Birding took a back seat - and for once work was not really to blame.
A social Friday night meant that any early morning birding on Saturday went out the window. So it was fishing instead, without much success other than a couple of nice Whiting:)
On Saturday a sudden trip into Bergen where I actually went into a pub ended in another late night so I took things easy on Sunday too. However, the first Grey-headed Woodpecker gråspett of the year sang somewhere close to my house and was heard from the terrace throughout the afternoon. At Tjeldstø a couple of Snipe enkeltbekkasin turned up along with a Black-headed Gull hettemåke, both probably new arrivals. A pair of Stonechat svartstrupe were also seen.
At 0630 on Monday morning I was woken up by earthquake with an epicentre out in the north sea ! A very rare occurrence these parts. After that the day was spent working but a flock of five White-tailed Eagle havørn together with a Sparrowhawk spurvehauk simultaneously over the terrace made things a little better.
Tuesday 22.03 was yet another calm and clear day in a string of such and I spent the morning on Hernar. On the way there a Common Seal steinkobbe posed on the rocks close to my house and we found a flock of 110 Purple Sandpipers fjæreplytt - biggest flock of the winter thus far.
Hernar itself was full of activity without anything remarkable. Three Twite bergirisk, four Linnet tornirisk, a Lesser Black-backed Gull sildemåke were all new for the year and there were plenty more arrivals on the island with around 30 Lesser Redpoll brunsisik, 20+ Blackbird svarttrost, a few Song Thrush måltrost, a Snipe enkeltbekkasin, a Meadow Pipit heipiplerke and a couple of Woodpigeon ringdue to name but a few.
The trip back home gave another new for the year in the form of a Redshank rødstilk, several Curlew storspove (hard to say if the latter were new arrivals or some of the wintering birds), Long-tailed Ducks havelle and more.
No comments:
Post a Comment