I had thought of going early to Svellet this morning
with the hope of getting some better pictures of the Yellowlegs without the
heat haze ruining everything. In the end a family breakfast (rightly) triumphed
but others did succeed in that quest and better pictures have been taken so
negating the need for me to write a description 😅 Here are three pictures that Reidar Myhre took and which do the job!
Greenshank and Lesser Yellowlegs. This picture show the size difference well and the dark wings and back and pale rump of the Yellowlegs - just the sort of photo I was hoping for! Photo: Reidar Myhre
the yellow legs are also visible. Photo: Reidar Mhyre
I chose to go to Maridalen with the Beast but with
clear blue skies and northerly winds I did not have high hopes. A couple of
singing Redstarts, Sand Martin, Crane, Three-toed Woodpecker and fighting
between the breeding Whooper Swan pair and an intruding pair gave me plenty to enjoy
though.
male Redstart (rødstjert). The white in the throat and brown wings point to this being a 2cy
whereas this male with much bolder colours is presumably 3cy+
Sand Martin (sandsvale) is never an easy bird to see in Maridalen although it does sometimes try to breed
this male Three-toed 'pecker was drumming and the female was hopefully either nest building or perhaps already on eggs nearby
Whooper Swan (sangsvane)
just a single Crane (trane) seen today.
this pair of Common Scoter (svartand) appeared on Maridalsvannet during a rain storm on Sunday evening but disappeared shortly afterwards
this Stock Dove (skogdue) still pops up occasionally in Maridalen and I suspect they are breeding
I’ve been whining a lot the last couple of days
about how I am missing the good birds and the Bird Gods are not shining on me –
I sound like a spoilt kid don’t I? Well, I’m not just spoilt I’m also a bit of
a fool because the Bird Gods were indeed shining on me on both Saturday and Sunday
but I could not see it.
Luckily though they kept their faith in me, even if I
was losing mine in them, and finally today I opened the gold-plated package
they had made for me.
On both Saturday and Sunday morning I had seen a
wader at Svellet that I had struggled with. I had seen the bird with Greenshank
and a male Ruff. Plumage wise I was thinking that the pattern on the back
looked good for a female Ruff but the plumage was just too pale and the bill
too long for that species. The legs were an orangey colour but as it often the
case at Svellet the distances involved were just too great for lots of detail.
I have previously struggled here in the spring in being able to differentiate
between Redshanks and female Ruff and felt that the choice lay between these
two species although I did briefly consider Stilt Sandpiper as a possibility.
In the end I concluded with a 1st winter Redshank that was in some
strange transition plumage between juvenile and summer plumage although I was
never quite OK with this and did also wonder whether it could be a hybrid of
some sort.
Today I arrived at Svellet around 10am and the heat
haze was already a problem but due to slowly rising water levels many of the
birds were closer than at the weekend. I did a rough sweep and noticed nothing
exciting (hoping for Avocet or failing that godwits) and then went about
counting the waders. 250 Greenshank and 90 Wood Sands were nearly a doubling
from yesterday and I saw 3 Redshank. Two were normal dark summer plumaged birds
but one was very pale and not quite right and was the same bird I had struggled
with the previous two days. It then walked up to a Redshank and a male Ruff and
it finally dawned on me that it was neither of these species. It was marginally
smaller than the Redshank, although the legs were longer and the legs were more pale orange than red, the bill
was finer and the plumage could not be horseshoed into some strange
transition plumage. I was not yet any wiser as to what it was but as I kept
looking at it and racking my brain it finally dawned on me that Lesser
Yellowlegs was the best option. Because of the distance and heat haze I was
just not able to see enough plumage characters to nail it and realised I need
to see the bird fly. This meant waiting (with an impatient dog pulling on the
lead) but finally an unseen raptor put everything up and I clinched it – there was
no white in the wing or on the back and just a white rump. Size ruled out Greater
Yellowlegs or Wood Sandpiper which also look similar in flight so I was able to
put the news out.
Quite a few people arrived (also people who like me
had gone through the waders at Svellet at the weekend without identifying it)
and got a new county tick or lifer. A togger even turned up without bins or a
scope (had obviously not been to Svellet before) and pointed the camera at the
closest wader and wondered if that was the one. It was a Wood Sandpiper but
that apparently was also a tick -two for the price of one…..
My photos are not even record shots although I do
have a couple of flight shots that might be of use but I have a video that is a
bit better. Lots of other people have seen it during the afternoon and evening
so hopefully some record shots will surface as I hate writing descriptions 😉
this picture is taken with a 150mm but shows the distance involved. The mudflats create a terrible heat haze
this flight shot shows Greenshank, Greenshank, Lesser Yellowlegs, male Ruff (I presume) & Redshank.
The dark wings and white going up the back can be seen on the Greenshank and the white on the back & the wings can be seen on the Redshank whereas the Lesser Yellowlegs has dark wings and just white on the rump....
Greenshank (gluttsnipe) left and Lesser Yellowlegs (gulbeinsnipe) right
