In hindsight it is difficult to believe how high my expectations for
today were. With southerly winds and rain from about 5am I was expecting a fall
of biblical proportions in the Oslo area. I was able to start fairly early at
Fornebu and quite quickly realised the folly of my thoughts. Despite the
weather seeming perfect (although perhaps too cold) there were clearly few if
any newly arrived birds. I did have a female Lapland Bunting (lappspurv) which
I discovered at close range but she flew off as I tried to improve on my
hopeless photo attempt from Maridalen earlier this year. A pair of Little
Ringed Plovers (dverglo) were the first recorded here this year and were
already in breeding modus and were angrily chasing off a Common Gull
(fiskemåke). I reckon that LRPs will continue to be able to breed at Fornebu
even as the development continues but reckon the Ringed Plover pair that is
attempting to breed will increasingly have problems. So far this year it looks
like things are going OK and one of the adults was engaging in its distraction
display as I went past suggesting the other adult was sitting on eggs nearby.
A Water Rail sang from the reedbed but despite being close by remained
invisible and a White-fronted Goose (tundrågås) that has been around for a week
showed well with Greylags although was clearly more wary than them. The small
amount of white around the bill and black belly bars suggest this is the same
bird as at Bygdøy and probably a 3rd cy.
Despite my disappointment at Fornebu I continued
into Maridalen still with high hopes – I was thinking Golden Plovers and
various other waders and ducks. Pairs of Common Scoter (svartand) and Tufted
Duck (toppand) on the lake plus a flyover Merlin were all that I could must up
though.
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| one of the LRPs |
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| Redshank (rødstilk) and Greenshank (gluttsnipe) at Fornebu |
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| White-fronted Goose (tundragås) |
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