The morning after....the day before

After posting on the blog and recording my observations on the national reporting system last night there was little time left for sleep especially as I planned to wake up at dawn to check out Maridalsvannet before breakfast. I awoke a bit later than planned and very tired but was on the patch at 0640. The flock of geese from yesterday afternoon had roosted on the lake and were in a tight ball. They started flying off north just after I arrived and there were ca.800 Pink-feet (kortnebbgås) and 88 Greylags (grågås) which was a few more than we saw yesterday. I managed to read two neck collars on the Pink-feet which I had seen yesterday but at too long range. The birds were H25 and S22 and from the geese.org website I see that birds were both ringed on 02.08.2012 in Svalbard (the breeding grounds for this population) and have been seen on migration in mid Norway and wintering in Denmark.

After breakfast I was back in Maridalen until lunch and had some nice migration. Pink-feets started migrating again from 1012 and were presumably birds direct from Denmark. I had 4 flocks totalling 376 birds. Four Sparrowhawks (spurvehauk) also migrated north but the larger raptor migration that I hoped for (the weather improved during the morning and the sun came out) did not materialse although it could have occurred during the afternoon. I also had singles of Buzzard (musvåk), Goshawk (hønsehauk) and Kestrel (tårnfalk) but these were not actively migrating. On the lake were the pair of Red-breasted Mergansers (siland) still, 3 Black-throated Divers (storlom) and a single Red-throated Diver (smålom) plus 5 Curlew (storspove) resting on an island which attempted to migrate north but turned round and returned to sleep on the island. Apart from Lapwings (vipe) the only other wader I had was my first two Green Sandpipers (skogsnipe) for the year which migrated north.

With falling rain there were far fewer passerines on the fields although a few Bramblings (bjørkefink) made themselves known amongst the Chaffinches (bokfink)and overhead there were Fieldfares (gråtrost) and Chaffinches heading north. A (yesterdays?) Lapland Bunting (lappspurv) flew over calling with some Reed Buntings (sivspurv) and looked like it was making a local flight so may reappear in the area. And finally a Chiffchaff (gransanger) was feeding and calling in sallows but wasn’t quite brave enough to sing yet.

male Brambling (bjørkefink) still coming into summer plumage

Chiffchaff (gransanger)

this picture wasn't planned..

this drone was being flown by a couple of guys half a kilometre away and buzzed me rather annoyingly

male Great Spotted Woodpecker (flaggspett)

female Kestrel (tårnfalk) ripping into an unidentified prey item

ca.800 Pink-footed and a few Greylag Geese in a tight ball - certainly doesn't look like so many

on their way north. The two neck collared birds are in the top row just left of centre