Life in The Dale

After the excitement of Elvis (who does seem to have left the building again) it seems just wrong to talk about Life in The Dale but life does go on.

Before today there had not been too much since I last posted but the first Green Sandpiper turned up on Thursday and diver numbers have increased to 3 Red-throated and 4 Black-throated on the lake. The pair of Buzzards has been displaying and I have hopes of finding their nest this year for the first time. There are at least 7 Whooper Swans and a pair of Mute Swans in the valley and it will as usual be interesting to see who manages to breed and how much fighting there will be.

Yesterday’s undoubted highlight was provided by the Three-toed Woodpeckers. I had a full-on territorial dispute between 2 pairs whilst a seemingly unpaired male was drumming less than 200m away. The territorial dispute reminded me of last years fighting between 2 females but this time the male(s) were also fully involved. Most of the time the two females were having a standoff on one tree and the males were doing the same on another but occasionally all 4 were on the same tree. Whilst they were fighting there was no drumming but they had been drumming from separate areas when I first arrived. One-toe was one of the females and it is tempting to believe that the other female was the victorious bird from last year. As for the males then I have no idea who they were. Today I only found one pair which was one-toe and her mate so they seem to have won the battle but have they won the war.

Today ended up being an OK day. It started quietly in the Dale and I decided to decamp to Fornebu. There wasn’t much there but I did see my first Ringed Plover, Wheatear and Moorhen of the year plus three Slavonian Grebes offshore. There were 10 Ringed Plovers displaying in the middle of a building site that was quiet due to the Easter holiday. I don’t know how they will fare next week.

A dog walk in the afternoon in Maridalen revealed my first Osprey of the year so four new species for the year in one day  must mean it was an OK day.

here the two female Three-toed Woodpeckers are arguing (One-toe on the left)

then a male turns up which was the mate of three-toe

here One-toes deformed right foot can be seen

the two female again going at it

here the two female are on the right and one of the males is about to land on the same tree

and the other male is on his way to join them

all 4 together. One of the males is at the top and the other is in the middle of the two females

here the males are uppermost 

the females are really fighting and it is One-toe who seems to have the upperhand

the two males

two females

and here was a third male who was less than 200m away

Chiffchaff (gransanger)

White Wagtail (linerle)

Cranes (trane)

Frog (buttsnutefrosk)

Ringed Plovers (sandlo) at Fornebu

Wheatear (steinskvett) also at Fornebu

my first Osprey (fiskeørn) of the year - a female

I previously also mentioned how we observed courting and mating Canada Geese. Thi was actually very cool to observe. The pair swam side by side and at first I thought they were bathing but then realized it was going on too long and was ritualized. They would put their heads and necks and forebodies underwater and when they came up water would rush over the rest of their bodies. This went on for a period before the male grabbed the female by the neck and then mounted her. She was forced underwater and it went on for quite a few seconds before she seemed to roll and push the male off. He then carried on holding her by the neck and maybe wanted to go again before letting go when they then both held themselves very proud and erect and called before both preened and cleaned themselves before flapping their wings.

here they are having some foreplay - the female on the left is smaller

notice all the water on the body

a first for me - the penis of the male

here the female is bathing after the act

and shaking the wings in triumph?

It looks like Google has censored all my pictures of the Canada Geese perhaps because I used some "saucy" words. I'll post the pictures again without text and see if they survive the Big Brother surveillance