Øygarden 09-10 May 2021 - Back to work

After some days of birding it was back to life again. At least I now have all my wood split and drying for the winter and at least some stuff planted in the garden. And got some work done.

Sunday 09 May was just a quick pre-breakfast visit to a few places. 

Tjeldstø was the same as the last few days with Golden Plover heilo present in addition to the usual waders. A flock of 73 were scared up from Breivik too - quite a large flock for these parts.

Golden Plover heilo at Breivik

More and more Greylag grågås have young each day now.

The first goslings were seen 01 May - so pretty much bang on time

A couple of pairs of Common Tern makrellterne were at Dåvøy and courtship was well underway with small fish being brought in as presents. Meanwhile at Solberg they had got past the courtship phase and were starting the breeding season with no time to spare:)

Common Tern makrellterne at Dåvøy

Solberg also showed that it would have been another good day of seawatching with Red-throated Divers smålom and Common Scoter svartand passing in good numbers.

Back home the gardening produced Twite bergirisk and Whimbrel småspove among other things.

Overcast and calm conditions on 10 May proved productive from the terrace with Cuckoo gjøk, House Martin taksvale and Reed Bunting sivspurv as local year ticks before I even left the house. Twite bergirisk, Wheatear steinskvett and more were also in the garden during the day. A pair of Teal krikkand and some migrating male Goldeneye kvinand landed on the sea in front of the house too.

Things went largely downhill from there although I did meet up with UN7 again - now with young. I saw this bird earlier in the spring only a couple of hundred metres away but has obviously been busy with things a little off the beaten track until today:)

Not sure what this Common Crossbill grankorsnebb was doing but it looked like it was feeding on sap together with its mate.

UN7 disappeared for a while but now out with young so we know why.

I don't normally get embroiled in FB debates but a recent heated discussion maintained that neck-ringed birds are outcasts and do not breed. This bird along with VJ3 and probably others prove otherwise - this bird has what it takes and the neck ring does not appear to be troublesome. Fantastic to see the same birds returning year on year - and doing well unlike so many other species.