Today was spent in Vestfold with Rune today braving snow,
icy conditions and a biting northerly wind. My target today was to find our own
Water Pipit (vannpiplerke) amongst the Rock Pipits (skjærpiplerke) that usually
winter on the beach at Moutmarka, Tjøme. As it turned out the snow and ice had
covered the rotting seaweed that they feed on so all we found was a single Rock
Pipit feeding on an offshore rock and looking very sorry for itself. Incredibly
little else here although a total of six Wrens was heartening given how badly
they suffered due to the cold winters a couple of years ago.
The sea had some life though with five Black Guillemots
(teist), 2 flyby Little Auks (alkekonge) and a single Slavonian Grebe
(horndykker) the highlights.
We tried various other places around Tjøme and Hvasser but
there was little to find with the weather not making things easier for us. At
Dalen we knew that some Little Grebes (dvergdykker) were wintering. We found a
single bird easily and wondered why we couldn’t find anymore. Then I noticed
something hiding under a small abandoned floating jetty. Putting the scope on I
eventually saw 7 Little Grebes hiding here and there could well have been more.
Goldeneye (kvinand), Goosander (laksand), Eider (ærfugl) and Red-breasted
Merganser (siland) were encountered all around the coast.
We tried for a Hawk Owl that has been seen close to the E18
motorway but failed to find it although did have two Great Grey Shrikes in the
area.
 |
| distant Slavonian Grebe (horndykker) off Moutmarka, Tjøme |
No comments:
Post a Comment