Skogsøy 28 June 2016 - Autumn migration

South westerly winds, showers at first, sunny later

Curlew storspove

Rock pipit skjærpiplerke with rather a lot of food....

A short seawatch in the morning gave the usual summer result - a pale phase Arctic Skua tyvjo, small numbers of Gannets havsule, Guillemots lomvi and other auks, and singles of Red-throated Diver smålom, Kittiwake krykkje and Fulmar havhest.

Driving past  Breivik on the way to Skogsøy there was a large flock of 25 Curlew storspove feeding in the fields along with two adult Bar-tailed Godwits lappspove which were the first of the year. The autumn wader migration is obviously well underway....

Øygarden 26-27 June - Business as usual

Light showers, light winds.

Common Tern makrellterne at Nautnes

Anxious Redshank rødstilk at Tjeldstø

Young Wheatear steinskvett at Tjeldstø

A walk at Tjeldstø on 26 June produced just the usual suspects - including Wheatear steinskvett with young, Raven ravn with young and many other species also with fledged youngsters,

A stroll at Herdlevær on 27 June was very much the same although a pair of Redshank rødstilk that obviously have young (along with at least three other species of wader) have obviously managed to keep their breeding attempt secret until now. A Greenshank gluttsnipe was the only migrant. Twite bergirisk also feeding newly fledged young here.

At Nautnes the Oystercatcher tjeld pair outside my house suddenly showed up with at least three young today. Woodcock rugde still roding in the evenings.

Øygarden 03-06 June 2016 - Taking it easy

Summer has arrived. Calm and HOT pretty much constantly.

Spent time doing "normal" stuff instead of birding and thus didn't rack up much in the way of sightings.

One of four Golden Plover heilo at Tjeldstø

Mallard chick

Otter oter at Herdlevær

Redwing rødvingetrost

Encouragingly the Lapwings vipe at Tjeldstø seem to have joined forces and are nesting almost communally in the Herring / GBBG / LBBG colony. Any unfortunate gull flying to or from it's nest is harried constantly by several irate Lapwings. No doubt they also benefit from the defence the gulls are able to give against mink and other predators.

Small numbers of Golden Plover heilo at Tjeldstø had to get checked out in case there was anything special with them. Many species now with fledged young.

Otherwise just the usual White-tailed Eagle havørn, Woodcock rugde still "roding", terns and all the summer regulars.

Hernar 02 June 2016 - Late spring migrants

Calm and rather misty to start with, hot and sunny later.

Things looked promising yesterday evening so a trip to Hernar was on the cards for today. A cracking morning on the island produced some decent sightings.

Corncrake åkerrikse

Male Red-backed Shrike tornskate

Just about the first bird I saw after getting off the boat was a nice male Red-backed Shrike tornskate but it was not very cooperative when it came to taking photos. The next best sighting was first one and then TWO singing Corncrakes åkerrikse! At least one of the island's Starling stær was doing a passable mimic so it was hard to tell for sure at first until I heard them both at the same time - and today I even SAW one of them.

Chiff-chaff gransanger

Fieldfare gråtrost have young out and about....

Lesser Redpoll brunsisik

Other migrants were thin on the ground but there was an odd sounding Chiff-chaff gransanger singing and a Spotted Flycatcher gråfluesnapper present. A Kestrel tårnfalk flying over was the first I've seen in Øygarden this year.