Inner islands, NW Øygarden 15 July 2018 - Game on

Southerly winds and overcast to start with (rain during the night), hot and sunny later.

Two of this year's Common Tern makrellterne (left and right)

Note that the second bird from the right is an Arctic Tern rødnebbterne.

Two Common Tern chicks - fingers crossed!

Another day, another boat trip. The aim of the day was to check out potential tern colonies. Bad news for Arctic Terns rødnebbterne as we found no definite nests, although we did see a number of adults (and there ARE some pairs breeding in the area as I see adults with fish flying over my house every day). Common Terns makrellterne seem to be fairing better - another look at the site I checked in on yesterday revealed six fully fledged young and two chicks still at the nest.

Not the easiest of conditions today.....

Adult Knot polarsnipe

Young Oystercatcher tjeld almost "good to go"

Wader migration is now picking up with the first Knot polarsnipe of the autumn. Two flocks, one of eight and another of six were seen, though there is some potential for these being the same birds. As usual for this time of year the birds were adults. Two Dunlin myrsnipe migrating were also the first of the autumn. Plenty of Oystercatcher tjeld again - some young looking ready to go. It will only be a couple more weeks before these birds are migrating. The only other waders were a few each of Curlew storspove and Whimbrel småspove.

This Lesser Black-backed Gull sildemåke was colour ringed but flew a couple of seconds too soon to read the number :(

Merganser siland with young

Eiders ærfugl posing around the islands.....

More Eider ærfugl with young, a Merganser siland with eight chicks and a light but steady passage of Gannet havsule were among the other birds seen.

Herdlevær 14 July 2018 - Back to normal(ish)

Calm and sunny.

It felt very good to be out for a couple of hours at Herdlevær. Almost normal in fact.

Common Sandpiper strandsnipe

Young Meadow Pipit heipiplerke

Shag toppskarv

Whimbrel småspove

Male White Wagtail linerle with food

Birdwise there were no real surprises other than that the Ringed Plover sandlo pair seem to still have young. The other breeding pair I know of had fledged young looking good to go three weeks ago....

A couple of Whimbrel småspove, small numbers of Gannet havsule and loads of birds with young were also seen here.

Common Gull fiskemåke making last minute preparations before attacking a Peregrine vandrefalk

Common Gull fiskemåke attacking Peregrine vandrefalk

Male Tufted Duck toppand - an unseasonal appearance.

At Tjeldstø the usual breeding waders were still going strong and an unseasonal male Tufted Duck toppand put in an appearance. It was a fantastic experience to watch a squadron of Common Gulls fiskemåke take off to attack a Peregrine vandrefalk. Very Battle of Britain like......

On my way home I checked out some tern activity at Nautnes where there was at least one fledged Common Tern makrellterne. Good news. A Sparrowhawk spurvehauk also showed up again.

Nautnes/ Tjeldstø / Dåvøy 10 July 2018 - The usual tradgey

Warm and sunny again.

Sparrowhawk spurvehauk being attacked by Common Tern makrellterne

Another decent raptor shot taken from my terrace....

A cup of coffee on my terrace gave the best sighting of the day with a Common Tern makrellterne seeing off a female Sparrowhawk spurvehauk. Just as they manage to chase off all the larger gulls, Hooded Crows kråke and anything else they don't like.

Inspired by this I took a detour to Dåvøy on my way to the shops to check out the Common Tern makrellterne colony there. There was no colony. There were no terns at all! Not a trace of them. This happens all over the place every summer - they arrive, seem to be doing well and then suddenly they are gone. I would love to know why - it certainly did not look like food issues - the pictures I took a few days ago show them coming in with prey constantly in the short time I was there. Mink, human disturbance and other possibilities spring to mind. A colony of that size should have been able to see off Great Black Backed Gulls svartbak much easier than the two-three pairs currently at Nautnes do....so it must have been something scarier than that.

Redshank rødstilk, Lapwing vipe, Curlew storspove and Oystercatcher tjeld all seem to still have young on the go at Husvatnet.

Nøvlingane 08 July 2018 - The Young Ones

Calm sunny and very nice weather to be out and about in.

This is nothing to do with the cult British TV comedy series from the '80s :)

We took a boat trip to look around the islands to check out what was going on.

Whimbrels småspove - a sure sign that autumn migration has begun.

Migration wise a flock of 8 Whimbrel småspove put in an appearance close to Nautnes.

One of a few families of Eiders ærfugl seen today.

Young Great black-backed Gulls svartbak

Grey Seal havert

Young Herring Gull gråmåke

Lesser Black Backed Gull sildemåke - by far in the minority out on the islands

One of several young Oystercatcher tjeld seen.

Adult Oystercatcher tjeld with limpit. Of more interest is that this bird is ringed....highly likely to have been ringed on the south coast of the UK if experience is anything to go by.

Raven ravn

Rock Pipit skjærpiplerke really living up to it's name

Shag toppskarv

Other than these it was just the usual breeding birds including a single Black Guillemot teist, several Cormorants storskarv among the local Shags toppskarv, Oystercatchers tjeld, Eider ærfugl and the usual gull species. There were plenty of young Herring Gulls gråmåke and Great Black-backed Gulls svartbak on several of the islands.

Other stuff included a White-tailed Eagle havørn, a couple of Raven ravn, Rock Pipits skjærpiplerke and a couple of Gannets havsule. Several Arctic Tern rødnebbterne were seen but none on the island that looked so promising earlier in the year.

As is so often the case a couple of Grey Seal havert were hanging around.

Øygarden 01-07 July 2018 - Ups, downs and autumn migration

The trend of not birding continues almost unabated. I have not yet given up properly.

I managed to take a 10 minute detour to the shops on 03.07, half an hour in the nature reserve at Tjeldstø on 04.07 and spent a whopping two hours seawatching at Skogsøy on 07.07.

One seriously bad piece of news was that yet another of the good overwintering sites for species like Water Rail vannrikse, Jack Snipe kvartbekkasin and similar has been destroyed - the second such site in as many years. This insidious destruction of small "unimportant" sites probably plays a massive role in the decline of many such species. Once gone these site will never ever save the lives of struggling birds in the depth of winter. I am considering start laying land mines in such areas, this is at least an acceptable activity in large parts of the world....

Quite a bit of age variation among the Common Tern makrellterne chicks....

Common Terns makrellterne feeding young

On the up side the terns - at least Common Terns makrellterne are doing well with breeding pairs at a number of locations. Other species that have managed to get young on the way include Lapwings vipe, Oystercatcher tjeld and quite a lot of Common Gull fiskemåke. Wheatear steinskvett, Meadow Pipits heipiplerke and many other species have fledged young now.

Curlew storspove

Meadow Pipit heipiplerke

Young Wheatear steinskvett

Seawatching at Skogsøy produced the usual summer suspects - Great Skua storjo, Gannet havsule and Common Scoter svartand in addition to some autumn migration - a flock of Whimbrel småspove.

As usual there is more age variation among the Gannets havsule during the summer

The most (and arguably best) picture here - a Great Skua storjo. Massively cropped.

Migrating Whimbrel småspove at Skogsøy

Greenshank gluttsnipe outside my house in the first two days of the month were another sign of autumn.

Øygarden June 2018

Too much going on to go birding:(

I managed a good day out guiding in the second half of June picking up most of the usual suspects including White-tailed Eagle havørn, Sedge Warbler sivsanger and Crested Tits toppmeis. All the usual breeding waders put in an appearance as did Pergregrine vandrefalk and a whole load more. At least 60 species seen during the day.

A very brief walk in a corner of the nature reserve at Tjeldstø resulted in an unseasonal Turnstone steinvender  on 23.06.

A night of social activities on 24.06 showed that Woodcock rugde were still displaying.

A very brief seawatch at Skogsøy in conjunction with a camping trip with two of my daughters resulted in just the usual suspects over the sea in addition to breeding Twite bergirisk and a family of newly fledged Ravens ravn.

After this almost the only birds seen were incidental stuff from the house - my first local Swift tårnseiler of the year flew over whilst helping one of my daughter's out with a car issue on 30.06....