Østfold

A trip to Østfold today didn't quite deliver as planned. The plan was for 2BC (båndkorsnebb), Dick's Pipit (tartarpiplerke), Stonechat (svartstrupe) or Black Redstart (svartrødstjert) or at least one of them.
The outcome was Bearded Tit (skjeggmeis) and Long-tailed Tit (stjertmeis). The Beardies were in the reeds at Sorgenfrigropa but the light was too bad for any meaningful photos even though they were close. The Long-tails were very inquisitive (both these species respond to playback) but were always moving which combined with poor light meant the resulting pictures were not as good as I had hoped and at times I had to zoom out to avoid cutting off half the tail.

We checked out the car park in Fredrikstad twice for 2BC and in between visited a few sites in Hvaler. There really was little to see though and the only interesting passerines were a couple each of Meadow Pipit (heipiplerke) and Skylark (sanglerke) which are beginning to be a bit late. A few Rock Pipits (skjærpiplerke) on the other hand were just settling in for the winter.

Looking over to Åkerøya island from Vikerkilen a pale lump on top of a pile of rocks got me going. The distance was far too far but I was encouraged by two crows that were sat about 20m away and seemed very agitated. I waited and waited for the lump to move but in the end had to accept that the lump was inanimate when one of the crows landed on it!

A few pictures of the Long-tailed Tits - they weren't so bad afterall

Long-tailed Tit (stjertmeis)

"what you lookin' at?"

Wren (gjerdesmett) - it is nice to see that this species is making a real come back after suffering terrbily in the cold winters of 2-3 years ago