Woodpecker guiding

Yesterday morning I was guiding Paul from Oxford and woodpeckers were high on the list of desired species. These are never easy to find and out of the breeding season are especially difficult as I cannot just visit a nest. I considered that Great Spotted, Green, Black and Lesser Spotted would be possible and succeeded in finding three of these. The lack of Green was hardly a loss for an Englishman and Black and Lesser Spotted were definitely good birds. The Black flew low over our heads and then showed in a tree whilst the Lesser Spotted called a lot before finally giving itself up and showing well. Result!

Bird of the day was a Great Grey Shrike which Paul found hovering over a reedbed at Fornebu hunting Blue Tits!

I can also start my countdown to my annual autumn Værøy trip – 4 DAYS TO GO J

As usual when guiding I had my camera in my bag and was not focused on pictures but did manage to record some of the highlights

Great Grey Shrike (varlser)

male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett) doing an impression of a hummingbird

a late(ish) Greenshank (gluttsnipe).