Water Rail - #Oslo2024 species 201 and Maridalen tick

After spending a whole month stuck on 199 species and beginning to doubt whether another would come I only had to wait one whole day to move to 201 species😊. The species, Water Rail, was one I was pretty confident of getting at Østensjøvannet once winter sat in (as I had also been with Jack Snipe) but not to find in Maridalen. That said though as I had watched the Jack Snipe with Per Christian on Sunday I had mentioned that a Water Rail could well turn up in the same place. Fast forward 24 hours and one was calling loudly and for many minutes in just the same place. Unfortunately it never showed itself but I did record it calling. This is the first record in Maridalen (I know another report to be erroneous) and takes me to 212 species of 228 recorded.

Fast forward 48 hours (today) and there were two calling!! It might seem strange that I have never had Water Rail in Maridalen before and then suddenly two turn up but the marsh they are in has become considerably wetter since Beavers constructed a dam here last year once again showing how good these large toothed animals are at creating wetlands.

Common Snipe numbers have increased to 10 and a single Jack Snipe remains and showing well at times. The water level has been lowered creating some nice conditions but unfortunately far too late in the year for wader passage (other than snipes obviously).

Bramblings have continued to flock on harvested rape seed oil fields and there must be in excess of 5000 birds along with 300 or so Goldfinches which are very high counts for both species. Thrushes are starting to come through in larger numbers but there are such enormous quantities of rowan berries all over Norway that they have no problem finding food and are probably in no rush to leave the country just yet.

As a sign of the approaching winter today was the first day I didn’t note Chiffchaff, Reed Bunting or Black-throated Diver and the Stonechat has now moved on after a five day stay.

I still have to go through the many videos of I am sure very dubious quality of all the snipes I have been observing and will instead just post a video with the sound of Water Rail.