THe big day?

Today was perhaps THE day in Maridalen 2021 although tomorrow and Thursday also look promising. I saw 82 species around the lake and if I had gone all out I could easily have seen 100 in Oslo.

See my eBird list here.

 After Monday’s rain today was dry but overcast with a low cloud base and a southerly wind. It was very birdy indeed with good numbers of Wheatear, Yellow Wagtail, Meadow Pipit and Willow Warbler. A couple of singing Wood Warblers were surprisingly my only new species for the year but a couple of flyover Golden Plovers were new for Oslo for the year. I have now seen 152 species so far in Oslo which back when I first kept an Oslo list in 2012 would have felt like a good total for the whole year.

 Four sightings of Marsh Harrier which my photos show to be 3 birds - an adult male a two female/immature birds - was quite exceptional and I had two of them together with a Rough-legged Buzzard flying low over the fields. 6 Kestrels were clear migrants but single Sparrowhawk and Buzzard were the only other raptors.

 Four Wrynecks were a very good total. The pair was still present and had to contend with a male Pied Flycatcher checking out their hole and another Wryneck singing close by which was quickly chased off.

The water levels are too high for waders but I chalked up 8 species mostly flying over. Surprisingly there were hardly any ducks on the lake with the passage perhaps over for the year.

Wryneck (vendehals)

Male Marsh Harrier (sivhauk)

female Marsh Harrer #1

sighting #2 which looks to be the same bird due to the pale mark on the underneath of the left wing

#3

Rough-legged Buzzrd (fjellvåk)

the Rough-leg with the male Marsh Harrier

male Yellow Wagtail (gulerle)

flyover Black-throated Diver (storlom)

Greenshank (gluttsnipe)

male Kestrel (tårnfalk)

female Linnet (tornirisk)

male Pied Flycatcher (svarthvit fluesnapper) and Wryneck

Red-throated Divers (smålom) and Mute Swans (knoppsvane). One of the divers is a first summer (2cy)

Sand Martin (sandsvale)

Sand Martin and Swallow (låvesvale)

Swallows

Whimbrel (småspove) and Common Sandpiper (strandsnipe)

four Wigeon (brunnakke) were the only migrant ducks

my first Wood Warbler (bøksanger) of the year