Sunday 9 August 2015

9th August


Overcast and chilly with a light easterly breeze first thing giving a real autumnal feel but there was again, little evidence of any passerine movement in the nets with 2 Whitethroats and a Garden Warbler in amongst 10 new Willow Warbler (which are down by two thirds when compared to this time last year and 2014 wasn’t really a good year for them!).   The most interesting bird in the morning was an adult graellsii Lesser Black-backed Gull on Vågsvollvåien – the first one I’ve seen here and it stood out prominently when standing with a bunch of intermedius birds; other birds around included a Merlin and a flyover Spotted Redshank.

                Prolonged showers in the afternoon limited things a bit but birds round the coast included at least 23 Greenshank (there could have been many more but were flying around all over the place so it was hard to tell!), 18 Knot which flew through and 2 Turnstone amongst the other usual waders and a little male Merlin which took several attempts but eventually nailed a Starling in Sevika.



Decent meal for a little male Merlin!


(slightly) interesting Lesser Black-backed Gull; pretty much a normal moulting 3rd summer bird apart from the retained, all black tail, I can't remember seeing a bird like this before (any comment anyone?)  I saw this bird very briefly just before dawn yesterday and all kinds of ridiculous thoughts went through my head concerning Black-tailed Gull!

Meadow Pipit

Not sure what this fellow was doing on some rocks right out on the point at Steinodden, he seemed a bit shell shocked so maybe he had been dropped by a Gull?

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