Guiding Gold again – Greenish Warbler!

Guiding is proving to be good at turning up rare birds for me. This morning I was showing Pete from England the highlights of Maridalen. Hazel Grouse was top of the wish list so we headed straight for the site where I had them whilst guiding recently (without trying all the other seemingly empty territories). It is a good hike up to the site so when we didn’t find them to begin with I began to worry but there was nothing to worry about as after few minutes as a male flew in (on unusually silent wings) and perched nearly above Pete’s head. My view was obscured but when I did get a chance for a photo the camera wouldn’t focus which was to prove to be a problem later in the day.

Later in the day was when we were walking back to the car and a loud song close to us had us scratching our heads. My first suggestion was a Tree Pipit not quite in the swing of things but just before I glimpsed the bird I remembered the song – GREENISH WARBLER!! What had I predicted only a few days ago??

It showed really well but taking photos proved a real challenge with the camera either not focusing or when it did focus then it wouldn’t take a shot. In the end though there were a couple of record shots and I recorded the song.

Greenish Warbler is a national rarity and this was the first record in the country this year.

We didn’t spend a long time with the bird as we had more ground to cover but the bird was well watched by others later and it is possible there is more than one singing male in the area.

The rest of Maridalen did of course also deliver and we had Goshawk including close views of an adult male, ridiculously good views of a male Black Woodpecker, Common Rosefinch plus the usual selection of flycatchers and warblers.

singing Greenish Warbler (østsanger) 

male Black Woodpecker (svartspett)

male Common Rosefinch (rosenfink)