Øygarden 06-10 August 2023 - Skogsøy finally pays off

I came home from work on 06 August and paid Skogsøy some attention whenever possible spending two hours seawatching on 06 and 07 August without anything much other than Gannets havsule on the move. A whale blowing  a few times on 06 August was of great interest but I didn't see the animal itself and am not that good on identifying whales just on their blows....

Female Tufted Duck toppand  at Tjeldstø now down from seven to six chicks

White-tailed Eagle havørn being mobbed by Common Gulls fiskemåke. 

Filmed from my terrace:)

Various ages of Gannet havsule passing Skogsøy on 07 August

Meadow Pipit heipiplerke

The northbound movement of Shags toppskarv seems to have started

Plenty of toads about these days - this one in broad daylight on the way home from seawatching at Skogsøy.

A seawatch in strong northerly winds on 10 August was an altogether different story and it turned into an all day sesh:) The first Sooty Shearwater grålire of the year for the county passed at 0815, seven Manx Shearwater havlire, 22 Fulmar havhest and the best observation - a "real" observation of Storm Petrel havsvale (rather than the fake tape luring thing the twtchers do to get the species on the year list). Quite a few Kittiwake krykkje on the move too with 20 adult and 12 of this year's birds - so some have managed to get some young off despite bird flu hitting many colonies both in Norway and elsewhere.

Øygarden 13 August 2011

I received text messages in the early hours of the morning reporting a successfull Storm Petrel havsvale ringing trip at Herdlevær. A good start to the day - better if I'd actually been there.

Otherwise little time in the field and correspondingly little seen - although female Scaup bergand remained at Tjeldstø.

Small numbers of waders seen at Hjelme West included a several Tursnstone steinvender.