The ice melts

By this afternoon over two thirds of the ice on Maridalsvannet had disappeared and with there suddenly being more open water there was a noticeable increase in waterfowl. A massive 19 Black-throated Divers were making a lot of noise, Tufted had increased to 17, Teal to over 30 and 4 each of Red-breasted Merganser and Wigeon were definitely new in. There were over 300 Common Gulls but only a couple of Black-headed amongst them and no Mediterranean or Ring-billed that I could find. Hopefully the farmer will plough some fields soon which should bring more gulls as well as other birds. Yet again there was no movement of raptors except for a White-tailed Eagle that drifted west.

I also had a trip to Svellet which is starting to looking wonderful with water levels falling 10-20cm every day and nice mud banks showing again. 14 Greenshank and a Whimbrel were all there was to see but in the coming 2 weeks we will hopefully be in for a wader feast.

panorama view of Maridalsvannet looking south from Nestangen

migrants ducks on Maridalsvannet: Tufted (toppand) and Teal (krikkand)

White-tailed Eagler (havørn) a 2/3cy

Red-breasted Mergansers (siland)

Swallows (låvesvale)

crayfish seem to be a favourite of Black-throated Diver (storlom)

Common Gulls (fiskemåke) on the ice