Sunday, April 29, 2018

Skogsøy 29 April 2018 - Loonatic season

Calm and sunny to start with. Increasing northerly winds later.

Spent almost six hours seawatching today. The rarest sighting was SEVERAL OTHER BIRDERS.

Apart from this the best birds of the seawatch were two Cranes trane and a pair of Shoveler skjeand heading north - both the first of the year for me, although both have already been reported from Øygarden this year.

Migrating Cormorants storskarv

Gannet havsule




As usual many of the Red-throated Diver smålom flocks went high - especially later in the morning

There are 10 Red-throated Diver smålom in this picture - not that easy to see.

White-billed Diver gulnebblom


But today it was all about the divers - a total of six White-billed Diver gulnebblom, a single Great Northern Diver islom and around 200 Red-throated Diver smålom headed north. Amongst the other sightings there was also a relatively good number of auks passing - though most were quite distant. Black Guillemot teist, White-tailed Eagle havørn and most of the usual suspects also put in an appearance.

At least four Orcas spekkhoggere fed offshore. Fantastic.

Later in the afternoon I dipped on an adult Little Gull dvergmåke that was seen rather briefly at Husvatnet, Tjeldstø.

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