The waiting game

The cold weather is still holding back migration meaning that when the dam does burst…..

Maridalen today had seemingly great migration conditions with winds from the south and little cloud but it is just too cold still. However birds are arriving in dribs and drabs. Per B and I positioned ourselves by Nes farm in the morning and had some results to show for our efforts. Three other birds also dropped in and at one stage there were four of us together – time for the local newspaper to write an article on us strange people!

The trees around the farm buildings proved to be a major attraction for passerines. The springs first Mistle Thrush (duetrost) sat sunning itself for a long period, a male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett) and a couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers (flaggspett) found good trees in which to drum and 3 Hawfinches (kjernebiter), 3 Bramblings (bjørkefink) and 9 lichen eating Waxwings (sidensvans) hung around alongside other commoner finches, tits and Yellowhammers.

The first Mistle Thrush (duetrost) of the spring in Maridalen. It joins a few Blackbirds but there are no Fieldfares or Redwings yet. Ring Ouzels could arrive already next week if the dam does finally burst.

Viz mig was as yesterday slow going but we did have a couple of Sparrowhawks (spurvehauk), a Merlin (dvergfalk), a single Cormorant (storskarv) and a flock of 260 Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgås) heading north. In addition single Buzzard (musvåk), Goshawk (hønsehauk) and Sparrowhawk were in the area.

Further in in Maridalen I heard a drumming Three-toed Woodpecker at the same location as last Friday – I might be getting the hang of this :-)

Today's big bird. Both yesterday and today military helicopters were flying at tree top flight and today an F16 buzzed the area. Something we're not being told about?