Sunday, April 01, 2012

Skogsøy 01 April 2012 - April Fools seawatch

Strong northerly with light but persistent rain. Snow later.

A return to wintry conditions and winter birds to go with it! Not the most pleasant of seawatching conditions - but if you have to you have to....

 Gannet havsule
 omissus type Herring gull gråmåke with yellow legs

Typical flock of Kittiwakes krykkje - hard to pick out against the sea at times

An unusual and interesting three hour seawatch produced some remarkable sightings:
Kittiwake krykkje 244 north (VERY high total for recent years)
Little Auk alkekonge 106 north. Again an amazing number for the time of year. This species is not rare in April but numbers tend to be in single rather than triple figures!

Other than that just nine Red-throated Diver smålom, a flock of eight Curlew storspove and small numbers of Puffin lunde, Razorbill alke and Guillemot lomvi.

Virtually no migration whatsoever of the usual early spring species.

A set of yellow legs on a Herring Gull gråmåke meant that this needed to be checked further. "Just" an omissus type bird - no chance at all of turning it into anything more interesting....

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