Delayed (for Rufous reasons) post

After missing two species in Tuesday’s guiding I of course then heard the Corncrake in its usual place the same evening and then on Wednesday morning had great views of a Grasshopper Warbler (which had been discovered the day before) at Østensjøvannet. A Sedge Warbler (less than annual in Oslo) was also reported from ØV but I only managed to locate a strange singing Marsh Warbler in the same place.

On Wednesday evening I took David and Jaye out again with the main target being the pure nocturnal singer Nightjar. We succeeded royally with a male and female showing well, if briefly, at the relatively early time of 23:15. I also made up on Tuesday’s misses with the Grasshopper Warbler also being bagged and the Corncrake fell eventually although we did only hear rather than see it but all is well that ends well 😊.

In Maridalen the sun shone and I spent some time trying to find interesting dragons and damsels on Wednesday. I just found it really frustrating with the dragons mostly flying too fast and not perching visibly and the ones that looked interesting mostly defied my attempts at taking pictures. A strange, and large insect proved to be a Water Scorpion (probably common but very rarely reported) and it was quite amazing watching it our of the water and pulling itself along sedge leaves.

an unusually good view of the Grasshopper Warbler 

Nightjat (nattravn) - it was close but all happened too quickly such that I did not get the photos that I could have hoped for

lack of white in tail and wings shows it to be a female

the non-breeding Whooper Swan (sangsvane) pair in Maridalen

this Willow Warbler (løvsanger) was annoyed with the Grasshopper Warbler. It is a very grey and long looking bird unlike most of the local breeders

Osprey (fiskeørn) in Maridalen 

Water Scorpion (vannskorpion) - a big beast and quite scary looking!