Thrushes!

Today was a significant day. It was the first day without an overnight frost (although temperatures in Maridalen did fall to just +1C) and then we had light rain. The results on the birdlife could not have been more obvious. Numbers of Redwing in Maridalen increased from just 30 yesterday (which was in itself a massive increase on what I had seen earlier in the month) to over 600 today. The noise they made was just magical. Amongst them were much smaller numbers of all the other thrushes including my first (4) Ring Ouzels of the year.

The lake remains 99% frozen but where the streams flow in there is now open water and bare mud. The water level is very low as a result of a dry winter and if it remains like this then we are going to perhaps have the best ever wader season recorded here (and maybe I will finally get Dunlin on my Dale list).

Many other birds are now arriving in the Dale: Green Sandpiper, Stock Dove, Teal, Crane, Chiffchaff, double digit numbers of Meadow Pipits and White Wagtails. Amongst the wagtails is a darker bird which initially looked to be a female Pied but when it sang and revealed itself to be a male then we have concluded with an intergrade/hybrid.

We have also had a couple of good day with migrating geese. It would be easy to assume that all the flocks were Pink-footed Geese but there was a significant number of Greylag amongst them in both pure flocks and also amongst the flocks of Pink-feet. Yesterday there was a bit of raptor passage with Buzzards and Sparrowhawks heading north but I still feel that there are a lot of birds waiting further south and that we will get a big rush one day soon.

Male Ring Ouzel (ringtrost) - my first of the year and one of 4 in Maridalen today

together with a Blackbird (svarttrost)

a singing Mistle Thrush (duetrost) which can be heard in the following video

male Merlin (dvergfalk) in Maridalen today

the Black Woodpecker nest is nearing completion

male Goosander (laksand)

Green Sandpipier (skogsnipe)

White Wagtail (linerle)

same bird

the bird in Maridalen with Pied (svartryggerle) influence.  Here it looks quite good

but the upper rump should be much darker

and in this picture in bright light the back looks hardly dark at all 

an early Curlew (storspove) from Østensjøvannet least week

Goldcrest (fuglekonge). I feel this is the year that a Firecrest will turn up in the Dale

4 Lapwing (vipe) on the ice. There have been upto 8 birds but the numbers vary a lot and there is clearly little for them to eat when it is cold and dry.

amongst the many Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgjess) was this bird with a white front but it is not a White-fronted Goose...