Wet but productive in The Dale

The day turned out a lot wetter than my interpretation of the weather forecast suggested but such days can often be far more productive than hot sunny days. I only gave Maridalen a brief visit but there was plenty of action with singing Marsh Warblers, Icterine Warblers, Common Rosefinch, Cuckoo, Wood Warbler, feeding Cranes and Whooper Swans and a couple of female Red-backed Shrikes.

The two female shrikes were together and there was no male to see in the area. I find the pair formation of Red-backed Shrikes a bit of a mystery. I have only ever heard males singing once before (that I can remember) and that was when there were two males in the same area (no female noted) and when I have previously played the song to a pair to see what reaction they would give they have completely ignored it. I have therefore assumed that the majority of Red-backed Shrikes are already paired up when they arrive in Norway. Seeing two females together though obviously meant they were not paired up and I chose to play song to them to see what their reaction would be. It got the attention of both birds and one of them came close and moved her body in a way to suggest that she was very interested. I stopped the playback quite quickly but what I saw did at least suggest that an umated male would do well to sing.

Tonight, I will hopefully be watching lekking Great Snipe 😊

singing Marsh Warbler (myrsanger)

female Red-backed Shrike (tornskate) - the one who was very interested in playback of song

the other female. Both these birds look to be younger females

singing Common Rosefinch (rosenfink)

male Whinchat (buskskvett)

Wood Warbler (bøksanger)

this fox received a lot of unwanted attention from Fieldfares (gråtrost)