Sunday 5 June 2016

A cold and disappointng nocturnal wadering

Before I can finish my Hedmark instalments I have another "nightsinger" tour to report on. Per Christian and I had planned a trip last night and then called it off during the afternoon when we thought there was going to be too much wind before being back on again at 9pm when we saw the wind was looking OK. In the end though temperatures where we were in Aurskog-Høland fell as low as 7C (although were 14C in Oslo when we returned) and this probably contributed to the very little activity we had. We had no Corncrakes, Quail, Long-eared Owl or Nightjar although Marsh Warblers though were numerous.
We started at a site where people have reported anything between 1 Blyth's Reed and up to 2 Blyth's Reed and 2 Marsh Warblers all on the same night. We had 2 warblers singing as soon as we got out of the car and there was such a difference in their songs that we immediately thought Blyth's Reed and Marsh. However, after a lot of questioning and listening to other warblers during the night it became clear(er) that we hadn't heard a Blyth's Reed and had actually heard a rich Marsh Warbler singing alongside a very poor (plain) Marsh Warbler.

We heard Marsh Warblers singing at 5 locations in total including 4 along one stream.

At Hellesjøvannet we had quite a cacophony of sound with Marsh, Reed and Sedge Warbler singing alongside a very active Water Rail. The Water Rail was singing, for us, an atypical song and when we initially heard it from over a kilometre away we were completely unsure as to what it was.


This video does not have the best sound quality and works best with a loudspeaker. Any comments on the warbler at Torp would be appreciated.
 
 





 

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