Very strong NW winds and an hour of hail / snow / sleet showers that almost made me wimp out and go home.
A cursory check from the kitchen window the previous day under similar conditions showed that there were plenty of Kittiwakes passing so I thought I would give Skogsøy a go.
Arriving rather late at 0830 things initially looked promising with some Kittiwake krykkje flocks passing, along with a few Puffins lunde and other stuff. And a Great Northern Diver islom showed up on the sea. Shortly after this things got pretty uncomfortable for a while but once things cleared it was a nice enough day - made all the better by the appearance of two Pomarine Skuas polarjo - the earliest ever recorded in the county and the first reported in Norway this year:)
Both gave reasonable views in the scope and both were in fact also identifiable from photographs - despite the fact I had to guess where the first one was when I took the pictures:)
So an insanely good start to the day.
For many years I have struggled to understand how these birds are seen passing through the English Channel weeks before we normally see them here on the west coast of Norway.
Other than these it was largely auks (five species - Guillemot lomvi, Razorbill alke, Puffin lunde, Black Guillemot teist and a lone Little Auk alkekonge), Gannets havsule and small numbers of Red-throated Divers smålom and Curlew storspove.
Red throated Diver smålom N 6
Northern Gannet havsule N 64
Great Cormorant storskarv N 3
Great Cormorant storskarv S 2
Eurasian Shag toppskarv N 6
Eider ærfugl N 1
Long tailed duck havelle N 7
Eurasian Curlew storspove N 6
Pomarine Skua polarjo N 2
Common Gull fiskemåke N 1
Herring Gull gråmåke N 2
Great black backed Gull svartbak N 5
Black-legged Kittiwake krykkje N 104
Common Guillemot lomvi N 11
Common Guillemot lomvi S 1
Razorbill alke N 4
Black Guillemot teist N 1
Little Auk alkekonge N 1
Atlantic Puffin lunde N 7
Auk N 3
Auk S 2
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