Wednesday, 28 October 2015

28th October


A real autumnal feeling day with complete cloud cover and a strong, cold easterly wind; I went out and about for the first few hours but there wasn’t much passing Steinodden although a Purple Sandpiper, a Great-northern Diver, a Slavonian Grebe, a Jack Snipe and 2 Wheatears were out along the coast while birds inland included a Rough-legged Buzzard, a good looking Siberian Chiffchaff in Lebeltet, 3 Northern Bullfinches, 6 Woodlarks at Bakkan, 150+ Fieldfares, 4 Grey Wagtails, a Great-spotted Woodpecker and a Short-eared Owl along with much reduced number of Bramblings, Siskins etc.

                I got back to the lighthouse mid-morning where there were thousands of birds streaming SE at sea – they annoyingly must have been taking a line that missed out Steinodden – typical!   The rest of the day was dominated by seawatching where my highlights were a Leach’s Petrel and a White-billed Diver while other bits that I saw included 2 Red-necked Grebes, 2 Scaup, 6 Purple Sandpipers and a Curlew.

                The rest of the days totals (which I saw a good proportion of) were made up of 144 Red-throated Divers, 170 Gannets, 17 Teal, 7 Tufted Ducks, 13 Long-tailed Ducks, 115 Eiders, 100 Velvet Scoter, 1,510 Common Scoter, 27 Red-breasted Mergansers, 16 Black-headed Gulls, 123 Common Gulls, 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 580 Herring Gulls, 90 Great Black-backed Gulls, 471 Kittiwakes, 53 Guillemots, 2,010 Razorbills and 148 Little Auks.   A pod of 4-5 Pilot Whales also showed well late morning.
 

Goldcrests

Little Auk

Record shot of the Siberian Chiffchaff
 

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