Fantastic calm and sunny weather on Saturday 17.02. Did my usual round at Herdlevær which was rather quiet but a Red-throated Diver smålom, several White-tailed Eagles havørn and a Curlew storspove meant it wasn't a waste of time. Spent the afternoon and evening fishing - only a pod of at least eight Porpoises nise of interest and the freezer is now FULL, Ling lange, Pollack lyr, Whiting hvitting, Dab sandflyndre and Grey Gunard knurr were the fish species caught, interestingly a school of something that looked like Mackrell makrell started patrolling the surface after dark.
Calm but rainy on Sunday so I popped in a several localities, hoping to find some early spring migrants. I failed in this but later in the afternoon a Mistle Thrush duetrost was reported from the very first place I checked earlier in the day. I made a short extra trip out and connected with it, although it was typically very flighty.
A lone Starling stær at Breivik was probably a new arrival - they have been very thin on the ground this winter and this is the first I've seen for some weeks.
Over the last few months an extremely rare event has taken place - a lot of management work has been going on in the nature reserve with planted sitka spruce and other conifers being removed from the middle of the reserve. At first I thought this was a response to the extremely high electricity prices but now suspect it might actually be reserve management. However, I am far from certain. Whatever the cause it will be interesting to see how the birds react - the return to an open landscape should benefit waders and wildfowl in terms of better habitat, reduced number of breeding crows and fewer hiding places for raptors.
No comments:
Post a Comment