12th July

A mixed day with a couple of potentially good birds not quite clinched; the morning was pretty quiet with not much on the sea but there was a juvenile Grey Wagtail on the rocks, another 7 Herons went north, 2 Bar-tailed Godwits, a Whimbrel and some good Peregrine action with a female shooting down the shore taking a couple of unsuccessful swipes at some Starlings before carrying on and neatly plucking a Ruff out of Vågsvollvika!    A bit of a walk round until it started drizzling just produced a pair of Blue-headed Wagtails collecting food out at Vågsvollmarka and the very agitated Wryneck with two juveniles in tow at the Radiomastene.

                I then drove out to Kviljoodden to have a look at an interesting 1^st summer Diver – it was a small Black-throated Diver type feeding close inshore with two smart summer plumaged Black-throated Divers, it seemed smaller with a smaller, finer bill and it completely lacked a white thigh patch so was a potential Pacific Diver but no one was completely convinced!   There was a Great-northern Diver and a Sandwich Tern also there.

                Again, light rain in the afternoon delayed me going out again but I walked round the coast early evening which turned out to be extremely frustrating as I flushed a group of 25 Redshank from Verevågen with another bird in with them which I can’t see why it wasn’t a Stilt Sandpiper – slightly smaller than the Redshank, very thin, with a white rump and long projecting legs.   It then gave me the run around for the next few hours with the Redshank flock never letting me get close to them and I eventually lost it in the drizzle which came back in.

                Other birds along the coast included 4 Green Sandpipers, 4 Common Sandpipers, a Greenshank, single Teal and Wigeon, a Wood Sandpiper, 15 Dunlin, 2 Ruff and 5 Whimbrel.

 

Female Blue-headed Wagtail

Frog in the grass trying to avoid the Snakes in the grass

Grabbed shot of a Hare as it ran across the carpark!