Tuesday, February 04, 2020

Herdlevær 04 Febraury 2020 - Gulls on the move

Northerly winds, clear and sunny.

It was rather later than I had intended before I made it out. The aim today was to drag the species list at Herdlevær kicking and screaming into 2020 - although an immensely popular birding locality during migration it is little covered during the depths of winter. I was at least partly successful with this adding a number of local new for the year here including a nice Great Northern Diver islom heading south, a handful of Kittiwakes krykkje and a few species of sea duck.

As has been the case for the last few days there was a light but obvious passage of large gulls heading north - although I did not pick up on anything exciting here.

Phone scoped LBBG sildemåke - pale enough for graellsi?


I popped in at Tjeldstø on the way home where I found the earliest Lesser Black-backed Gull sildemåke I have seen in Øygarden. Although I did not actually see the legs it was obviously smaller and darker than the Herring Gulls gråmåke it was sharing a rock with. A Common Gull fiskemåke was also present here and another gull which gave off a very Ring-billed Gull ringnebbmåke vibe - clearly larger and paler than the Common Gull fiskemåke, with much larger bill complete with full band. Also barely any white primary tips, unfortunately the bird flew before I could get any further with it.

A flock of 90 Redpoll gråsisik and a Sparrowhawk spurvehauk were among the species noted here.

Male Two-barred Crossbill båndkorsebb


Another stop on the way home was Hatten where at least three Two-barred Crossbills bånkorsnebb were present along with the usual Crested Tits toppmeis etc.


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