Rain

It has rained heavily all day today meaning no TOVE survey for me. I saw that in Østfold and Buskerud that the rain has caused the arrival of a few waders. Some for example Little Stint (dvergsnipe), Curlew Sandpiper (tundrasnipe) and Broad-billed Sandpiper (fjellmyrløper) are still on their way north but a Spotted Redshank (sotsnipe) may well have already been heading south. I therefore thought that a trip to Maridalen would be worthwhile and sure enough there was one bird that had been forced down by the rain: a female Common Scoter (svartand) which is a classic bird to arrive in such weather conditions.

One of the two late nesting Lapwings showed herself with three small youngsters which was nice to see and gives continued hope for the small and fragile nesting population in the valley although we’ll have to hope that they stay clear of the many cats that wander the fields at night.

I had a quick trip to Maridalen last night but had no nocturnal singers to show for it even though two Marsh Warblers (myrsanger) had been reported the night before, I did hear Tawny Owls (kattugle) at two locations though.

A tempting trip tonight will be to a location about half an hours drive away where in a very small area there are 2 Grasshopper Warblers (gresshoppesanger), 1 River Warbler (elvesanger), 1 Blyth’s Reed Warbler (busksanger) and 1 Marsh Warbler singing.

I wrote the above earlier and forgot to post. I went out to listen for the warblers. I arrived at 21:20 expecting that with so many birds in such a small area that they would already be singing there hearts out. Well a Marsh Warbler sang half-heartedly until about 22:00 and at 22:00 the River Warbler sang for 3 seconds. It wasn't until 22:20 that the River Warbler began to sing at full blast. A Grasshopper Warbler began at 22:30 and the second at 22:40 but by the time I left at 23:00 the Blyth's Reed hadn't started and the Marsh didn't sing again. The birds were unfortunately a bit distant and there was some wind so I wasn't able to make any recordings of the song. The two Grasshopper Warbler sang very differently and the possibility that one of them could be something rarer has crossed my mind. Andreas Gullberg took a recording last night though and believes it not to be something rarer....