Thursday 11 April 2019

Snow Buntings


No noticeable change in the bird life today although I did enjoy 3 Snow Buntings on one of the last snow decked fields in Maridalen but these could well have been around for a while. There was less wind today which I hoped would produce some raptor movement but I hoped in vain.

Snow Bunting (snøspurv)





buntings have a very specially shaped lower mandible

The Crane (trane) pair remains faithful to the same field

note the different eye colour which according to BWP is independent of age or sex


a visit to ØStensjøvannet revealed displaying Great Crested Grebes (toppdykker)




Black-headed Gulls (hettemåke) are back on their breeding islands but there are not that many (yet) 
a Canada x Greylag Goose hybrid


Moorhen (sivhøne)

the regularly returning overwintering female Pintail (stjertand) which will presumably be moving on soon (it has been noted pairing with male Mallards) 
male Tufted Duck (toppand). 2 days a bird was photographed here with a "nasal saddle" that I have tracked down to Nantes, France but I could not find it today





1 comment:

  1. Nice photos as always. Once I saw a crane with white eyes, and another time an almost completely white crane (not albino). Nature's little wonders.

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