Skogsøy 30 April 2017 - Back in business at last - Pallid Harrier

After what seems like an eternity I FINALLY went birding for a morning. I really should not have spent the time doing this and should not be writing this blog post either.

I spent the morning seawatching. Despite the light easterly winds the only place to go today was Skogsøy even though the conditions were not ideal. We had a decent seawatch with quite a lot of stuff passing.

Oiled Gannet havsule. An all too common sight.

Adult Gannet havsule as it should be

Mergansers siland heading south

Quite a good day for Oystercatcher tjeld despite it being quite late in the season

Two male and a female Shelduck gravand heading north

Four of the over 70 Tufted Duck toppand that headed north today

Highlights were all four diver species including six White-billed Diver gulnebblom,  a Black-throated Diver storlom and a 2K Great Northern Diver islom heading north. Low numbers of Red-.throated Diver smålom though. Other decent sightings included an Arctic Skua tyvjo, a Whimbrel småspove and what is quite possibly a record count - a massive 71 Tufted Duck toppand.

Red throated Diver N	23
Black throated Diver N	1
Great Northern Diver N	1
White Billed Diver N	6
Northern Gannet N	10
Northern Gannet S	18
Great Cormorant N	27
Great Cormorant S	5
Eurasian Shag N	1
Eurasian Shag S	13
Grey Heron S	2
Shelduck N	3
Teal N	2
Tufted Duck N	71
Eider N	9
Eider S	3
Long tailed duck N	12
Long tailed duck S	4
Common Scoter N	133
Merganser N	25
Merganser S	6
Oystercatcher N	367
Oystercatcher S	10
Golden Plover N	1
Whimbrel N	1
Arctic Skua N	1
Black headed Gull S	1
Common Gull N	190
Lesser black backed Gull S	1
Common Guillemot N	2
Razorbill N	8
Auk N	7

2cy male Pallid Harrier steppehauk

Shortly after two of us left something made me turn around and I glimpsed a wingtip disappearing behind a rocky outcrop, I just knew I had to see what it was - and sure enough a cracking Pallid Harrier steppehauk came into view, circled us briefy and moved rapidly onwards and we lost the bird gaining height over Herldevær. This is the first spring record for the county (and only around the 10th all in).

Hernar 05 October 2015 - A magic day's birding!

Sunny with light easterly and south-easterly winds.

One of the all-time best days out on Hernar ever!! A truly cracking day out with non-stop action from start to finish. No mega rarities but PLENTY of decent birds and a whole load of migration - and in fantastic weather to top it all!

Above: record shots of today's Pallid Harrier steppehauk

Highlights were a Pallid Harrier steppehauk (yet again!). This makes the third consecutive trip to Hernar with a harrier. It looks like this is a different bird to the one seen at Nautnes recently. We found it around 1500 and it promptly gained height and headed south - by 1510 it was already over Hellesøy.

Next best bird was a Red-throated Pipit lappiplerke migrating south. This bird came in low and very vocal.

Early morning Yellow-browed before the sun came up

More Yellow-browed Warbler gulbrynsanger

One of at least two Richard's Pipit tartarpiplerke seen today

The runners up were three Yellow-browed Warbler gulbrynsanger, two Richard's Pipits tartarpiplerke (one of which was actually on the ground for a change!).

Early morning Chiff-chaff gransanger

Newly washed Chiff-chaff gransanger

Part of a flock of 150 Cormorants storskarv migrating over the island today

Lots of Goldcrest fuglekonge about today

Most of the Goldfinch stillits flock present during the morning

One of two Ring Ousel ringtrost seen on Hernar today

There were loads of other migrants too including a Short-eared Owl jordugle, a flock of five Goldfinch stillits, two Ring Ousel ringtrost, loads of Chif-chaff gransanger, several Blackcap munk, a Snow Bunting snøspurv, a Lapland Bunting lappspurv, several Great Northern Diver islom and plenty more besides.

A flock of 15 Long-tailed Duck havelle were the first of the autumn, amazingly four Fulmar havhest headed south down Hjeltefjord - one of which was an intermediate phase bird. Amazingly this seems like the first record for the island!

Good numbers of Redwing rødvingetrost, loads of Brambling bjørkefink and most of the usual autumn suspects were also seen.

Nautnes 01 October 2015 - Pallid again - but only just

Largely cloudy with south westerly winds.

Some more twitchers from the big vcity had a go for the Pallid Harrier steppehauk without success today. However, as the light was going just before 1900 I had a brief view of a harrier from the living room window - I can only presume that this was the same bird.

I spent even less time outside than yesterday and other than the harrier the only really noteworthy bird was a Grey Wagtail vintererle that flew over.

A Goshawk hønsehauk put in an appearance during the morning school run but other than that it was just the run of the mill stuff like White-tailed Eagle havørn and some thrush movement.

Nautnes 30 September 2015 - Pallid again!

Southerly winds, overcast early on but clearing later.

Work prevented any time in the field but as this is Øygarden my "office" window produced the goods again.Amazingly yesterday's Pallid Harrier steppehauk put on a show today too - seemingly settling into some kind of routine whereby it hunted in front of the house and then behind it followed by a period of absence before returning to do the same thing again.

A few twitchers from town gave it a go, some, but not all, connected with this cracking bird. Today's picture showed something rather odd with the tail - it seemed both longer and more worn than expected.

Above two - to put it mildly the tail on this thing looks odd!

We have now passed the standard of record shot and are verging on something worthwhile for anything other than ID purposes

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Some view from the office....

Other stuff was obviously on the move, a Yellow-browed Warbler gulbrynsanger came dangerously close to the house (<50m also="" at="" color="#00ffff" font="" lots="" of="" one="" point="" starling="">stær

and plenty of various thrushes. A Common Sandpiper strandsnipe was relatively late and theWhite-tailed Eagles havørn were ever present.

Skogsøy 29 September 2015 - Another CRACKER for the house list!

Strong southerly winds, cloudy with sunny spells, warm.

Above and below: Barnacle Geese hvitkinngås

Common Scoter svartand

Gannet havsule

Red-throated Diver smålom

Velvet Scoter sjøorre

Finally a trip to Skogsøy at my own pace and with some decent seawatching! Spent 1.5 hours there ed every being buffeted by the wind but enjoyed every minute of it. Some 360 Barnacle Geese hvitkinngjess were the best birds but also small numbers of Common Scoter svartand, Velvet Scoter sjøorre, a Great Northern Diver islom and the usual suspects.

Best bird here was a Jack Snipe kvartbekkasin - I saw footprints in the mud on the way out and strongly suspected this species. On the way home I almost trod on it - nice to get confirmation!

Record shots of this evening's Pallid Harrier steppehauk

Spent the rest of the day bogged down with chores and work. But all was not lost - just as dinner was finishing a harrier blasted past the kitchen window. I hit the terrace a few seconds later and managed to snap a few record shots of a first year Pallid Harrier steppehauk. I'm starting to REALLY like my house. This was species #110 in just under two years.

Hernar 16 September 2015 - A national rarity and yet another hole in the list filled.

South easterly winds and largely sunny.

Spent the entire day birding Hernar. Well worth it! Although it felt relatively quiet there was enough going on that the day flew by and we didn't even get to cover all of this tiny island.

One of the first birds was a distant harrier hunting over Sanden / Nordøy. It was seen chasing Kestrels tårnfalk and hunting for around an hour in total but was rather distant and kept disappearing from view. However, the bright orange undersides, size and jizz meant that we kept our patience and never gave up.

Common Buzzard musvåk

One of several Kestrel tårnfalk seen today

"Boomerang" on the carpals, unstreaked orange underparts, narrow hand and four visible primaries say it all....

Obvious "boa", typical underwing pattern and narrow hand obvious here

Pale, irregularly streaked undersides to the primaries, boa and once again the very orange and unstreaked underparts visible here.

Remarkably, during a period where we waiting for the harrier to reappear another raptor turned up in the same place - a Common Buzzard musvåk - a real rarity in Øygarden and another of my local "bogey birds". A real relief to finally nail this species on the local patch! This bird, chased by the local Hooded Crows kråke finally crossed over to Hernar where it gave decent-ish views - and somehow brought the harrier with it.

The harrier showed well but against the light. We managed to clinch all the salient features and can now claim the first Pallid Harrier steppehauk for Øygarden. This is a juvenile bird - possibly the same one seen on Fedje a few days ago. This is incredibly the fourth new species for Øygarden this year - Ortolan Bunting hortulan, Bee-eater bieter and Black-headed Bunting svarthodespurv being the previous ones (and all of which I have missed whilst being at work....).

It was a day of raptors with several Kestrel tårnfalk, a few Sparrowhawk spurvehauk, a Peregrine vandrefalk and at least three White-tailed Eagle havørn in addition to the goodies already
mentioned. There was not much in the way of grounded migrants - just a Blackcap munk and several Chiff-chaff gransanger.

Waders were rather more obvious with Grey Plover tundralo, Knot polarsnipe and Bar-tailed Godwit lappspove among the better Hernar species. I

Other stuff included a Great Northern Diver islom and a couple of vocal Red-throated Diver smålom. Both of these species were the first of the autumn.

Birding selfie of two satisfied birders - smile, its a Pallid!