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<\/a><\/p>\nmale Common Eider (\u00e6rfugl)<\/p>\n
a 2cy male Eider and an adult male<\/p>\n
Yesterday was a sunny but cold day with an unpleasant northerly wind. Today was without wind and temperatures warmed through the day from -6C to around zero with snow now falling which will turn into rain overnight. Yesterday I checked out the Glomma and Aurskog H\u00f8land but found much less than last week with the cold spell clearly having forced birds to look for more appealing sites.<\/p>\n
Today was a bit better and I chose a trip to the Dr\u00f8bak area. The sea was calm and revealed lots of seaduck: 300 plus Eiders, 80 Common Scoter and 40 Velvet Scoter. As is normally the case the Velvet Scoters were dominated by adult males whereas probably all the Common Scoters were 1st winter birds \u2013 it is interesting that the different age groups of these two species choose to have such different wintering areas (the adult Common Scoters winter further south but I am not sure where the young Velvet Scoters spend the winter \u2013 further north?).<\/p>\n
Amongst the duck were a stonking 11 Common Seals which is by far the highest count reported for Akershus. There was a lot of play or possibly courtship amongst them. I picked out a high count of 6 Purple Sandpipers on a different island but saw no sign of the local White-tailed Eagles which I had hoped may have been enjoying the weather and displaying in the blue skies. Quality photos have been a rare commodity recently with birds at great distance, heat haze and too bright light giving me problems.<\/p>\n
male Common Eider (\u00e6rfugl)<\/p>\n a 2cy male Eider and an adult male<\/p>\n