Saturday, February 11, 2023

Øygarden 11 February 2022 - Weekend Birder

Lght winds, overcast and mild.

It seems I have become something I never wanted to be  - a weekend birder. Without having to think about work I had the most enjoyable day for some time - without even trying too hard, just doing a few relaxed walks here and there.

I started with a relatively late start to my usual round at Herdlevær which produced several new species for this locality this year including Purple Sandpipers fjæreplytt, Kittiwake krykkje and Sparrowhawk spurvehauk. There was also a noticeable movement of GBBG svartbak heading north.



Purple Sandpipers fjæreplytt at Herdlevær



Just one of the day's White-tailed Eagles havørn

Spring is on the way, Snowdrops have been in full flower for over a week now

Curlew storspove at Herdlevær

Next up was a walk with my middle daughter and a couple of dogs at Tjeldstø. Nothing unusual here but seven Whoopers sangsvane and a Greylag grågås were among the species seen here.

After this a brief stop at Hatten to finish sorting out my new phone (having destroyed yet another smartphone yesterday). My birding/family phone is still a Samsung "brick" that has outlasted and outperformed several smartphone challengers. Just the usual suspects here including a few GSW flaggspett, Crested Tit toppmeis etc.

A short visit to Sæle in the afternoon provided the bird of the day - a cracking White-billed Diver gulnebblom that gave superb views in the scope but proved challenging for my new point and pray. Happy enough with the results though:). A Guillemot lomvi on the sea and a White-tailed Eagle havørn were the only other sightings of interest here.

White-billed Diver gulebblom - it looked a lot better in the scope.


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