New birds from no where

Today didn’t feel like a special day but with 8 new species for the year it clearly was good! Anders and I headed to Nordre Øyeren and visited Svellet, Merkja, Tuentangen and Snekkervika. It never felt like there was any avian activity with the high pressure still ruining things but there were birds here and there and my year ticks were: Greenshank, Common Sandpiper, Jack Snipe, Little Ringed Plover, Whinchat, Redstart, Willow Warbler and Swallow. We also had 10 species of wader which is a sign of things to come. In addition to the 4 mentioned above we had Golden Plover, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Snipe, Lapwing and Green Sandpiper. Svellet is looking very promising but needs some rain and a slight increase in water levels as it is very dry at the moment and there were only 11 Curlew. The whole of Snekkervika was dry to beyond the end of Årnetangen and with heat haze it was hopeless to see what was out there. Raptors disappointed as we had hoped for some harriers and we only saw upto 6 different Kestrels, 4 Buzzards, 2 Sparrowhawk and an Osprey.

There were 400 Teal on Merkja but a pair of Pintail was the only interest among them although we did find a male Garganey at Tuentangen alongside just 10 Teal.

Luckily there were not too many photos to go through today (it’s much quicker that way..)

male Garganey (knekkand)

male Whinchat (buskskvett)

male Redstart (rødstjert)

Queen of Spain Fritillary (sølvkåpe). This is my first early spring record of a species that is rapidly increasing in Norway and used to be more of a summer migrant

Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin)

Green-veined White (rapssommerfugl)

Little Ringed Plover (dverglo)

Svellet with two Greenshank (gluttsnipe)