Light easterly winds, cloudy at first, sunny for a few hours then cloudy again.
Today I was guiding again and kicked the day off at Herdla (not Øygarden but only a short distance away as the crow flies). Here there was something of a wader bonanza with highlights being a Curlew Sandpiper tundrasnipe, a couple of Little Stint dvergsnipe, a Black-tailed Godwit svarthalespove, at least 120 Ruff brushane and several Knot polarsnipe among the 13 wader species noted.
Raptors were also well represented with Peregrine vandrefalk, Merlin dvergfalk, a couple of Kestrel tårnfalk and a Sparrowhawk spurvehauk seen.
There were 100's of dabbling duck of the usual three speces but nothing special among these.
The best of the passerines were a small flock of Goldfinch stillits and a Yellow Wagtail gulerle.
The newly constructed hide proved very productive. I have often criticised the birdwatching hides in Hordaland for bad design, poor placement or both - but this one is magic - in the right place and with a good practical design too. Well done!
From here we predictably moved on to Øygarden. The action was not as thick and fast as at Herdla but Kestrels tårnfalk were seen at a couple of places, White-tailed Eagle havø!rn put in an appearance as did many of the usual suspects including Twite bergirisk, Brambling bjørkefink and more.
The undoubted highlight of the day was a Hobby lerkefalk which hunted dragonflies for a short time, perched in a tree for 10 minutes and then disappeared to the north. This sighting adds more credibility to the bird I saw from my terrace a few days ago but we will probably never know. The Hobby is only the 8th record for the county and the third for Øygarden. There is now something of a peak in the occurrence between 07-12 September
Today I was guiding again and kicked the day off at Herdla (not Øygarden but only a short distance away as the crow flies). Here there was something of a wader bonanza with highlights being a Curlew Sandpiper tundrasnipe, a couple of Little Stint dvergsnipe, a Black-tailed Godwit svarthalespove, at least 120 Ruff brushane and several Knot polarsnipe among the 13 wader species noted.
Raptors were also well represented with Peregrine vandrefalk, Merlin dvergfalk, a couple of Kestrel tårnfalk and a Sparrowhawk spurvehauk seen.
There were 100's of dabbling duck of the usual three speces but nothing special among these.
The best of the passerines were a small flock of Goldfinch stillits and a Yellow Wagtail gulerle.
The new hide at Herdla
The newly constructed hide proved very productive. I have often criticised the birdwatching hides in Hordaland for bad design, poor placement or both - but this one is magic - in the right place and with a good practical design too. Well done!
From here we predictably moved on to Øygarden. The action was not as thick and fast as at Herdla but Kestrels tårnfalk were seen at a couple of places, White-tailed Eagle havø!rn put in an appearance as did many of the usual suspects including Twite bergirisk, Brambling bjørkefink and more.
Hobby lerkefalk at Tjeldstø
The undoubted highlight of the day was a Hobby lerkefalk which hunted dragonflies for a short time, perched in a tree for 10 minutes and then disappeared to the north. This sighting adds more credibility to the bird I saw from my terrace a few days ago but we will probably never know. The Hobby is only the 8th record for the county and the third for Øygarden. There is now something of a peak in the occurrence between 07-12 September
No comments:
Post a Comment