Fornebu vs Falsterbo

Back amongst mortals and the grim reality of "Oslo Bird Observatory" I spent this morning at Fornebu with Julian Bell. There were actually a lot of birds around with Willow Warblers (løvsanger), Yellow (gulerle) and White Wagtails (linerle) and Meadow (heipiplerke) and Tree Pipits (trepiplerke) predominating. Scarcer birds were scarce( funnily enough) and the Red-backed Shrikes (tornskate) appear to have moved on to the next leg of their migration so highlights were Water Rail (vannrikse), Bar-tailed Godwit (lappspove) and Bluethroat (blåstrupe) all of which have been regular here recently.

Some excitement came in the form of a probable Red-throated Pipit (lappiplerke) heard calling but then disappearing before a certain ID could be made and also in the form of a gull. Only seen in flight as it gained height it was a juvenile gull with the largest and brightest pure white upper tail I have ever seen which even extended up the back which set off a solid black tail band. The head was fairly pale and the upperwings dark with a slightly paler window on the inner primaries. Caspian or perhaps Yellow-legged Gull would seem to have been the best candidates but this will have to go down as the one that got away.

A short stop in Maridalen revealed eight Whinchats (buskskvett)(there had been only one at Fornebu) plus a few pipits.