Fog and an eagle

Fog has been a bit of a problem the last few days but even if you can’t see the birds then you can still hear them. Redwings have arrived en masse now as have the first Song Thrushes (Oslo # 114) and today I heard my first singing Chiffchaff (Oslo # 115). Both yesterday and today I had a White-tailed Eagle in Maridalen. Yesterday it flew up in the fog from a Roe Deer carcass and today it flew low across the lake scaring up a large flock of 700 Pink-footed Geese that had roosted at Hammeren. Aging it has proven problematic for me but it is definitely not an adult as I first though although the tail is quite white.

A nocturnal trip on Friday evening revealed displaying Lapwings at Skjerven and a flock of 10 feeding in the dark alongside 4 Woodcocks at Kirkeby. Today though I only located 5 Lapwings in Maridalen so the large numbers appear to have been birds moving through. Also on the nocturnal trip we heard an Oystercatcher twice and had migrating Pink-feets.

Yesterday I was again on airport pick up duty and detoured to look for Taiga Beans and succeeded in finding a flock of 65 which had 2 tagged birds both of which were new for me this year. It could well be that the total in the area is more than the 110 that I have previously counted.

White-tailed Eagle (havørn) on the ice and in flight at Maridalsvannet. Yellow bill and quite a lot of white in tail but not an adult

the Pink-feet (kortnebbgås) in flight with Greylags (grågås) on the ice. I estimate 700 in the flock

and a migrating flock of Pink-feet that look a join the dots bear

Taiga Bean Geese. To the left is V7 who has lost his collar but still has a colour leg ring and on the right is the GPS bird 27 whose sender has stopped working and the inscription has now worn off but it has a leg ring Y7

zooming out

habitat shot