Gropper

The weekend saw me very much in (an involuntary) non birding mode and I feared thay with a lot of rain initially forecast that a lot of good birds would be found that I would be unable to see. Luckily for me the rain and the birds did not come.

Today I started by twitching the one good bird that did turn up which was a singing Grasshopper Warbler at Fornebu. There look to have only been 3 previous records from Fornebu with the last in 2009 although breeding occurred in 2003. It is ironic that this bird turned up in the reedbed at Storøykilen after all the bushes have been cleared away because usually this species avoids pure reedbeds and instead likes the bushy edges (which are all gone now). I actually got to see it really well in the reeds and also videod it singing which was a good start to the day.

I then decided to head for Østensjøvannet in Ås where I hoped I would be able to find some raptors as this seemed the best tactic on a day when temperatures reached 24C (in Norway, in April!). Two hours gave me a single Marsh Harrier, early Hobby, Osprey and Kestrel which was at the lower end of expectations but still a result of some sort.

Grasshopper Warbler (gresshoppesanger)

here the bird is walking away in typical mouse like style

a photogenic Jackdaw (kaie)

cleaning its eye

male Marsh Harrier

4 White-fronted Geese (tundragås) which have been aroudn for a while now

the Beast was very interested by the scent of Beaver on this newly felled tree and then turned Beaver himself

before discovering this Adders for me