Lille kjove alert!

With an easterly wind gusting 18 m/s this morning it was unsafe to open the nets for the standardised ringing. We tried in vein during the early hours but the safety of the birds is paramount and we opted to leave it for today!

Dedicated local birders were out on the tip early today, as normal, and were rewarded with a good haul of migrating ducks! By the time I joined (after my lie in) Anders had over 400 Teal in his notebook, for mid august that's quite some going!

We sat out on the tip all day and managed a few decent birds. My notebook reads:

Krikand (Teal) 99
Havterne (Arctic tern) 46
Pibeand (Wigeon) 18
Troldand (Tufted duck) 4
Sortand (Common Scoter) 35
Ederfugl (Eider) 218
Dværgmåge (Little gull) 39
Hav/Fjordterne (Commic tern) 12
Skeand (Shoveler) 63
Fjordterne (Common tern) 31
Gråstrubet lapperdykker (Red-necked Grebe) 1
Fljøsand (Velvet Scoter) 6
Hjejle (Golden Plover) 1
Almindelig Kjove (Arctic Skua) 2
Sortterne (Black tern) 14
Sortstrubet lom (Black-throated diver) 1
Lille kjove (Long-tailed Skua) 1 - A second summer plus bird (at least 3 calendar year) - Though entered to dof as a 2K+ erroneously.
Stormåge (Common Gull) 3
Stor præstekrave (Ringed Plover) 8
Almindelig Ryle (Dunlin) 1
Sildemåge (Lesser black-backed gull) 1

I know that the guys present before I arrived also had 3 Arctic Skuas additionally making it a 6 Skua day. It really is hotting up now.

With the wind beginning to ebb over the weekend the resulting wreck of birds from today's wind will probably push south, so there could be some good birding over the weekend. Who knows, that Long-legged Buzzard hasn't showed up again yet as the weather has not favored it!

Reports from observatories further north show that many Marsh harriers are beginning to pass so hopefully we get a boost in numbers reflecting such things.