Only ten years ago it looked like Blyth’s Reed Warbler was
going to establish itself as a regular, if rare, breeding bird in south east
Norway. It bred in Maridalen in 2015 and in my experience a surprisingly high
number of the singing males that turned up other places around Oslo ended up
finding a mate and breeding.
But then the upward curve peaked and a decline started with
the species becoming less regular. It is a classic nocturnal singer species and
also a late arriver and is often not found until us birders go on our nocturnal
trips when there is nice warm weather in mid June.
This year though the species was looking like it was going
to be desperately scarce with only 10 birds in Norway up until June 8th but
since then there has been a solid arrival with at least a doubling of birds.
One of these was found last night in urban Oslo by who else than Stig Johan (there are not many people who would go birding in the middle of the night where he goes) and
was still singing strong when I visited at 11am in a rain shower. They really
are one of our best singers and this bird put on quite the show at point blank
range. It was along a well vegetated stream under overhead wires by a car park
for busses - perfect habitat!
The weather forecast for the coming week is conducive to nocturnal trips so maybe there will be more Blyth’s to find and hopefully a River Warbler or Corncrake.
 |
| Blyth's Reed Warbler (busksanger) - I took a bit too long before I tried to take any photos as before this it was singing very openly |
No comments:
Post a Comment