Thursday, November 02, 2017

Skogsøy 02 November 2017 - Little Auks but only just

Gale force northerly winds but sunny.




Cormorant storskarv struggling north into the wind

Gannet havsule

Long-tailed Ducks havelle

One of a number of Razorbill alke seen heading north


View to the south today - worth the walk in itself......

As usual couple of hours spent seawatching produced some decent birds. Technically I suppose three adult Great Northern Diver islom beat four Little Auks alkekonge but the former have been a lot more obvious of late than the latter - the first of the autumn for me.

Other than that it was the usual suspects with good numbers of Gannet havsule, some Common Scoter svartand heading south and small numbers of Kittiwake krykkje, Razorbill alke and Long-tailed Duck havelle also seen.

Perhaps the most interesting sighting given the weather conditions were some flocks of passerines coming in off the sea - most unusual with the wind in the north. The only flock positively identified were Redpoll gråsisik but the other flocks were also very likely this species. Perhaps arriving from Iceland....

The walk there and back produced the usual suspects - White-tailed Eagle havørn, Raven ravn, Crested Tit toppmeis etc along with a single male Parrot Crossbill furukorsnebb, a Meadow Pipit heipiplerke, three Willow Tit granmeis and a flock of around 40 Common Redpoll gråsisik.




Up close and personal with an Otter at Tjeldstø - I've managed to not take pictures on a number of occasions the last few days but it would have been downright rude not to have taken advantage of today's opportunity....

At Tjeldstø one or two Little Auk alkekonge put in an appearance alongside White-tailed Eagle havørn and an Otter oter - seen daily of late including on the shore in front of my house.

No comments: