Skogsøy 28 May 2020 - Quiet day

Slightly overcast with light breeze from the north-east.

The quietest day of the loonatic season thus far with very little passing - barely 200 birds in a few hours.

Gannets havsule

Guillemot lomvi (left) with Razorbill alke.

I often get the impression that Guillemots look "hunch backed" - something that comes across in this iamge

The clean underwings of the Razorbill and the dirty / streaked underwings are shown here

Razorbill regularly raise their heads - a bit like Red-throated Diver smålom do

Red-throated Diver smålom

The numbers, such as they were:

Red throated Diver N	3
Northern Gannet N	42
Great Cormorant S	3
Eurasian Shag N	8
Eurasian Shag S	45
Common Scoter N	1
Common Scoter S	12
Oystercatcher N	30
Common Gull N	25
Lesser black backed Gull N	7
Black-legged Kittiwake S	1
Arctic Tern S	3
Common Guillemot N	1
Razorbill N	10
Atlantic Puffin N	4
Auk N	2

Filleting some fish in my garden brought in a colour ringed gull and a lot of mayhem.

Herring Gulls gråmåke fighting for scraps

Skogsøy 11 January 2019 - Only slightly better than the kitchen window....

Brisk north westerly winds.

Once again looking out of the kitchen window during a telephone call paid dividends. This time in the form of the the first Oystercatcher tjeld of the year in Hordaland (and species #100 for the county this year).

Spurred on by this I took a quick trip to Skogsøy. It was almost painfully quiet but there were some birds about including four guillebills alke/lomvi that landed on the sea and three Razorbill alke heading north, another new for the Øygarden year list was a Gannet havsule heading south. The most interesting sighting, however, was a Peregrine vandrefalk aktively hunting over the sea for long periods at a time. Normally they sit on a suitable look-out and make relatively brief forays out to sea. Today it hung almost kestrel-like high over the waves scanning for prey.

Øygarden 31.01 - 02.02.2018 - Bits and bobs

Fieldfare gråtrost

Redwing rødvingetrost

Part of the Fieldfare gråtrost flock feeding in the snow

Three of the four albifrons Whitefronts tundragås

Rain and snow on the last day of January combined with a heavy workload meant I limited things to a drive-by at Tjeldstø. Plenty of thrushes feeding in the fields and four albifrons Whitefront tundragås at Harkestad were pretty much the only sightings.

Crested Tit toppmeis - a common woodland bird that I don't tend to photograph very much

Tufted Duck toppand

Whitefront tundragås

I try not to take too many White-tailed Eagle havørn photographs but it would have been downright rude to ignore this poser

February started with very nice conditions indeed - calm and sunny with some frost. A quick trip out to Hjelme Vest produced pretty much the usual with a few Great Northern Divers islom, a couple of Kittiwake krykkje feeding, a few Black Guillemots teist and several White-tailed Eagles havørn among the sightings. Long-tailed Duck havelle now up to more than 40 birds - pathetic numbers compared to relatively few years ago.

An aythya duck at Husvatnet fooled me for a while and needed closer inspection - it turned out to be a Tufted Duck toppand. However, the effort was not wasted as some Whitefronts tundragås flew in right over my head.

Parrot Crossbill furukorsnebb weightlifting

Razorbill alke

A quick walk at Skogsøy in stunning conditions on 2nd February gave little out of the ordinary - at least three White-tailed Eagle havørn, a Great Northern Diver islom and a massive eight Gannet havsule heading north. A Razorbill alke was feeding close in and some Parrot Crossbills furukorsnebb put in an appearance.

Herdlevær 10 November 2016 - Dead interesting

Although only a degree or two up from the last few days it felt a lot warmer.

Dead deer hjort - obviously someone has had a successful hunting season....

Remains of Snipe enkeltbekkasin

...and Woodcock rugde

The cold weather has obviously made some things easier for predators to catch, there was quite a bit of dead stuff about today including a Snipe enkeltbekkasin and a Woodcock rugde. These, along with other recently killed birds makes it looks like there is a raptor living the dream at Herdlevær....

Still quite a few Common Gull fiskemåke present - won't be long before these disappear and the species becomes hard to find in Øygarden. Crazy as large numbers overwinter in Bergen.

Small numbers of Common Scoter svartand around but no real movement

Linnet tornirisk

Redwing rødvingetrost

Shag toppskarv - so common it tends to get a bit neglected from the photo side of things

One of a couple of Snipe enkeltbekkasin that were still alive

What would have been a nice shot of Wren gjerdesmett had it not been for the fence

However, there were quite a few birds still very much alive. The most unusual sighting was the first November record of Linnet tornirisk for Øygarden. Otherwise is was very much the usual November fare with Red-throated Diver smålom, Long-tailed Duck havelle, a couple of Snipe enkeltbekkasin and so on.

Two male Scaup bergand

Scaup bergand (front right), Tufted Duck toppand (front left) and Wigeon brunnakke (back)

Two Scaup bergand and two Tufted Duck toppand

Two Tufted Duck toppand in the middle with Scaup bergand on either side

Drive-bys at Tjeldstø and Alvheim produced a few Scaup bergand and five other species of duck.

Early morning Razorbill alke at Nautnes

A Razorbill alke swam past the terrace early in the morning.

Skogsøy 02 March 2014 - Spring

Light SE, light cloud cover and some drizzle.

Rock Pipit skjærpiplerke at Skogsøy

A late, lazy and short trip to Skogsøy produced the first Razorbill alke and Little Auk alkekonge of the year in Øygarden (unprecedently late!).  Small numbers of Gannets havsule passing and most of the usual suspects on the sea including a Velvet Scoter sjøorre and a Black Guillemot teist.

Some of the Lapwings vipe at Tjeldstø

Greylags grågås have arrived "everywhere" and a flock of at least eight Lapwing vipe were present at Tjeldstø. Four Woodpigeon ringdue at Breivik were another sign of spring.

Curlew storspove at Herdlevær yesterday

Spring well on the way!

A Curlew storspove at Herdlevær yesterday was probably one of the several overwintering birds rather than a migrant.

Tjeldstø 27 November 2012 - Stuck

Calm AND sunny today. Predictably stuck at home in the decent weather.

Not to be deterred we spent the morning ringing in my garden - and caught more birds in three hours than they did on Utsira over the whole weekend. Best bird was a Blue Tit blåmeis with a ring on its leg that indicates it has probably come north up the coast from Lista. Just goes to show...Otherwise just the usual plus a fly over Lapwing vipe.

 Razorbill alke

Guillemot lomvi

A quick dash to the shops - prompted by the discovery of two auks on the sea outside my house - produced a Razorbill alke and a Guillemot lomvi.

Thrush numbers seem to be dropping but still at least six Redwing rødvingetrost present among larger numbers of Fieldfare gråtrost.