Start Catcher

I answered one of my questions regarding the Three-toed Peckers today with their absence meaning that they were just birds moving around looking for either for a mate and/or a breeding territory. My time in Maridalen was not wasted though with my first Redstarts and Pied Flycatchers of the year including birds singing and on the edge of the still frozen lake my first Common Sandpiper. The ice is now in the process of breaking up and is drifting around a bit. Rain is forecast tomorrow which will hopefully mean the end of the ice and also a fall of birds although temperatures of only 2C and NE winds do not promise too much.

In the afternoon I had a group of all three hirundines together in Maridalen but they were moving rapidly around and I imagine not finding much food. A Wood Sandpiper also looked a bit forlorn.

my first Pied Fly (svarthvitfluesnapper) of the year - a male feeding on the sunny edge of a copse

and I later had this singing male

my first Common Redstart (rødstjert) of the year was this shy male and I later heard another bird singing

one of the breeding Whooper Swans (sangsvane)

and 2 of 5 migrant birds on the lake 

and the first Wood Sand (grønnstilk) of the year for Oslo