Still waiting

Passerine migration may have started but not in any big way. Overnight thunderstorms had me believing I would find lots of grounded migrants at Fornebu in a quick morning trip. Well a Yellow Wagtail (gulerle) was definitely a migrant but otherwise it was mostly breeding birds that I saw although a total of three juvenile Red-backed Shrikes (tornskate) may include birds that have bred elsewhere. One of the shrikes was being mobbed by an adult Marsh Warbler (myrsanger) that I also saw with food in its beak so must have had young nearby. The Marsh Warbler gave some good photo opportunities in which the claw colour can be seen which is a good if particularly difficult to see feature to separate from Reed Warbler (rørsanger).

adult Marsh Warbler (myrsanger). The pale claws are visible if you look closely - in the very similar Reed Warbler (rørsanger) these are usually dark

here the front of the head is wet rather than it being oiled

a comparatively short and blunt bill is also said to be a way of separating Marsh versus Reed Warbler but I wouldn't exactly describe this bill in that way

juvenile Red-backed Shrike (tornskate) in a floral setting