Skogsøy 12 May 2020 - Winter bites back but Poms on the move

Northerly gale with hail and snow showers. A very cold and wintery feel to conditions today!

Even with my thermal suit on I only managed to sit out there for a little over three hours. The day was surprisingly productive with best birds a couple of distant Pomarine Skuas polarjo and two White-billed Diver gulnebblom. A single Bonxie storjo and six Velvet Scoter sjøorre were among the other species noted.

The mainstay of the birding were flocks of Long-tailed Ducks havelle heading north. Mid-May is the peak time for this species to be on the move. More here.

Flocks of migrating Long-tailed Ducks havelle

Obligatory White-billed Diver gulnebblom shots

Red throated Diver N	65
White Billed Diver N	2
Northern Gannet N	41
Northern Gannet S	4
Great Cormorant N	1
Eurasian Shag N	5
Eurasian Shag S	8
Long tailed duck N	230
Common Scoter N	18
Velvet Scoter N	6
Pomarine Skua N	2
Great Skua N	1
Black-legged Kittiwake N	18
Common Guillemot N	12
Razorbill N	6
Auk N	8

On my way out to the seawatching point I heard my first singing Lesser Whitethroat møller of the year - and subsequently heard them other places on the way home

Skogsøy 25 October - Little Auks on the move!

Gale force WSW with some showers.

The drop down windows work fine although they are a bit on the narrow side

Out of the wind and rain, I'll be making the most of this in future storms...

I used the new "hide" at Skogsøy for the first time today. This construction is ideally placed for those days when it blows hard from the south through to west and when raining. The windows are on the narrow side for seawatching but it is considerably better than the alternative of sitting exposed to the elements. The hide did shake a bit in the wind but probably less shake than the wind would normally give on a scope tripod.

A few Kittiwakes krykkje

Great Northern Diver islom

A couple of hours or so of seawatching gave some great results - over 500 Little Auks alkekonge battled their way south as did 60+ other auks, 19 Gannets havsule, 45 Kittiwake krykkje, 8 Long-tailed Duck havelle, a Great Northern Diver islom and a Red-throated Diver smålom. A Woodcock rugde feeding out by the lookout was an unusual place to see this common autumn migrant.

Long-tailed Ducks havelle at Tjeldstø

Sometimes the Little Auks head down the fjord in greater numbers than offshore so I checked Tjeldstø quickly. No auks but a couple of Purple Sands fjæreplytt, a nice pair of Long-tailed Duck havelle and a Common Scoter svartand turned up.

Hernar 16 April 2019 - A productive day on the sea

Calm and sunny again.

Although the conditions were far from ideal for grounded migrants it was time to visit the island of Hernar again today. Although there was not much in the way of migrants, there were a number of new arrivals since my last visit in the form of Twite bergrisik, Linnet tornirisk, Lesser Redpoll brunsisik and Woodpigeon ringdue. A big increase in the number of Wheatear steinskvett and some of the other species. A single Lapland Bunting lappspurv and a Chiff-chaff gransanger or two were the only migrants.

Linnet tornirisk

Raven ravn

Rather odd looking Greylag grågås - much white and for a second I thought I had something more interesting...

Porpoises nise

A large pod of Porpoise nise fed close in to the island.

Long-tailed Ducks havelle

A couple of the several Black Guillemot teist seen today.

Great Northern Diver islom in almost full summer plumage  (massively cropped!)

Long-tailed Ducks havelle are one of the most photogenic species ever

Part of a flock of Purple Sandpiper fjæreplytt

Red-necked Grebe gråstrupedykker 

The boat trip there and back produced the best birding of the day with a Red-necked Grebe gråstrupedykker, an adult Great Northern Diver islom, 30+ Purple Sandpiper fjæreplytt and some nice flocks of Long-tailed Duck havelle. The latter are getting in the mood for spring, displaying and flying around - in the calm weather they can be heard a long way off.

The first shot I took at very long range as I attempted to approach a little closer.

The birds were then scared up by a passing car and flew towards me giving the opportunity for a few flight shots....

Male Ring Ouzel ringtrost

In the afternoon a few diversions on a trip to the shop produced the Pinkfoot kortnebbgås flock at Kollsness and three cracking Ring Ouzel ringtrost at Breivik in part of a larger flock of mixed thrushes. Reed Bunting sivspurv also put in an appearance here.

Skogsøy 17 October 2018 - BT Diver

Strong southerly winds but no rain.

Although the winds were strong it was nothing like as bad as my previous trip to Skogsøy and there were some birds passing. Highlight was a nice Black-throated Diver storlom - amazingly my first in Øygarden this year - just shows how little I have been out. Nine Long-tailed Duck havelle were the first of the autumn.

Gannets havsule came by at close range

A couple of Long-tailed Duck havelle

Red-throated Divers smålom

Other sightings included over 90 Gannets havsule, 24 Common Scoter svartand heading south, a lone Great Northern Diver islom heading north, several Red-throated Diver smålom, a flock of three Dunlin myrsnipe, small numbers of Guillemot lomvi and Razorbill alke, several Kittiwake krykkje and a Goldeneye kvinand.

Elsewhere plenty of birds about with 100's of thrushes in the fields. A flock of six Golden Plover heilo flew over at Breivik.

Øygarden 14 February - I love SEAPOP

Indescribable weather! Calm and sunny - in other words perfect conditions for messing around in boats- which is just as well as today was the annual SEAPOP count - in other words counting seabirds from a small boat.

Most of this was done in Øygarden but with a brief foray into the neighbouring district of Fjell.

Black Guillemot teist

A common sight today - mixed flock of Cormorants storskarv and Shag toppskarv resting on the islands

Bachekor boys - an almost all male group of Eiders ærfugl. The lone female was getting rather a lot of attention....

Male Eider ærfugl

Male Long-tailed Duck havelle

....with a more typical shot - not easy trying to take pictures of moving birds from a moving boat

Purple Sandpipers fjæreplytt - this flock was of around 70 birds

Shags toppskarv - adult on the left, presumed 2cy bird on the right

Conditions were great even if the numbers of most of the seaduck were not. NO Velvet Scoter sjøorre seen and only TWO Common Scoter svartand seen from the boat. Numbers of Long-tailed Duck havelle and Eider ærfugl also seemed down on usual. Although I don't have the data from previous years I am pretty sure gull numbers were also much reduced compared to normal and with very few immatures.

However, Black Guillemot teist, White-tailed Eagle havørn and Purple Sandpiper fjæreplytt were around normal.

Dipper at dawn

Other stuff today included a Dipper fossekall near Alvheim and the first Black Guillemot teist I've seen from the terrace this year.

I also saw a distant flock of four grey geese (quite possibly Bean) flying north and apparently going down but I didn't see them on my way home.

Nautnes 12 November 2016 - Wet and wild

Very strong southerly winds with rain all day. Not that it made much difference, too busy to get out today.

Grey Heron gråhegre

Long-tailed Duck havelle - to be honest I actually left the house to take this pictures

A Long-tailed Duck havelle from the terrace provided the best photographic opportunities today despite the dull and wet conditions.

Initial view of a very dark duck with the Mallards stokkand on Husvatnet

White tail sides coming into view.....

...,.and the excitement fades

A normal coloured female Mallard stokkand for comparison.....

A driive-by at Tjeldstø on the way to the shopping centre at Sartot (!! - at least my youngest was happy) got the pulse racing for a little while - a very dark looking Mallard stokkand just had to be checked out closely - we don't see much of those daft ones with domestic duck influences like they do in the parks in town. The very dark plumage and yellowish green colour on the bill looked promising but in the end the pale tail sides showed and the pulse returned to normal. Maybe it was just a bit melanistic, maybe be had some genes from the other side of the Atlantic.....