Guiding and lots of new species

I was guiding again this morning and today's destination was the one and only Maridalen where we used the morning to get to know the birds of the Dale better. The hot weather continued and with it there are few concentrations of birds but rain is forcast for Sunday and overcast conditions next week which might cause a big change in the  bird scene.

Today though did not disappoint. We had good views of a number of species including Pied Flycatcher, Long-tailed Tit, Wryneck, Teal, Red-throated Diver, House Martin, Willow Warbler, Tree Pipit and  Skylark. An Oystercatcher on the lake was a real patch rarity and there were also Greenshank, Green Sand and Snipe. A very enjoyable morning.

After guiding I headed off for a quick walk around Fornebu and had a lot more species than I expected. A Brent Goose that has been around a couple of days was easy to find with the local Barnacle Geese but I didn't expect to see (or hear) Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Whimbrel and Common Redstart. The Redstart was a male and in exactly the same spot as the female Black Redstart I had a couple of weeks ago - clearly a good start point!

My only raptor of the day was an unusual Common Buzzard over Fornebu and I was very disappointed it wasn't something rarer.

Here are some pictures from today in no particular order. Most are from Fornebu where I had the camera out whereas when guiding in Maridalen photography was not a priority.

male Blackcap (munk) 

Barnacle Geese (hvitkinngås) with a Brent Goose (ringgås) in the background

The Brent Goose 

the white edges to one of the coverts show this to be a 2cy bird and is most likely the same bird seen around Oslo earlier in the spring 

the days only raptor - this Common Buzzard (musvåk) was escorted away from Fornebu by the local crows 

Lesser Whitethroat (møller) 

first Pied Fly (svarthvit 'snapper) of the year

a pair of Red-throated Divers (smålom) were making a lot of noise as they flew over Maridalen

Small Tortoiseshell (neslesommerfugl) and bee

Song Thrush (måltrost)

Toad (padde)

a pair of Wheatears (steinskvett) having an argument  

Wryneck (vendehals)