Kurefjorden still holding waders

A good mornings birding at Kurefjorden was what the doctor ordered. On the way down I drove through some rain showers and started to get very excited that there could be an arrival of new waders. That was wishful thinking but there was still a lot to see.

A recently harvested field by the access track down to Rosnesbukta was alive with pipits and amongst 300 or so Meadow Pipits (heipiplerke) in the area were also at least one Red-throated (lappiplerke) and a handful of Tree Pipits (trepiplerke). I at one point had a couple of Tree Pipits perched on wires amongst Meadow Pipits which gave a good chance to compare them and see the difference in hind claw length: Tree has a shorter hind claw than Meadow.

There were lots of waders in the bay with 105 Dunlin (myrsnipe) and 101 Ringed Plover (sandlo). For once (genuine) Black-tailed Godwits (svarthalespove) outnumbered Bar-tailed Godwit (lappspove) with two of the former and only one of the later although there were another two Barwits later in Nordre Ovnbukt. Both the Blackwits were juveniles and the well patterned tertials showed them to be of the islandica race. Numbers of Ruff are falling with only 9 left and the only calidris of note was a single Little Stint. Along the reed fringed stream that drains into the bay the Water Rail (vannrikse) was again showing well and a single Bluethroat (blåstrupe) kept popping out of the base of the reeds.

Raptors were surprisingly scarce with just a Sparrowhawk that was hunting the pipits and a juvenile Marsh Harrier inland quartering the fields.

juvenile Marsh Harrier (sivhauk)