Ringed Plovers

Yet another trip to Bygdøy on the bus after work - maybe I need to change my blog to EcoBirder! A fresh westerly wind rather put a dampener on the birding and the only new species to add to those seen yesterday was a pair of Ringed Plovers feeding along the water’s edge on one of the flooded fields. The site continues to look very promising so we just need to hope that the water levels remain high and that we get some good migration in the next week or so. On the way home I stopped off at Smestaddammen which is a small lake surrounded by roads but which never-the-less proves attractive to birds especially in April when a small numbers of Goosanders stage here whilst waiting for the lakes in the forest to become ice free. There was only a small slither of open water but it held 8 Goosanders, 6 Tufted Ducks, a pair of Mute Swans and 8 Canada Geese. Also good numbers of Black-headed, Common and Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

This picture shows the scene Feeling the urge to find something good I managed a quick drive around Maridalen after dinner. Still lots of snow here with a minimal amount of bear ground showing. This hasn’t stopped the Lapwings though with 5 now back and one engaging in a display flight. Otherwise 5 pairs of Goldeneye on the opens patches of water on the lake. Also my first butterfly sightings of the year. After seeing a small reddish butterfly on wednesday (unable to identify on the brief views I had), on thursday I saw a Peacock plus another smaller species which was mostly likely one of the larger skippers.