Friday, August 31, 2018

Herdlevær 28 August 2018 - Flightless Golden Plover dejavu

A quick walk around Herdlevær before work.

Today I think I solved a mystery. Some time ago I found a Golden Plover heilo at Herdlevær with a wing missing (see here). I had assumed that the missing wing was due to a raptor / predator. Today I found another Golden Plover heilo with a severely damaged wing in almost exactly the same place.



Golden Plover heilo with damaged wing


I now realise that low flying birds coming over at speed are likely to collide with narrow fence posts that look like rebar and are almost invisible from certain angles are much more likely to be the cause of these injuries. With two birds found in the same place with almost identical injuries this must be the case. These posts should either be removed (there has been no fence there for years) or made more visible.

Part of a migrating flock of Cormorants storskarv


Knot polarsnipe with a few Ringed Plover sandlo - Knot flying upside down

Wheatear steinskvett

A few flocks of Golden Plover heilo headed south as did a flock of 15 Knot polarsnipe along with some unidentified smaller waders.

Otherwise it was just the usual with 30 Gannets havsule feeding offshore and a selection of the usual migrants including Wheatear steinskvett and a few Brambling bjørkefink.

A Peregrine vandrefalk took a racing pigeon over the road at Nautnes where I also had White-tailed Eagle havørn and Sparrowhawk spurvehauk.

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