Arriving home late on 30th there was an amazing welcome.
As usual I had forgotten the settings to use on my camera but it was just spectacular!
I "lost" much of the week with work, appointments in town and so on, but still managed some sightings from my terrace.
A well fed Peregrine vandrefalk flew over the terrace on 01.10.
The Taiga Bean Geese taigasædgås that I found just before I left last time I was home were still around. throughout the period.
Taiga Bean Geese taigasædgås at Breivik.
Note the variation in bill colours / pattern.
Storm "Amy" kicked off on 3rd October. I did my Herdlevær walk which produced a few results. This autumn there has been a movement of Willow Tits granmeis and there were still some to be seen at Herdlevær along with a couple of Grey Plover tundralo and a bunch of other migrants including Treecreeper trekryper, Blackacap munk and more.
MeadowPipit heipiplerke
Rock Pipit skjærpiplerke
Blackcap munk
Dunlin myrsnipe
Gannets havsule
Grey Plover tundralo
Storm Amy continued on 4th October, this time with some pretty heavy rain - I got soaked! I did Herdlevær again, the Grey Plovers tundralo remained, a presumed Greenland Wheatear steinskvett was on the shore together with Rock Pipits skjærpiplerke and all seemed to be finding plenty of food. A few Otters to be seen too.
Goldcrest fuglekonge
Grey Plovers tundralo
Rock Pipits skjærpiplerke
Presumed Greenland Wheatear steinskvett
Back home a Guillemot lomvi turned up on the sea in front of the house and it seemed to be fine - diving and preening. But shortly after I took some photos I saw one of the local Great Black-backed Gulls svartbak killing it. The commotion seemed to attract a mink but this was of course no match for the biggest and meanest of our gulls. Almost ridiculously the gull never managed to get past the feathers to eat the dead auk which just ended up floating off with the tide.
Killing the Guillemot lomvi
...fending off the Mink
....all whilst the storm was raging.
A Goldfinch stillits turned up in the garden whilst I was taking pictures of the Guillemot drama
Guillemot lomvi
The wind dropped and then changed direction on 5th October and I predictably headed to Skogsøy hoping for some return movement. This was not the case with just Gannets havsule, auks and gulls on the move along with several Red-throated Diver smålom. However, the trip was far from a waste of time with two Merlin dvergfalk, a Snow Bunting snøspurv, Treecreeper trekryper and a variety of other migrants seen.
Roadside Black-headed Gull hettemåke - not a very common species out in Øygarden
Sometimes the eagles just get too close to photograph:)
After this I checked Breivik where I had four Jack Snipe kvartbekkassin, a Reed Bunting sivspurv, Skylark sanglerke and 19 Common Snipe enkeltbekkasin. The autumn storms really do bring the snipe in!
Jack Snipe kvarbekkassin being invisible
I checked Hatten and Sæle briefly after this seeing several Blackcap munk, a Chiff-chaff gransanger, Bramblings bjørkefink and more.
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