Thank you Kjetil!!!

Alternate title: Maridalen outshines itself!

At 1345 I received a call from Kjetil Johannessen. He was watching a Red Kite in Sørkedalen which was drifting off to the north east, i.e direction Maridalen (the next valley and 8km away). Well there was no question: in the car and drive, drive, drive.

On coming into Maridalen I immediately saw a large raptor down towards the water. Stopping the car it turned out to be an Osprey. Continuing to the church ruins which gives the best view of the valley I was in place at 1400. I scanned the whole valley and then concentred on the ridge to the south west. A large raptor coming straight towards me! Scope up – another Osprey, but I may aswell look at it. What’s that behind it? RED KITE!! It kept coming towards me and at 1409 it flew pretty much straight over my head. The light was very bad for taking picture of raptors against a cloudy sky but I fired off 70 shots and managed some acceptable photos.

Red Kite has been my target species over the last few days due to the easterly winds and time of the year so it was great to get the bird: a Maridalen and Norwegian tick. A slight shame I didn’t find it myself but a huge thanks to Kjetil for calling me.

Red Kite - Maridalen and Norwegian tick!

Earlier in the day I had checked out Snekkervika and Svellet in Nordre Øyeren with a pair of Gadwall and Pintail for my troubles. Curlew numbers had fallen to 209 but with 500 Black-headed Gulls there was still a lot of birds to see.