Great Snipe

A visit to the Great Snipe lek last night revealed more activity than before with at least 7 birds. It was a lighter night than Saturday which I hoped would result in better photos but the birds didn’t start displaying until half an hour later with the first song heard at 2335 and it was after midnight that max activity started. My photos bear the evidence of this with most being blurred. I could try to claim this was all part of a plan to take stylish arty photos but that was not the case at all. I did have some good opportunities with close birds but in the poor light I often had to switch to manual focusing and then didn’t quite get it right.

On Valdresflya it looks as though the Long-tailed Skuas have moved on which isn’t surprising given the lack of lemmings so it was therefore a surprise to see a Rough-legged Buzzard although a Golden Eagle would have been looking for something larger like Ptarmigan or hares. On the pond where I had three Scaup on Tuesday there was now just a male and the females are probably off laying eggs (would he have mated with both females?). I also had a couple of female Common Scoters that were probably looking for nest sites.

Great Snipe (dobbeltbekkasin) at 00:06

and now for blurred or should I say arty....

me and the lek. This picture makes it look darker than it actually was

a female Common Scoter (svartand)

and another. This is a scarce breeding bird in Southern Norway

a young Golden Eagle (kongeørn)

and the male Scaup (bergand) who is now on his own with the females hopefully nesting