I should probably not admit this but two weeks spent in the east of Norway had me thinking it was quite nice there - a productive week in Engerdal, a very nice day out with THE Oslo Birder and a couple of visits to an island in Oslofjord all seemed quite productive. In some places the sheer numbers and variety was in fact better than most days back home in the west.
My first day out back in Øygarden was a late and lazy start due to the UDI / Brexit. I was up half the night trying to figure out which countries I've been to in the last four years. Not easy at all, I can just about figure out this year.....
I did my usual round at Herdlevær picking up a few migrants such as Spotted Flycatcher gråfluesnapper, Bramblings bjørkefink, Wheatear steinskvett and Chiff-chaffs gransanger on my way to my usual breakfast / lunch / coffee break spot.
There was a fair bit of activity over the sea with various waders including Turnstones steinvender and Sanderling sandløper, a decent movement of gulls, a small flock of Velvet Scoter sjøorre and more besides. Suddenly a bird came into view head on in the scope and for a second I wondered what the hell kind of wader is this before realising it was a tern. A side view showed it to be a first year Black Tern svartterne - only the second record for Øygarden!!
Knowing the importance of images to back up such claims I fired off some shots in the hope that they would provide adequate documentation and managed some reasonable record shots. After this I put the bird out on the local alert group and phoned a couple of people who I knew would be interested.
After this everything seemed rather tame so I packed up and left after a Great Skua storjo passed.
On my way home I popped in at Tjeldstø where there were good numbers of wildfowl (at least in a local context) which included a nice female Pintail stjertand. A hunting Merlin dvergfalk put in an appearance here too.
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