norfolkbirding with chris mills
DAY EIGHT 2nd June 2006 - Hamningberg & Hornoya Island
We were up at 3.30am to undertake the drive to Hamningberg and arrive early enough for a 3-4 hour seawatch.
The trip en-route produced a lot of snoring & a few White-tailed Sea Eagles!
We walked out onto the Hamningberg peninsula and sort protection amongst the rocks from a chilling NE wind, the air temperature only 40 it felt bitterly cold.
The seawatching kept spirits high, especially after 4 sum plum WHITE-BILLED DIVERS were scoped, also 200 Common Eider, 7 1st sum King Eider & 1 fem, at 50m offshore, 2 fem Stellars Eider, 100+ Long-tailed Duck, 25+ Red-breasted merganser, 400 Goosander, 1 Dotterel flew over the car park area, 12+ Purple Sandpiper, 30+ Arctic Skua, 30 Black Guillemot, and a host of Razorbill, Guillemot, and a few Puffin. Despite several claims by all of us we came away unsure we had seen a Brunnich's, this now meant booking a boat to go across to Hornoya Island, the breeding site for this species and many of the seabirds in the area.
A walk around the nearby Fjord produced close views of a sum plum Black-throated Diver, and good views of Arctic Redpoll, inclusive of a female incubating on a nest!
The drive south produced several Snow Bunting a couple of White-tailed eagles and 2 Glaucous Gulls
Unfortunately Eric was not feeling at well, and he decided a trip acroos the choppy sea was not going to help - so Eric stayed behind to catch up some sleep and recuperate.
You book the boat from the harbour, there was just the three of us but it was nop problem and the boatman took us over and collected 3-4 people he had took over in the morning. We had about 2,5 hours, the Island is amazing and well worth a visit just for the spectacle of seabirds - of course if you haven't seen Brunnich's Guillemot you really can't miss going!!
We eventually found BRUNNICH'S GUILLEMOT amongst the miriads of other auks, they are about halfway up just to the right of where the boat drops you off as you face the cliff, we found a nice party of 20 or so (apparently 300-400 pairs here but declining). It easy to see how difficult these birds would be to identify whilst seawatching, especially as the "northern" Guillemot populations are much draker, almost black as well.
We also added Twite here.
We were up at 3.30am to undertake the drive to Hamningberg and arrive early enough for a 3-4 hour seawatch.
The trip en-route produced a lot of snoring & a few White-tailed Sea Eagles!
We walked out onto the Hamningberg peninsula and sort protection amongst the rocks from a chilling NE wind, the air temperature only 40 it felt bitterly cold.
The seawatching kept spirits high, especially after 4 sum plum WHITE-BILLED DIVERS were scoped, also 200 Common Eider, 7 1st sum King Eider & 1 fem, at 50m offshore, 2 fem Stellars Eider, 100+ Long-tailed Duck, 25+ Red-breasted merganser, 400 Goosander, 1 Dotterel flew over the car park area, 12+ Purple Sandpiper, 30+ Arctic Skua, 30 Black Guillemot, and a host of Razorbill, Guillemot, and a few Puffin. Despite several claims by all of us we came away unsure we had seen a Brunnich's, this now meant booking a boat to go across to Hornoya Island, the breeding site for this species and many of the seabirds in the area.
A walk around the nearby Fjord produced close views of a sum plum Black-throated Diver, and good views of Arctic Redpoll, inclusive of a female incubating on a nest!
The drive south produced several Snow Bunting a couple of White-tailed eagles and 2 Glaucous Gulls
Unfortunately Eric was not feeling at well, and he decided a trip acroos the choppy sea was not going to help - so Eric stayed behind to catch up some sleep and recuperate.
You book the boat from the harbour, there was just the three of us but it was nop problem and the boatman took us over and collected 3-4 people he had took over in the morning. We had about 2,5 hours, the Island is amazing and well worth a visit just for the spectacle of seabirds - of course if you haven't seen Brunnich's Guillemot you really can't miss going!!
We eventually found BRUNNICH'S GUILLEMOT amongst the miriads of other auks, they are about halfway up just to the right of where the boat drops you off as you face the cliff, we found a nice party of 20 or so (apparently 300-400 pairs here but declining). It easy to see how difficult these birds would be to identify whilst seawatching, especially as the "northern" Guillemot populations are much draker, almost black as well.
We also added Twite here.
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We finished today with a walk around Vardo harbour, that produced another new species for the trip list, Red-throated Pipit, despite searching other areas this was only one of two records for the trip of this species.
DAY NINE 3rd June 2006 - Ekkero. Nesseby & Mount Kainpispa
We had a brief walk around Ekkeroy before heading south, we had our 2nd Red-throated Pipit of the trip and there is a massive Kittiwake colony here on the cliffs. We had many of the now familiar species and also a single eclipse male Velvet Scoter & a fem Stellars Eider.
At Nesseby we had the usual mix of shorebirds and a 1 Great Skua.
Further south The Ski slope at Mount Kainppispa produced a single Arctic Redpoll & a single male Dotterel
We stopped overnight again at Peurasuvannon Holiday village, with Hilkka and Ola - we tried a final effort for Siberian Jay, but this was the one species which was going to elude us, at least we have a good excuse to return!
DAY NINE 3rd June 2006 - Ekkero. Nesseby & Mount Kainpispa
We had a brief walk around Ekkeroy before heading south, we had our 2nd Red-throated Pipit of the trip and there is a massive Kittiwake colony here on the cliffs. We had many of the now familiar species and also a single eclipse male Velvet Scoter & a fem Stellars Eider.
At Nesseby we had the usual mix of shorebirds and a 1 Great Skua.
Further south The Ski slope at Mount Kainppispa produced a single Arctic Redpoll & a single male Dotterel
We stopped overnight again at Peurasuvannon Holiday village, with Hilkka and Ola - we tried a final effort for Siberian Jay, but this was the one species which was going to elude us, at least we have a good excuse to return!
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"Trip Moments"