Skogsøy 01 May 2022 - Never Leave!

Light Northerly winds and sunny.

Another day, another cracking seawatch - along with a lesson we never learn: Never Leave.

1st May is traditionally a date where birders other than myself make the trek out to Skogsøy. A relatively poor turnout of just six birders sat and enjoyed a very decent passage of divers. We talked about the dangers of leaving but left anyway. One turned back and had an extra 21 WBD in just one hour!! This took the day total to 45 - so over 90 in JUST TWO DAYS!!!

I started seawatching at 0530, others joined shortly after 0600 and still others after that. Turning up early bags the variety as many species slow right down not long after dawn. Not the divers though, these normally reach a peak late morning / early afternoon. The hourly stats showed things definitely slowing down so we chose to leave. How wrong we were!

The totals for 0530-1300

Red throated Diver smålom N 1234

Great Northern Diver islom N 2 2K. +One adult feeding

White Billed Diver gulnebblom N 23 (+21 14:30-15:30!!) And an adult on the sea earlier on

Northern Gannet havsule N 47, S 2

Great Cormorant storskarv N 10, S 2

Eurasian Shag N 13, S 74

Shelduck gravand N 4

Mallard stokkand N 3

Eider ærfugl N 2

Common Scoter svartand N 63

Merganser siland N 48, S 2

Oystercatcher tjeld N 78

Dunlin myrsnipe N 1

Bar tailed Godwit lappspove N 1

Whimbrel småspove N 2

Eurasian Curlew storspove N 3

Black headed Gull hettemåke N 1

Common Gull fiskemåke N 175

Black-legged Kittiwake krykkje N 15

Common Guillemot lomvi N 1

Razorbill alke N 3

Black Guillemot teist N 2

Other species included 4 Teal krikkand resting on the sea and a hunting Merlin dvergfalk.

Before I left the house I heard the first Common Sandpiper strandsnipe of the year from my terrace.

A Bar-tailed Godwit lapppove joined a flock of Oystercatcher tjeld heading north - not a common bird during the spring migration

Common Gulls fiskemåke continue to pass in much smaller numbers with rather more non adult birds among them

A few Curlew storspove headed north - well past the peak now

A Dunlin mysnipe tagged along wth some much larger Oystercatcher tjeld

As usual Gannets havsule gave some good photo opportunities

Adult Great Northern Diver islom on the sea

...and the same bird with sunlight flashing off it's bill. Could easily be confused with another species based on a one off photo!

A good day for Mergansers siland - just under 50 passed

Some of the Red-throated Diver smålom came by at close range

...others didn't but made up for it by forming large flocks:)

Some obligatory heavily cropped WBD shots

Later in the afternoon some came a lot closer

A couple of Whimbrel småspove