Easter birding II

Easter birding has been limited to short pre breakfast outings plus trips with the family to places that other family members have suggested but which have proven to be good choices!

It snowed on Sunday night turning Maridalen white but this did not result in hordes of hungry birds on the fields. Birds are arriving though. Eight Curlews on Saturday morning had risen to fourteen on Sunday morning and it looks like this species sprig passage is at its peak – I had 283 at Svellet yesterday and this morning Stig Helge had a staggering 476 which looks to be a record count of what is a declining and red listed species. With the Curlews yesterday were five Bar-tailed Godwits none of which was in red plumage so either all were females or perhaps still in winter plumage.

Svellet is just mud with the river running in a deep channel and if there is no rain or rise in the water levels risks drying to sand and losing a lot of its appeal – it is currently too dry for ducks with no Teal present.

In Maridalen three Red-throated Divers were displaying and six Black-throated Divers were keeping quiet and just feeding.

On Saturday a family outing to Fornebu resulted in a Black Redstart and today’s visit to the Resistance Museum at the Akershus Fort in Oslo gave a female type Pied Wagtail!

Maridalen before breakfast Monday morning

Black Redstart (svartrødstjert) at Fornebu on Sunday. I'm a bit unsure as to whether this is a female or young male although believe a young male should have black tones especially on the head

Bar-tailed Godwits (lappspove) with Curlews (storspove) at Svellet 

Curlews and Black-headed Gulls (hettemåke) at Svellet

a view over the extencie mudbanks south of Årnestangen where two White-tailed Eagles (havørn) were again to be seen - yet another year without breeding

On Sunday morning two distant displaying Black Grouse (orrfugl) were visible and audible in Maridalen 

#2

Black-throated Diver (storlom) on Maridalsvannet 

fox in Maridalen

my first frog spawn of the year in a frozen puddle

14 Curlew in Maridalen. They flew around calling and even singing a few times before returning to an island in the lake

male Eider off the Opera in Oslo today

two Green Sandpipers (skogsnipe) resting on the last ice on Maridalsvannet

Three Red-throated Divers (smålom) displaying on Maridalsvannet - the first record here this year

one of two Ring Ouzels (ringtrost) in Maridalen this morning

ducks numbers are slowly increasing on Maridalsvannet. In addition to these 8 Tufted Ducks (toppand) were Mallard, Teal, Goldeneye, Goosander and a single male Common Scoter 

female Pied Wagtail (svartryggerle) in Oslo centre today.iWhen not in adult male plumage it is perhaps diffcult to eliminate a hybrid or intergrade with White Wagtail but the flanks are very dark and the upperparts were noticeably darker than a nearby White Wag

in this exposure it looks a bit less dark but still much darker back and flanks than a White

this video grab shows the rump to be pretty black