Cattle Egret twitch

This weekend has been windy, wet and cold and this morning I felt in need of some birding therapy so what better than to combine a twitch with giving Jr some driving practice? A Cattle Egret has been seen about an hour from Oslo recently and when news came through of it being found again today then I thought what the heck. I have had a chance to see the species in Norway before and closer to home but was never tempted to but today I was feeling twitchy.

Jr drove the 50 minutes to the reported location very smoothly but I could not find the bird when we arrived. We drove around the area a bit and then returned to the original spot where the farmer was now ploughing the field and there was a small white bird following the tractor and scoffing worms! Exactly how twitching should be – a slight bit of drama to raise the stakes but then the bird seen well.

Cattle Egret (kuhegre)

the wet soil stuck to the birds feet

Værøy Jack Snipe

Here is the first instalment of pictures from yesterday. I took so many pictures of the Jack Snipe that it has taken ages to go through them. It wasn’t easy to choose the best ones so I’m posting quite a few plus a video.

Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin) at 2 metres range and 500 mm lens. Note the fly on its head

Taken with a 36mm lens! You can see my reflection in its eye.

Here is the video I took- It should of course read less than 30 cm range:

good camo!

just visible

when I first found the bird it had pressed its head down into the coarse grass and had it poking in it eye - looks incredibly uncomfortable!!

with the grass sticking in its eye

I received an MMS today with this picture of the bird I didn’t twitch yesterday – thanks Erling Lind!