Birds in the Dale

Guess who’s back?  - and not a butterfly in sight! 😊

Autumn is really upon us and the cereal fields in Maridalen are being harvested as we speak. This always causes the first flocks of Meadow Pipits to appear and there is also a big flock of Greylag Geese so it is nice and birdy. A fine 1^st year male Bluethroat was today’s bird of the day but not quite as good as a Kingfisher on Wednesday and there are also good numbers of Whinchats, Nutcrackers flying back and forth from the city where they are collecting Hazel nuts and raptors to see including Honey Buzzards and Hobbies.

Yesterday I needed to go to the airport to pick someone up so made a day of it with a stop at Svellet and then a look for the Taiga Bean Geese which have already been seen. I failed to find the geese and with no GPS tags still functioning it has become a bit more hit and miss especially in the autumn when they do not use the river. I did find feathers and droppings at a favoured loafing site so can personally confirm their return

Svellet gave me my first Little Stint and Curlew Sandpiper of the year but I am till missing three common waders for my year list – Grey Plover, Sanderling and Great Snipe – and fear there is a real risk they remain as absentees.

Maridalen has had a good autumn for waders and that is despite there being nearly no mud showing due to high water levels. Today 2 Ruff were on an island and over the last couple of weeks I have had flyover Curlew, Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Redshank and Greenshank aswell as Common Sandpipers along the rocky shore. The Lapwings look to have moved on sometime in July though and I saw no evidence that the two late broods produced any fledged young.

If my photos are looking even worse than usual then it is because the bazooka has now gone into complete lock down and I cannot get any life out of it so all pictures are with the superzoom which itself is suffering with age.

Bluethroat (blåstrupe) in Maridalen. The colourful throat shows it to be a male

and the wing bar shows it to be a bird of the year

Whinchat (buskskvett) and Meadow Pipit (heipiplerke) very typical birds for the end of August

although this Whitethroat (tornsanger) is getting a bit late

spot the Kingfisher (isfugl)?

a bit easier here

some of the Greylag Geese (grågås) and a Whooper Swan (sangsvane)

12 Curlew (storspove) migrating over Maridalsvannet earlier in the month

and two Greenshank (gluttsnipe) that flew around looking for somewhere to land

A video of a Mink eating a Crayfish and you can see the remains of many others. Otters have recently been seen in Maridalen and if they establish themselves then they will hopefully result in a reduction in Mink numbers

and a Grass Snake that I nearly stood on