A perfect thing about the first of May, beside being an official day off, is that it is prime time for spring migrating Yellow-billed Divers. It has been a few years since I was counting seabirds on the date. We decided to visit Skogsøy, the best spot for seabird watching in western Norway, after recieving a decent weather forecast the day before.
A seawatcher's view.
Yellow-billed Divers are scarce birds in Hordaland county in western Norway. Birds stopping over or wintering are really rare. However, during migration, especially in spring, they can be seen from land flying past us. Numbers exceeding a dozen birds are rare, but in early May it happens. The record number in a day was 22 birds migrating past Skogsøy on 1 May in the late nineties. These are birds from the small North-Sea wintering population.
The count started at six in the morning, and we ended it around noon. The first two hours weren't very impressive diver-wise, but several hundred Barnacle Geese flew north. The northern wind increased a bit during the day, and after eight the divers entered the scene with force. When summing up a total of 37 White-billed Divers had passed us during the day. Two of them were second calendar years (born in 2013), and the rest were all adult in breeding plumage. I am sorry about the image quality of the YB Divers, but the closest ones pass at 700+ meters.
Other selected species numbers: Barnacle Goose (753 ind.), Common Scoter (230), Long-tailed Duck (30), Red-throted Diver (316), Great Northern Diver (1 2cy), Guillemot (5), Puffin (8), Razorbill (13) and Whimbrel (3). View the full log here (in Norwegian).
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