Light SE winds, seafog in the night / early morning, clearing during the morning to a sunny day.
When I got up this morning and took my coffee on the terrace I was in two minds about heading to Hernar - which had been my plan. The low-level sea fog could prove disastrous or it might just have brought some stuff down. However, I made the decision to give it a go and met two other birders in the car park at Hellesøy who were obviously thinking along the same lines.
Late May is a good time for Icterine Warbler gulsanger and Rosefinch rosenfink both of which turned up today. The Icterine Warbler was hard work, making all the right sounds but singing very slowly and being ever so skulky. The Rosefinch dropped in to a bush right in front of me while I was sitting and eating a sandwich. I took a couple of record shots before I started fumbling for my phone to alert the others. During these few seconds it must have flown as it was nowhere to be seen when they arrived. A few hours of manic bush watching and the others finally refound it at the other end of the island.
A decent selection of other migrants included Garden Warbler hagesanger, Spotted Flycatcher gråfluesnapper, a thumbergii Yellow Wagtail såerle and a female Pied Flycatcher svarthvit fluesnapper. In addition to these many of the local breeders had arrived since my previous visit exactly a month ago - Common Whitethroat tornsanger, Sedge Warbler sivsanger and Common Sandpiper strandsnipe were among these.
Two species I missed were Arctic Skua tyvjo and House Martin taksvale, but the others missed several of the species I saw too:)
