26th August

A difficult day with a brisk (becoming pretty strong) SE wind bringing with it frequent, nasty showers and general murk; I had a little hope that the interrupted ringing session might produce some birds but it was very quiet but Vågsvollvåien was very busy with waders and ducks which included the first Black-tailed Godwit of the autumn, 67 Lapwings, 17 Ruff, 10 Greenshank, 3 Wood Sandpipers, 30 Redshank, 18 Wigeon and 2 Pintail.   Offshore was slow with 3 Bonxies and 3 Red-throated Divers of note.

                The day’s highlight came at lunchtime when I set out across the fields and a very smart juvenile BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER dropped into Gunnarsmyra, landed for 10 seconds or so and hopped over the road to land in Vågsvollvåien but that coincided with a particularly nasty shower and when that had cleared through there was no further sign.     Birds out across the fields then included 36 Whinchats, 31 Ruff, a few Tree Pipits and Yellow Wagtails and one of the juvenile Marsh Harriers before heavy rain moved in and effectively ended the day.  

 

Red-breasted Merganser

Very soggy and fed up Lapwing!

An equally soggy Ruff

Yesterdays orange flagged Redshank; CJN was ringed 10 days ago up in Makkevika, Møre og Romsdal, 490Km to the north

Dunlin, also from yesterday

And this very pale and unusual juvenile Little Stint was also in Sevika yesterday had me trying to turn it into allsorts (I paid close attention to its feet!)