Waders don't often hang around on the islands but with it being overcast last night and low cloud and drizzle this morning I had high hopes. In addition to yesterday's Little Stints and Knot I entertained the idea of Turnstone and Sanderling also turning up. It was quite exciting getting to the bay at Gressholmen but the excitement soon turned to disappointment with just 4 Greenshank, 1 Redshank, 3 Common Sands, 5 Ringed Plover and 2 Dunlin present. Three herons and an Osprey perched in trees were a little exotic. Gressholmen does have more wader habitat than just the large bay and an offshore rock held another 4 Dunlin and 3 Knot. YES, happy boy - my 215th Oslo species!
Passerines were for some reason very scarce with no chats or the like.
Taking the boat to Nakkholmen I saw there were some waders roosting on a rock just offshore and soon found myself looking at another 7 Knot and 2 Dunlin. Just as I was getting some good pics a canoeist appeared and went right up to them and spooked them – the smile he had from a close encounter of the natural kind quickly vanished when he noticed me and my camera and he paddled off embarrassed. They flew over to nearby Galteskjær where there were also 3 Ringed Plover.
A rock off Lindøya held another 7 Ringed Plover and 3 Dunlin and nearly two hours later (after having missed the boat) another 2 Knot were on the rock which had earlier held 7 whilst the 7 were still on Galteskjær but had now increased to 9!! So an absolute minimum of 11 (seen together) but the 3 on Gressholmen may have been additional and the 7 and 9 were not necessarily the same. But even the minimum number of 11 meant that I had seen nearly as many individual Knots as had EVER previously been recorded in Oslo!!!
Nakkholmen held a few more passerines including 4 species of warbler but nothing too dramatic.
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| The two Knot (polarsnipe) that I saw on Nakkholmen. All the Knot I saw today were juveniles |
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| 7 Knot and 2 Dunlin (myrsnipe) on the same rock on Nakkholmen nearly 2 hours earlier |
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| still lots of flowers |
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| the birds suddenly took flight and I thought it was this fisherman but it turned out to be a canoeist who paddled between me and the birds |
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| My very first Oslo Knot at Gressholmen here with a couple of Dunlin |
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| the last Knot of the day - 9 birds on Galteskjær |
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| Galteskjær as seen from Nakkholmen with Oslo and a large cruise ship in the background. This rock also held 3 Ringed Plover, a Dunlin and is a breeding site fr Lesser Blac-backed Gulls. The Cormorant you see do not yet breed in the Oslo area but it is probably just a matter of time |
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| an obliging Greenshank (gluttsnipe) |
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| Greenshank and Redshank (rødstilk) |
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| 4 adult and a juv Ringed Plover (sandlo) and 2 juv Dunlin |
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| a juv Shelduck (gravand) with 3 Eider |
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| not often I try to take pictures of Hooded Crow (kråke) but this one sat obligingly |
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| I think he was trying to tell me something |
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