I'm wadering in the rain

A trip today to Årnestangen coincided with a lot of unforecast rain which really made my day! Because we all know that rain means waders. It rained quite hard and for a long time and I was forced to seek cover behind the wall of the (less than 1 metre high…) viewing platform facing into the wind. After about 20 minutes when the rain had died down a bit I got up and the number of waders had tripled and all without me having heard anything arrive. I had 20 species in total with the highlights being 2 Turnstone, 19 Knot, 4 Barwits, 4 Grey Plover, singles of Curlew Sand and Spotted Redshank and 2 Temminck’s Stints. Numbers were provided by 60 Golden Plover and 4 Ringed Plover. One has to be quick after these arrivals as many of the birds don’t stay long and sure enough many (including most of the exciting species) flew off as soon as the rain stopped. I absolutely love these days and there is a real excitement as you rush to try to see everything that is out there before they potentially disappear.

There were 16 Knot (polarsnipe) present when I arrived of which just one was an adult. 3 more arrived during the rain including another adult but they did not join the other birds

Spotted Redshank (sotsnipe) call quite a lot and are easy to pick out

one of two Turnstone (steinvender). I am unsure as to whether this is an adult already moulted to winter plumage or a young bird

these 4 Bar-tailed Godwits (lappspove) dropped in but quickly disappeared

there are still 2 Great White Egrets (egretthegre) in the area but I have yet to see them at close range

a trip to Fornebu yesterday gave this female Brown Hairstreak (slåpetornstjertvinge). Today I also had what looked like a male of this red listed species fly past me close to the house and then be hit by a car and seemingly disappeared