Thursday 6 May 2010

Twitching Norway style

Out of the house at 0710 on my way to Borrevannet near Horten, 1 hour south of Oslo. A male Montagu's Harrier and Great White Egret had been seen there yesterday and this seemed like a pretty good reason to visit a renowned locality that has never previously been graced by my presence.

When I arrived just after 8am there were three other birds present who could report that both birds had been seen earlier but not by them. Well fear not Oslo Birder is here! After about 20 minutes I saw the Egret in flight distantly and it then landed allowing telescope views. As it warmed up a couple of male Marsh Harriers started to fly around the reedbed and not long after at around 9am I picked up the Monties coming in from the other end of the lake. It did a fly by of the tower and then headed out to some fields which is quartered for a bit before returning towards us and then gaining great height before drifting west out of view.

Borrevannet is a great site being a shallow lake with large reedbeds set in low lying farmland close to the coast. In addition to the two rarities there were in total at least 3 Marsh Harriers, an Osprey, 3+ singing Thrush Nightingales, Yellow Wagtail, Marsh Tit and Wood Sandpiper. Later in the spring there are dozens of Thrush Nightingales here plus many Reed and Marsh Warblers.

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