Tour de Aurkog-Høland

It was a Tour de Aurskog-Høland today with new bins and camera (will have a separate post on this). The bins certainly met my expectations but the jury is out on the camera. I need time to understand how to get the best out of it. It was pretty murky today which I knew would not bring out the best in the kit but that said I was able to get acceptable record shots at greater ranges than with the bazooka. It is also incredibly nice having such a small and light camera!
There is a lot of flooding in the river valleys and although I found a few good birds today I have very high expectations for what the next two weeks will bring. All the rain that has caused the flooding has also caused the water to rise rather too much in Svellet and I fear that the spring migration will be ruined.

So what did I see? Teal numbers are starting to build up but not in huge numbers yet and 128 at Svellet was the largest. Scarcer ducks were 5 Gadwall (3 + 2), 3 Pintail and best of all a pair of Garganey. Cranes have also arrived in larger numbers and the largest group I had was of 70 birds. Whooper Swans have mostly moved and there were not too many geese although I did have a flock of 180 Pink-feet and a single White-fronted Goose.

Raptors were very scarce today with just 3 Buzzards and a single Kestrel. I had five species of wader with a single group of 16 Green Sandpipers. Passerines were also in low numbers. Finches and Meadow Pipits were just in small groups of single figures and there were no large flocks of thrushes although I did see my first Ring Ouzel of the year.

As I write this (16:30) news has just come through of a male Steller’s Eider close to Oslo which is an extreme rarity in Southern Norway - I’m now trying to work out how I can get to see it this evening…

my first Garganey (knekkand) of the year. These were resting presumably as a result f having only just arrived from southern climes whilst the Teal (krikkand) were actively feeding

and my first Ring Ouzel (ringtrost) of the year

a White-fronted Goose (tundragås) with Greylags

one of many Cranes (trane) today

some of the 58 Curlew (storspove) feeding on the remaining mudflats at Svellet

the flooding at Svellet - it should last a few weeks and make this a very exciting locality

these gull are just about visible in the above photo and this shot shows the possibilities with my new camera

I had a few Red-throated Divers (smålom) today and also a single Black-throated

an absolutely terrible picture of my first Akershus Wheatear (steinskvett) of the year but at a range of 250m it's surprisingly good

male Kestrel (tårnfalk) in Maridalen