Late June guiding

I have been guiding the last two days. Firstly, Donna and Doug from Californian and today Steve and Ann from Blighty.

Wehave visited Fornebu, Østensjøvannet and Maridalen and we have seen a lot of birds with many species feeding young either in the nest or newly fledged. At Fornebu I discovered a pair of Thrush Nightingales bringing food to a nest. They were very close to a path and it was their alarm calling that alerted me to them. I did not recognise the call and the closest I could come was young owls but after a bit of searching found one and then both Thrush Nightingales with food in their beaks. The views were great but it was a bit gloomy so pictures do not do justice. We also had Ringed Plovers, Wheatears, Whitethroats, Skylarks and Willow Warblers all with fledged young and Marsh Warblers singing. 4 Lapwings were early autumn migrants although hopefully not failed breeders.

At Østensjøvannet we had a great show from Great Crested Grebes with two adults swimming under the bridge we were standing on and being visible under water.

In Maridalen Goshawk, flycatchers, Black-throated Diver, Iccy, Rosefinch and Red-backed Shrike all showed well.

In total over the two days we had around 80 species.

Thrush Nightingale (nattergal) with food for young

in many species the yellow at the base of the bill would be a sign of a juvenile bird but not in this species

telling Thrush and Common Nightingales apart is not easy on either song or plumage but a good photo shows that P1 is very short thus confirming Thrush...

Thrush Nightingale video - most interesting for the calls

great feet on a Great Crested Grebe (toppdykker)

swims like a frog

Great Crested Grebe swimming under water (video from a series of stills)

juvenile Magpie (skjære)

juvenile Ringed Plover (sandlo)

adult Skylark (sanglerke)

another Skylark

adult female Wheatear (steinskvett) who had fledged young nearby

juvenile Whitethroat (tornsanger)

more juv Whitethroats

and even more

and the whole brood of seven in this picture although there may have been one more

juvenile Willow Warbler (løvsanger)

one of the male Red-backed Shrikes in Maridalen. We also saw the other catching a dragonfly in flight

this male Yellowhammer (gulsurv) had also caught a dragonfly although I am not sure of what type

Roe Deer mum and two youngsters

male Common Rosefinch. The area where I believe they had their nest has been "cleaned up" since yesterday afternoon and all vegetation and saplings cut down. Who and why I do not know

Black-throated Divers nest from last week

And the sound of a singing Quail in Maridalen that I popped out to hopefully see but as usual failed to on Tuesday evening after Per Christian had found it on Monday night (although it could well be the same bird first heard elsewhere in the Dale by Halvard H a couple of weeks ago)