Back to Birds

Birds probably won over dragons yesterday. An extended Beast walk in Maridalen in sunny weather revealed many expected species although numbers of migrants were very low with for example just one Willow Warbler noted! My eBirds list can be seen here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S72798451

A juvenile Robin in the garden was very confiding and got me thinking about rare thrushes hopping around on wind blown islands. Fingers crossed I will be able to visit Værøy this autumn.

juvenile Robin (rødstrupe)

I had just this single Wheatear (steinskvett) in Maridalen and a couple of Whinchats (buskskvett)

seeing the Robin reminded me that I took some pictures of a juvenile Redwing (rødvingetrost) at the cabin in June. It had left the nest quite early and was hopping around on the road with an uncertain future ahead of it. I at least moved it off the road.

As August draws to an end it is traditionally time for me to start thinking about Taiga Bean Geese. Five birds are still transmitting and their movements show early movements and probably none of them have bred succesfully. One bird (yellow) moved south to Norway on 16 August but then returned to Sweden 20 August (where it still is) and another (green) moved to exactly the same area in Norway 23 August and is still there. It amazes me how these birds cover large distances without seeming to think twice about it and how they use the exact same areas year after year.