Raptors

Not unsurprisingly yesterday's goodies had moved on from Svellet and had not even been replaced by a scarce migrant like a Little Gull (dvergmåke) or Black Tern (svartterne) so I didn't extend my early morning visit there any longer than necessary. Water levels are so high now that a single Greenshank (gluttsnipe) was the only wader. How quickly things change!

With almost no wind and scattered clouds today looked like it could be good for raptors so I headed south east towards Hellesjøvannet which has proven to be good for raptors before. It took a while for the raptors to show but from 11:00 to 12:00 I had 4 Honey Buzzards vepsevåk) heading north - 3 of which followed exactly the same line at 10 minute intervals, at least 5 Hobbies (lerkefalk), 6 Buzzards (musvåk), an Osprey (fiskeørn) and 2 male Marsh Harriers (sivhauk). One of the harriers was carrying nesting material at Hellesjøvannet and the other was at nearby Hemnessjøvannet and engaging in its sky dancing display flight but I didn't see any females. Apart from Cranes (trane) - presumably non breeding birds - feeding at a number of locations I didn't have much else.

In Maridalen i hoped to find the first Red-backed Shrike (tornskate) and Rosefinch (rosenfink) of the year but will have to wait a bit longer. Pleasing to see though was that the two pairs of Lapwing (vipe) that hadn't started breeding appear to be now sitting on eggs - the sprouting crops are now high enough to give the females the cover they needed.

one of many Cranes today

a Honey Buzzard - honestly

the young male Marsh Harrier at Hellesjøvannet that was carrying nest material

artistic?