Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Nautnes/ Tjeldstø / Dåvøy 10 July 2018 - The usual tradgey

Warm and sunny again.

Sparrowhawk spurvehauk being attacked by Common Tern makrellterne

Another decent raptor shot taken from my terrace....


A cup of coffee on my terrace gave the best sighting of the day with a Common Tern makrellterne seeing off a female Sparrowhawk spurvehauk. Just as they manage to chase off all the larger gulls, Hooded Crows kråke and anything else they don't like.

Inspired by this I took a detour to Dåvøy on my way to the shops to check out the Common Tern makrellterne colony there. There was no colony. There were no terns at all! Not a trace of them. This happens all over the place every summer - they arrive, seem to be doing well and then suddenly they are gone. I would love to know why - it certainly did not look like food issues - the pictures I took a few days ago show them coming in with prey constantly in the short time I was there. Mink, human disturbance and other possibilities spring to mind. A colony of that size should have been able to see off Great Black Backed Gulls svartbak much easier than the two-three pairs currently at Nautnes do....so it must have been something scarier than that.



Redshank rødstilk, Lapwing vipe, Curlew storspove and Oystercatcher tjeld all seem to still have young on the go at Husvatnet.

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