tjeld, a Black-headed Gull hettemåke, a Kittiwake krykkje, a Red-throated Diver smålom and 27 Curlew storspove.

Other birds at Skogsøy included a couple of Chaffinch bokfink and a Skylark sangelerke right out at the lookout point, a few White-tailed Eagles havørn and a flyover Linnet tornirisk.

A White (or Pied) Wagtail linerle flew over my garden on my return but it was not possible to ID it to sub-species level.

Black-headed Gull hettemåke - the first for Skogsøy this year

Common Gull fiskemåke

Common Gulls fiskemåke

One of two Curlew storspove flocks that passed

Many of the Gannets havsule stopped to fish today

This GBBG svartbak seemed to be influenced by the Common Gulls and looked like it wanted to migrate - each time a flock of its smaller relative passed it joined them briefly but always came back again

Part of an Oystercatcher tjeld flock

Adult White-tailed Eagle havørn - one of three that flew over together

The totals for the period 07:15-09:35 were:







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