It feels something of a missed opportunity today... Julian Bell scored 7 White-billed Divers passing Skogsoy near Bergen yesterday and I felt the light headwinds forecast for today might result in a passage both here and there... Here this morning a few showers passed through soon after dawn that seemed far from ideal for both making the long trek out west and for seawatching... I decided to give it a miss. Even whilst driving to complete my first visit to my third and final Common Breeding Bird Survey square a heavy shower saw me continue on to Burrafirth where there were 8 Mute Swans and 3 Whooper Swans on the Loch of Cliff. The shower passed so I returned to Haroldswick and completed the survey that also produced a Great Northern Diver, the 5 Gadwall and my first Mealy Redpoll of the year. A walk around Norwick added nothing more than a couple of Chiffchaffs and a Brambling. Then news from Skogsoy... 33 White-billed Divers had flown north between 6am and 3pm! A scan of Norwick from our garden and almost predictably - bingo - a 'new' individual that had only just commenced its moult into summer plumage that was spending most of its time asleep. Another scan 3 hours later and there were now 2 sat together... and Kristofer found 3 sat off South Nesting this evening... how many more have flown north past here unseen today?
