Returning waders

Finally some real birding. Kurefjorden was the destination and as I drove down to Rosnesbukta the turf fields at Roer had a good selection of resting waders with 120 Golden Plovers (heilo), 10 Ruff (brushane), 22 Curlew (storspove) and a Snipe (enkeltbekkasin). Also here a calling Marsh Warbler (myrsanger) which showed well and an overflying Goshawk (hønsehauk) which put up all the waders.

A typical mystery bird photo. Obscured by plants and an out of focus wire fence you can still just about identify this as a Marsh Warbler

9 Ruff - in a variety of plumages and sizes

 

It was high tide in Kurefjorden and the waders were nicely concentrated in Rosnesbukta. 16 species was a very good showing with 2 Grey Plovers (tundralo), 2 Temminck’s Stints (temminckcnipe) and 2 Knot (polarsnipe) the highlights and 56 Ringed Plover the most numerous. Juvenile waders are starting to move though now with juveniles of Knot, Ruff, Dunlin (myrsnipe) and Golden Plover (heilo). Also a hunting Peregrine (vandrefalk) and 2 young Red-backed Shrikes (tornskate). Many geese with over 600 Greylags (grågås) and 121 Barnacle (hvitkinngås). Amongst 300 odd Eiders (ærfugl) were 4 Slavonian Grebes (horndykker) and 37 Great Crested Grebes (toppdykker).

I drove to Gjølsjøen hoping that I would get to see the Bittern (rørdrum) which I heard back in May but which has been seen in flight recently a few times. I gave it two and a half hours but had no luck although heavy rain probably didn’t help. 3 Marsh Harriers (sivhauk) included two locally bred youngsters, a Hobby (lerkefalk) and 2 Cranes (trane) were highlights here.

By the time I got to Hellesjøvannet it was raining hard. A recently cut field held 18 Golden Plover, 11 Lapwing (vipe) and a Ruff and on the lake there were at least 12 Pochard (taffeland).

Continuing past Bjørkelangen around Haneborg there was a feeding flock of 43 Cranes which included some juveniles and also a few hundred hirundines (mostly Swallows) resting on wires until a Hobby shot through.

I dropped in at Langvannet near Lørenskog on the way back to look for the Iceland Gull (grønlandsmåke) plus the candidate Yellow-legged Gull (gulbeinmåke) that have been seen there recently but there were few gulls when I was there probably as it was getting towards dusk.