Too much rain this time

A visit to Årnestangen was supposed to coincide with rain and indeed it did, and bang on time, but this time I chickened out when I saw the wall of rain coming towards me and beat a hasty retreat! The water level has risen since I was last there making the remaining exposed sand banks far less  attractive to waders and there was not too much to see. Indeed when I arrived I could only find a single Redshank but during the next two and a half hours a number of other waders suddenly appeared either as new arrivals or just that they moved to visible feeding grounds (there is unfortunately quite a lot of the area that is not visible from the viewing platform due to vegetation and angles). In the end I had 2 Knot, 2 Grey Plover, 1 Spotted Redshank, 2 Redshank, 2 Greenshank, 8 Ruff, 1 Whimbrel, 1 Golden Plover, 7 Ringed Pover, 5 Dunlin and a few Snipe flying over.

Duck numbers are building up with 600 Teal and the first Pochard of the autumn.

Raptors were also a bit more numerous with 2-3 juvenile Marsh Harriers, 4 Common Buzzard, 2 Sparrowhawk, 2 Osprey and singles of Kestrel, Hobby and Peregrine.

Grey Plover (tundralo) dropping out of the heavens 

the scene at Årnestangen: Cranes, sheep, Greenshank, Spotted Redshank and under the sheep some Ruff!

the approaching rain

hovering Kestrel (tårnfalk)

juvenile Marsh Harrier (sivhauk)