Sunday, April 04, 2021

Herdlevær 04 April 2021 - Keep the camera OUT of the rucksack

 Light winds, light drizzle at times in the morning. Full on northerly gale with snow showers in the late afternoon.

Thinking I would save some time I had my camera in a dry bag in my rucksack on my way to Herdlevær. In other words perfect conditions to be presented with photo opportunities. Black-headed Gull hettemåke and Linnets tornirisk both gave decent chances but I drove on. Just before I parked the car a roadside Carrion Crow svartkråke should absolutely been photographed but of course flew before I could wrestle the camera out of my rucksack. A local scarcity that I still haven't managed to get excited about despite having been in Norway over half my life.

On the way home, with the camera ready on the passenger seat, I had my eyes peeled again. No sign of the crow  but a Mistle Thrush duetrost turned up in the same place. Typically flighty it moved on before I brought the camera to bear. Equally typically I chose to confirm ID with my binoculars before reaching for the camera.

A stop at Tjeldstø on the way home produced my first Redshank rødstilk of the year.

Herdlevær itself was less interesting though there was an obvious increase in Meadow Pipit heipiplerke numbers with at least eight singing and a flock of feeding birds as well. It would have been a good day for gull photography with birds passing close and the light just right, not too sunny and not too dull. However, ISO values were more suited to sunny and I didn't check. A single flock of 34 Cormorant storskarv heading north was almost as many as I saw in three hours of seawatching yesterday:) Nice to see (and mostly hear) Curlew storspove displaying again too.


Cormorant storskarv

A brute of a GBBG svartbak


Herring Gulls gråmåke




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