Herdlevær and Skogsøy 01-02 May 2021 - Social Birding

 Sunny with light winds.

On 01 May I took things very easy with a stroll at Herdlevær and a visit to Tjeldstø.

Herdlevær produced nothing remarkable, although a White-billed Diver gulnebblom passed during my usual coffee / sandwich break along with a selection of the usual suspects.

Another coffee stop, this time actually with another birder (!!) at Tjeldstø produced the first Sand Martin sandsvale of the year, the long-staying Pinkfoot kortnebbgås put in an appearance and there was generally a lot of action and song - a lot more Redshank rødstilk and Snipe enkeltbekkasin now back and getting down to business.

After this it was back home to work. A few random scans with the scope from my terrace showed that it was a good day for passage with 60 Red-throated Diver smålom, a Great Skua storjo and a couple of White-billed Diver gulnebblom seen during these all too short breaks.

On 02 May it was a different story despite my so-called smart phone switching itself off during the night and thereby switching off my alarm clock. A long and immensely fun day at Skogsøy - seawatching from 0545 to past 1500 with some very, very good company indeed. And no shortage of birds either - 26 White-billed Diver gulnebblom, an Arctic Skua tyvjo, a couple of Great Skua storjo, two Shoveler skjeand, a decent passage of Barnacle Geese hvitkinngås, a few Bar-tailed Godwits lappspove, several Whimbrel småspove and lots of other passage meant there was never a dull moment.

Good numbers of Barnacle Geese hvitkinngås headed north

Just one Great Northern Diver islom today

The only Guillemot lomvi we saw was on the sea rather than flying past

Still small numbers of Oystercatcher tjeld moving through

Part of one of the larger Red-throated Diver smålom flocks

Biggest flock of White-billed Diver gulnebblom today was three...

White-billed Diver gulnebblom

The totals today were as follows:

Red throated Diver N 420

Great Northern Diver N 1

White Billed Diver N 26

Northern Gannet N 62

Northern Gannet S 7

Great Cormorant N 2

Great Cormorant S 3

Eurasian Shag N 36

Eurasian Shag S 167

Barnacle Goose N 913

Northern Shoveler N 2

Tufted Duck N 4

Long tailed duck N 176

Long tailed duck S 2

Common Scoter N 155

Common Scoter S 42

Velvet Scoter N 5

Merganser N 21

Merganser S 5

Oystercatcher N 104

Golden Plover N 3

Bar tailed Godwit 3

Whimbrel N 6

Eurasian Curlew N 2

Arctic Skua N 1

Great Skua N 2

Black headed Gull N 3

Black headed Gull S 7

Common Gull N 111

Black-legged Kittiwake N 6

Black-legged Kittiwake S 1

Razorbill N 28

Atlantic Puffin N 12

Auk N 1

Three days in a row of birding WITH OTHER PEOPLE must be some kind of record for me:)