The mountains report part VII - the rest

We encountered a lot of other species and this post captures them. A corner of a lake close to Valdresflye was ice free and here there was a large concentration of birds that were presumably waiting to be able to go into their breeding areas. We had up to 7 Long-tailed Ducks, pairs of Common and Velvet Scoter, Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Redshank, Temminck’s Stint and Arctic Tern among others. Disappointingly though there were no Scaup – this species must be on the cusp of disappearing as a breeding bird from the area but its absence may well have been because they were still at a lower altitude (there were also very few Tufted Ducks).

I have previously mentioned how few raptors we saw and that despite their being lots of Lemmings. We saw only a handful of Kestrels, 3 Rough-legged Buzzards, a male Hen Harrier, male Merlin and a young White-tailed Eagle. And not a single owl.

Golden Plover (heilo) are widespread but are definitely less numerous than I remember

we only managed to find Dotterel (boltit) at long range

Greenfinches (grønnfink) were surprisingly around the cabin at 950m asl. I imagine this is a result of feeders being put up but a Hawfinch was a real surprise

Lemming

angry lemming

and one running over the snow which would make it an easy target for one of the raptors that weren't there

Long-tailed Ducks (havelle) which we unfortunately saw no better than this

in this long range shot we can see the long tail which he was lifting up and down in a weirdly erotic way

Meadow Pipit (heipiplerke) probably the commonest species we encountered

male Merlin (dvergfalk) on the terrace of the next door cabin. He was calling a lot

a very characteristic and early blooming flower is Lady of the Snows Pulsatilla vernalis (mogop)

a Redpoll (gråsisik) which were surprisingly scarce

Redshank (rødstilk) and Golden Plover

Ring Ouzel (ringtrost) were breeding close to the cabin

one of just three Rough-legged Buzzards (fjellvåk)

snowplough in action

and a canoeist in ice

Tufted Ducks (toppand) and a view

the only eagle we saw - a young White-tailed Eagle (havørn)

male Wigeon (brunnakke)

Willow Warbler (løvsanger) is Norway's commonest breeding bird and was to be heard to around 1200m

Grey-headed (yellow) Wagtail is a typical mountain bird