Pink-footed Goose day

Today was the big Pink-footed Goose migration day which is always one of, if not THE, highlight of spring. I wasn’t expecting it to be a special day but as I drove down to Bygdøy I saw a large flock at 08:50. Over the next 75 minutes I had over 40 flocks totaling 8150 birds and this was from a not particularly good watchpoint and I would have missed many flocks. I then thought I would go up to Maridalen where I would have a much better view of the sky but I knew that I would only see some of the migration as not all of it goes over Maridalen. I lost out on 20 minutes due to the drive but 3 hours in Maridalen gave only an extra 1360 birds so I think that the migration tailed off considerably. The wind which had been southerly had veered round to the west and become quite strong which resulted in some flocks heading due east and others turning round so the migration did almost certainly stop in the afternoon.

My 3 hours in Maridalen gave me a few other birds such as Meadow Pipit, Linnet and Brambling although only singles of each and 3 very distant Cranes but surprisingly little else. Lapwing numbers though have now increased to 7 which is heartening as I feared that the three that have been around the last week were going to be it.

skein of Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgjess)

this Pink-foot flew around calling and had clearly not been able to keep up with its companions due to the very poor state of its wings

Lapwing (vipe) action in a still snowy Maridalen