Glaucous Gull and sun!

I saw the sun today! The optimist in me suggested that that was all the White-backed Pecker had been waiting for and that it would be drumming away. Of course, that was not to be although yet more chippings on fresh snow (it snowed last night) showed that it is still there. I really worked hard for it though and slogged through the snow and over frozen rivers but despite chalking up 6km I failed. I did get excited though when I heard woodpecker tapping. I got the camera ready and quietly walked towards the noise and found a Black Woodpecker… normally I would be quite happy with that but today it felt like an anti-climax.

All the walking was not in vain though as a sweep over the fjord ice revealed the Glaucous Gull in flight. A 1km walk over the snow covered ice and I got to within photo range of the bird. There were several people ice fishing here and last weekend the gull was attracted to fish remains from the fishermen. It and a few Herring Gulls were obviously hoping for some tit bits today but received none whilst I was there although if I’d had some food to throw at them then I’m sure I would have had the bird at point blank range. As it was I got only half decent photos.

The continued wintery conditions are pretty annoying when it comes to birding as I can’t wait for spring migration to start. The upside though is that when it finally does start thawing in a few weeks (?) then we could get quite a rush of birds and some very concentrated and exciting birding – ever the optimist J

2cy Glaucous Gull (polarmåke) with Herring Gulls (gråmåke)

a female Black Woodpecker (svartspett)

fresh evidence of the White-back

Linnesstranda is a very reliable place for Marsh Tit (løvmeis)