Tuesday, January 06, 2015

Northern Øygarden 06 January 2015 - A couple of bonus birds

Strong southerly winds, rain and dull.

Not the best of weather to put it mildly. Started off at Hjelmo where a surprise species was an unseasonal Woodpigeon ringdue. A Snipe enkeltbekkasin and a White-tailed Eagle havørn were also present here.

Next stop was Hellesøy where I had a quick look at the sea - it was here the bird of the day turned up - a Merlin dvergfalk flew over heading north. First for the county this year.

After that things went somewhat downhill although I finally managed to see a decent flock of Long-tailed Duck havelle off Sæle and the first Chaffinch bokfink for Nautnes this year.

Later in the afternoon a more predictable new for the year was seen from the house - a Black Guillemot teist - amazingly this species has avoided detection not just in Øygarden but the whole county thus far this year!

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