Willow Warblers

The youngest also wanted to see Beaver this evening but bedtime meant unfortunately meant we were not able to be there late enough so no mammal sightings today. Did pick and eat our first wild strawberries of the year, saw Willow Warblers (løvsanger) taking food to young, the Wrynecks (vendehals) going into the nest, Swallows (låvesvale) flying into their nest under the bridge with food and leaving with poo sacks which they just dropped into the river and Spotted Flycatchers (gråfluesnapper) making sorties out over the river.

The ornithological highlight was a singing Marsh Warbler (myrsanger) but it really had me going for a minute. It was singing on the edge of a wood and 5 metres up a tree. Marsh Warblers aren't supposed to do this! This is where you find Blyth's Reed (busksanger) and finding one in Maridalen has been top of my wish list for the last month! But I had to accept it was just an out of habitat Marsh - maybe this is even rarer than a Blyth's ;-) This bird was singing 250metres from where one has been singing in more typical habitat for a week and could very well have been this bird moving around a bit.

Here are both the hard working Willow Warbler parents

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Willow Warbler