Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Øygarden 11 January 2012 - White-winged duo!

Strong westerly with occasional short showers.

Once again work curtailed the birding but a brief dash out was most productive.


 Above and below: heavily cropped record shots of the Glaucous gull polarmåke

First bird I got onto when I lifted my bins at Tjeldstø was a 3rd year Glaucous Gull polarmåke resting with the other gulls at Husvatnet. Other birds at Tjeldstø included a flock of four Fieldfare gråtrost (first of the year), a Snipe enkeltbekkasin, a pipit piplerke, a few Kittiwake krykkje and the usual flock of 10 Tree Sparrows pilfink.


 Above and below: Adult Iceland Gull grønlandsmåke

Alvheim was just about dead but produced a nice adult Iceland Gull grønlandsmåke that flew past a couple of times. This is turning into a good winter for this species in Øygarden and the rest of Hordland too. Shetland is also getting more than its fair share of these....

2 comments:

Frode Falkenberg said...

Great findings Julian. This gull-season is going to be the best for white-winged gulls in Hordaland ever!

Jules said...

Just trying to make sure that we don't get a repeat of 2011 when I was away most of January - April and didn't get a single Glaucous in Øygarden.

Nothing less than embarassing!