Guiding again

Yesterday afternoon I had my first guiding session for a while and took Norwegian photographer, Eirik on the gold plated Maridalen tour. Eirik had mentioned Wryneck, Three-toed Woodpecker and Black-throated Diver as species we wanted to get photos of and these were all duly chalked up😊

It was about far more than just chasing species though and we had a fun and successful afternoon. We discovered the nest site of the Three-toeds which again was below head height and will allow lots of exciting observations in the coming weeks. We had a Sparrowhawk giving one of the adult Tawny Owls grief, we watched a Goldcrest collecting food and then saw its amazingly well hidden and tiny nest. We saw a young Hawfinch that could barely fly, a pair of Long-tailed Tits collecting food and singing Blackcaps, Wrens, Willow Warblers, Redwings and many more species entertained us.

I don’t normally take too many photos when I am guiding but this time I just had to – over 300 in fact!

Today, I took a long overdue trip out to Gressholmen which is the best place in Oslo for waders. I had a hope to find Broad-billed Sand but had to make do with 6 Ringed Plovers. There were very few Common Terns to see and two islets that had breeding colonies last year were empty. Hopefully it is just a case of them breeding somewhere else this year.

the female Three-toed Woodpecker at the nest 

does she look familiar?

Goldcrest (fuglekonge) collecting food

Goldeneye (kvinand) brood

very young Hawfinch (kjernebiter)

Long-tailed Tit (stjertmeis)

Sparrowhawk (spurvehauk) that was mobbing...

...this Tawny Owl (kattugle)

and some pictures from today

Shelducks (gravand)

my first Wall Brown (sørringvinge) of the year 

and my first orchid: Early purple orchid (Vårmarihand)

Wood Warbler (bøksanger)

already quite large Black-headed Gulls (hettemåke)

and there were many baby Eiders (ærfugl)

this Hawfinch (kjernebiter) obviously had a nest nearby