Valdresflye

Norway is celebrating another religious holiday, this time Pentecost, which means another long weekend for the heathen masses. We are in a cabin at Beitostølen and it has to be said that we are blessed 😊 Up on Valdresflya there are still many metres of snow, the sun is shining and there is no wind. We have been cross country skiing in short sleeves and I of course have been birding.

I was unable to sleep due to a Redstart which started singing right outside the window at 03:45 and left the cabin before 5am. Before breakfast I enjoyed Willow and Rock Ptarmigan, Shore Lark, Short-eared Owl, Temminck’s Stint, Dotterel, Bluethroat, Long-tailed Duck, Scaup, Arctic Tern, Ring Ouzel, Cuckoo plus many more commoner birds. Despite the snow there were surprisingly large numbers of Meadow Pipits, Wheatears, Golden and Ringed Plovers wherever the snow had melted.

When I returned at 9am expecting everyone else to still be asleep I was met by a lot of tired people - I was not the only one who had heard the Redstart....

I am writing this on the phone so I apologise if there are any formatting issues.

The lake of Vinstri. The small area of ice free water held many ducks including a pair each of Long-tailed Duck and Scaup

Short-eared Owl. I saw no other raptors meaning it is not a lemming year

Shore Lark

Temminck’s Stints on the road

Rock Ptarmigan

Valdresflye with the road visible in the snow

Bluethroat

Skiing

Willow Grouse

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Temminck’s Stint