Blizzard

I’ve spent too much time in the car and staring at geese recently and my body was demanding some action so I chose a birding by bike day. The weather forecast had prepared me for a cold NW wind but I think the blizzard that drove snow into my face also deserved a mention, or am I just too wimpy?

The snow and wind concentrated the birds and there were the first flocks of thrushes in the fields. Not many but enough to make themselves known: 70 Fieldfare (gråtrost), 12 Mistle Thursh (duetrost), 2 Song Thrush (måltrost), 1 Redwing (rødvingetrost) and a handful of Blackbirds (svarttrost). A flock of 400 Chaffinches (bokfink) didn’t contain a single Brambling (bjørkefink).

The stubble field at Kirkeby held a flock of 60 Yellowhammers (gulspurv) and amongst them 3 Reed Buntings (sivspurv), a Snow Bunting (snøspurv) and 4 Skylarks (sanglerke). Hopefully a Lapland Bunting (lappspurv) will join them later in the spring.

Evidence that there is a second wave of Whooper Swan (sangsvane) migration came in the form of 10 birds on the lake, 9 of which flew off north. Lapwing (vipe) numbered 12 today: 10 on the fields at Skjerven looking sorry for themselves in the snow and a pair at Kirkeby who looked keen to establish a territory.

The only raptors today were two male Goshawks (hønsehauk) with one, an adult, chasing the other out of Maridalen – presumably the male from the breeding pair defending his territory.

No pictures worth showing today, so I’ll leave you with a video of a guy apparently called Simon Ricks (you just can’t get the staff these days) who is describing why Bjørn Olav Tveit makes him jealous – the bird that is shown at the end is the Lesser Kestrel (rødfalk) that Bjørn found last year and which I did indeed feel jealous about!