Good Birds & Guiding & stuff

My lack of recent blog activity does not reflect a lack of birding activity, to the contrary I have been busy with both guiding and good birding. On Sunday I again had the company of local photographer Eirik and despite rain and wind we had a successful day around Nordre Øyeren. Today I was guiding David and Jaye again and this time with a focus on the nocturnal singers. With a desire to see rather than just hear the birds I chose not to go nocturnal (I also like my bed) but rather visit known birds and hope to see them early in the morning. The day started disappointingly with Corncrake and Grasshopper Warbler that had both been heard during the night deciding not to make themselves known. The Corncrake was particularly annoying because I have heard and seen the bird each of the last three days and even managed to take good photos of it. Time will tell whether the birds had moved on to pastures new at the end of the night or whether we were just unlucky. The morning definitely ended on a high though with Blyth’s Reed and River Warblers heard and seen REALLY well and then a visit to the Tengmalm’s Owl nest (thx Rune for the tip) revealed a youngster ready to leave the nest. We also had many Marsh Warblers, Wryneck and Rosefinch during the day. We will have a nocturnal trip later in the week to look for Nightjar which you really have no chance of finding otherwise.

Yesterday, whilst reccying for today’s trip I found a tatty 1^st summer Little Gull at Maridalsvannet which is only my third record there.

There are lot of pictures and videos to enjoy here so I suggest pouring a glass of wine, sitting back and enjoying. Don't drink too much wine though or you might think some of the videos have been taken without a tripod... 😂

Corncrake (åkerrikse)

River Warbler (elvesanger)  my best ever views

and pretty good views of Blyth's Reed Warbler (busksanger)

young Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle) close to leaving the nest 

Little Gull (dvergmåke) and Swift (tårnseiler)

and some videos taken with my phone recording the sounds





in this video in addition to the BRW can you hear Marsh Warbler and Common Rosefinch (which the BRW also mimicked)

cropped close up of Corncrake

more River Warbler

compare the mouth colour with the BRW lower down

when seen like this I doubt many would get the ID right

Blyth's Reed Warbler

as with other acro warblers it has a much more orange mouth

Tengmalm's Owl

Little Gull

picking insects off the water surface

with Black-headed Gull (hettemåke)

the weather has not been great for butterflies or dragonflies nor have I had much time for them but today I saw my first Large Skipper and Swallowtail

Large Skipper (engsmyger)

this Swallowtail (svalestjert) is only the second I can remember seeing in Maridalen and was in a real hurry and disappeared quite quickly