Wednesday 12 September 2018

New Great White Egret

Today and yesterday have seen me again at Årnestangen so I have had three trips in as many days, 6 trips so far in September and 13 since 20th August so I definitely think that I deserve points for effort!

Yesterday I was with Anders BS and we got really, really wet. We did not get the true reward that we deserved although a Bar-headed Goose (despite its plasticness) was a nice bird. Today the rain had stopped although the fresh southerly wind continues. It was very birdy with Meadow Mipits and finches in the air and raptors were also flexing their wings. Highlight though was a Great White Egret. The last sighting had been on 1 September and I felt therefore there was a good chance this bird was new and my photos show it to be moulting primaries on both wings whereas EdnaMosand’s excellent pictures of the previous bird show it to have a hand full of nice fresh feathers. It does however look like it may well be the same as a bird seen west of Oslo three days ago. I had the egret only 15 minutes after leaving the car so felt that things would be good. Ospreys including a youngster still begging for food, a brown Cuckoo (also seen yesterday), a male Marsh Harrier and repeated and often close views of a 1cy male Hen Harrier were all very satisfying and I used an hour and half to get out to the tip. Here the light wasn’t so good (too much sun) but there were clearly lots of waders still present. But amongst 175 Dunlins I could only find a single Little Stint and 30 Ringed Plovers.

I discovered the Great White Egret (egretthegre) flying in from the south


before it landed and showed briefly before moving behind a bank and out of sight

Hen Harrier (myrhauk) being mobbed by three crows

this bird can be aged as a 1cy due to the very fresh plumage and as a male by the pale eye plus it was a small bird 




a brown phase Cuckoo (gjøk)

a larger predator

Wheatear (steinskvett)

Bar-headed Goose (stripegås) with Greylag. In Norway the species is still considered as Category E (escapes) although the birds we see here are most likely from the dutch feral population and the annual records show that they are developing a clear migration route

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