Water levels

Yesterday I took a morning bike trip around Maridalen. The water level had fallen noticeably since Monday but despite there being more mud exposed there were fewer waders than yesterday although there were 5 Wood Sandpipers and a flock of 7 Teal were clearly migrants in addition to the single male that has been around for a while. On the way back along Akerselva a Wood Warbler was singing from the usual spot above Nydalen and a Common Sandpiper was also on the river - it will be interesting to see if they stay to breed after teh chlorine polution earlier this spring which has killed off nearly all insect life in the river.

It was around this date last year that Svellet in Nordre Øyeren held many hundreds of Greenshank and Wood Sandpipers. I thought it will be worth a visit although I feared that the water levels would still be high. And indeed they were so high that there was no mud exposed. It is a scandal that the water levels are not lowered each spring as this site is so important for migrating waterfowl. The only bird of note was a summer plumaged Slavonian Grebe that was holding to the grassy edges - thinking of breeding?