24th July

A similar day to yesterday but with the wind a bit stronger and with a bit more west in it; a couple of Bonxies were lingering offshore while around Vågsvollvåien there were 2 Bar-tailed Godwits, 8 Curlew, 2 Whimbrel, a Greenshank and presumably the same female Tufted Duck relocating from Fuglejønna.   Managed to get a couple of nets open but it was very quiet, just rescued by a smart juvenile Wryneck as I was closing!

                The coast was also quiet with waders including 3 Common Sandpipers, another Greenshank, 4 Green Sandpipers, 5 Dunlin and a Sanderling; 38+ Swifts were feeding over Verevågen before the day’s highlight came with a cracking female WHITE-BACKED WOODPECKER in Lebeltet Nord (a proper one this time with no hint of any hybridness like the thing last autumn!).

- Read consecutive Lesser Black-backed Gull rings on Vågsvollvåien this morning; J663E and J664E were both ringed as chicks on Rauna on 17^th July 2013and over two years later they were standing next to each other again!

 

White-backed Woodpecker

Wryneck - very hard to photograph in the hand as it wouldn't keep its bloody head still!

The Swifts were very photogenic today!

 

17th April

Another beautiful, sunny day but the NW wind (albeit much reduced) was still very cold and cutting through the morning; there were a few birds on the sea with a steady passage of 130 Red-throated Divers and 720 more Common Gulls along with two Great-northern Divers, two Goosanders, a pair of Tufted Ducks and a Bar-tailed Godwit with a flock of Oystercatchers.   As the morning warmed up there was a good movement of Meadow Pipits overhead and out at sea as well as 15+ Lesser Redpolls, a few Goldfinches, Yellowhammers and Siskins and good numbers of Linnets while a Rook, 2 Carrion Crows and 30+ Curlews came in across the sea from the south.

                The area was pretty quiet in the afternoon with the exception of a flock of 5 Cranes which went NW just after lunchtime; other birds included an immature White-tailed Eagle over, 7 Redshank in Vågsvollvika, a Great-spotted Woodpecker and a Merlin.   The adult male Marsh Harrier was cruising around Seviksmarka in the evening.

 

Cranes

Redshank

Lapwing

A Woodpecker - this bird was ringed here last autumn as a White-backed Woodpecker after much discussion, some people believing it was a White-backed x Great-spotted Woodpecker hybrid.   I'm still a bit unsure as its hardly a classic White-backed but people in the know have said its within the acceptable range of features for White-backed but those big white shoulder patches are a bit upsetting....