Too much promise

This weekend has been very disappointing on the bird front. Low cloud and precipitations have had Per Christian and me out both yesterday and today on pre-breakfast trips. Yesterday to Maridalen and today first at Fornebu (after a wall of fog initially met us in Maridalen) and then briefly in Maridalen at the end of our outing.

The problem really though is that regardless of the weather it is still just a bit too early in the season and I fall into this trap every year.  Come next weekend though and there will probably be lots of new birds regardless of the weather.

We had very little in the way of migration although a couple of Chiffchaffs were in Maridalen yesterday morning despite rain and temperatures only just over zero.

I also made a quick trip to Maridalen yesterday afternoon after having had a flock of Pink-footed Geese over the house. I expected that with the low cloud and rain that they might stop in Maridalen and sure enough there was a large flock of 450 resting on the ice. These birds were later recorded heading south so had obviously given up on the idea of migrating north for the day and were looking for a roost site. I also had a couple of Cranes in Maridalen later in the day.

I am currently limited to my old 70-300mm lens but it is not so bad.

450 or so Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgås) and a handful of Greylags resting on the ice at Maridalsvannet

a pair of Cranes (trane) are being seen regularly in Maridalen and are probably birds which will breed close by in Nordmarka (a very recent occurrence)