Sunday, 3 October 2021

Black-tailed Godwits

I did not expect to be posting this weekend (and this morning had started preparing one of a number of delayed posts) but a trip to Fornebu gave me such amazing views of the three Black-tailed Godwits that I have to share them. My photos and video do not do justice to the experience I had with them unfortunately but they aren’t too bad. After all the rain we have recently the birds were feeding on worms in the grass where the cows had been grazing earlier in the year including on one of the paths and even walked towards me coming to with about 5 metres! I was amazed at how many worms they were finding and they did start looking quite full after a while.

This autumn has seen unprecedented numbers of Black-tailed Godwits in Norway and all birds seem to be juveniles of the Icelandic subspecies. This population is growing strongly and the juveniles seem to find new migration routes and wintering areas which can be read about in this veryinteresting post on Wader Tales. It will be very interesting to see if there is a flock of adult Blackwits at Svellet or Storøykilen in July 2023 (they return to their breeding areas in their 3rd CY).


Two videos, with the first taken on my mobile showing how close the birds came


juvenile Iceland Black-tailed Godwit (svarthalespove) with worm



note how fleksible the end of the bill is






















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