OSLO BIRDER: A risky trip to England

A first visit to England for nearly three years (thanks Covid!) was much needed and very enjoyable but made me a bit nervous as it would mean I was away from my beloved Dale during perhaps the most exciting period of the year. I did not seem to miss much but as Halvard was also away there was not much coverage. However, on landing on Sunday afternoon my phone pinged with a message of a Med Gull in the Dale. It took me longer than wanted to get there (a Beast had to picked up from a kennel and a drive thru McDonalds proved to be anything other than fast food) but after finally getting up into the Dale I located it in my scope together with a large flock of Common Gulls just seconds before everything in the area flew up and the gulls then proceeded to fly around very high up for the next hour and I never saw the bird again…)

Whilst hoping that the gulls would land again I had a great experience involving a Wood Pigeon and a cast of predators. I saw a small group of Wood Pigeons flying over the lake with a Goshawk in pursuit. The hawk picked out one of the birds and stooped at it. I managed to take pictures but in the process lost sight of the birds. A minute or so later the call of Hooded Crows drew my attention to the Goshawk flying low over the water quite long way away and the Pigeon was flapping in the water. A number of Hooded Crows came to mob Goshawk who gave up on its dinner and headed over the water straight towards me. After the hawk disappeared the Wood Pigeon tried to flap its way towards land but it was a long way and then a Great Black-backed Gull showed an interest in it. They normally swallow their prey whole but that wouldn’t be the case here and it just started stabbing at the pigeon and soon there were feathers all over the water and the bird was no long flapping. I couldn’t really see how much the gull was getting to eat but then an Osprey! took an interest in what was going on and dived down possibly to see if there was a fish for it to eat but it then started mobbing the gull which turned the tables before the Osprey again chased the gull. Quite a scene!

A visit on Monday revealed a new arrival of Wood Sandpipers and Greenshank showing that wader passage is far from over (and water levels continue to fall) and my first Swift, Garden Warbler and Wood Warbler of the year also all showed. There is still a pair of Little Ringed Plovers and they were engaged in their nest scraping display whereby the male was calling and scraping a nest and the female then came to investigate it whilst he stood over her. He clearly then wanted to mate and although she resisted at first she then allowed him to approach before an overflying Sparrowhawk seemed to put them both out of the mood.