Close Cranes

I had very high expectations yesterday with rain forecast which I expected to bring down migrants and also make the fields much more suitable for thrushes. In the end the rain never came and there was just a bit of snow in the afternoon. It was a cold day with a north easterly wind and things never really took off.

The early morning dog walk at home revealed Redwing, Brambling and migrating Mistle Thrushes so I really thought there would be a lot in Maridalen but it just wasn’t so. The Black Redstart was still present and it sang which confirmed my suspicion that it was a young male. A Great Grey Shrike also showed very well but there was no migration to speak of. A message of a north flying Red Kite on the other side of the Oslo Fjord had me often checking the sky and resulted in me noting single Common and Rough-legged Buzzard.

A post lunch return to Maridalen revealed two low flying Cranes which amazingly first landed and fed on the fields at Kirkeby before flying out onto the ice and displaying. Presumably the same pair that was often seen in the valley last year it will be interesting to see if and where they maybreed this year. Lapwing numbers have increased to nine which is a good number and hopefully we will have a good breeding year.

In the end I managed quite a satisfying picture of the 2cy male Black Redstart (svartrødstjert)

it caught an enormous larva

which after a lot of banging on the ground it managed to swallow..

but it was a real struggle

Crane (trane) pair coming in for landing

this was the male I think which big plumes

feeding close to the road

displaying out on the lake

walking past some of the Lapwings

All nine of this years Lapwings on the ice

Great Grey Shrike (varlser) - an adult bird  and probably a male which such a dark bill

the shrike in typical pose