My lack of recent blog activity does not reflect a
lack of birding activity, to the contrary I have been busy with both guiding
and good birding. On Sunday I again had the company of local photographer Eirik
and despite rain and wind we had a successful day around Nordre Øyeren. Today I
was guiding David and Jaye again and this time with a focus on the nocturnal
singers. With a desire to see rather than just hear the birds I chose not to go
nocturnal (I also like my bed) but rather visit known birds and hope to see
them early in the morning. The day started disappointingly with Corncrake and
Grasshopper Warbler that had both been heard during the night deciding not to
make themselves known. The Corncrake was particularly annoying because I have
heard and seen the bird each of the last three days and even managed to take good
photos of it. Time will tell whether the birds had moved on to pastures new at
the end of the night or whether we were just unlucky. The morning definitely
ended on a high though with Blyth’s Reed and River Warblers heard and seen REALLY
well and then a visit to the Tengmalm’s Owl nest (thx Rune for the tip) revealed
a youngster ready to leave the nest. We also had many Marsh Warblers, Wryneck
and Rosefinch during the day. We will have a nocturnal trip later in the week
to look for Nightjar which you really have no chance of finding otherwise.
Yesterday, whilst reccying for today’s trip I found
a tatty 1st summer Little Gull at Maridalsvannet which is only my
third record there.
There are lot of pictures and videos to enjoy here so I suggest pouring a glass of wine, sitting back and enjoying. Don't drink too much wine though or you might think some of the videos have been taken without a tripod... 😂
Corncrake (åkerrikse)
River Warbler (elvesanger) my best ever views
and pretty good views of Blyth's Reed Warbler (busksanger)
young Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle) close to leaving the nest
Little Gull (dvergmåke) and Swift (tårnseiler)
and some videos taken with my phone recording the sounds
in this video in addition to the BRW can you hear Marsh Warbler and Common Rosefinch (which the BRW also mimicked)
cropped close up of Corncrake
more River Warbler
compare the mouth colour with the BRW lower down
when seen like this I doubt many would get the ID right
Blyth's Reed Warbler
as with other acro warblers it has a much more orange mouth
Tengmalm's Owl
Little Gull
picking insects off the water surface
with Black-headed Gull (hettemåke)
the weather has not been great for butterflies or dragonflies nor have I had much time for them but today I saw my first Large Skipper and Swallowtail
Large Skipper (engsmyger)
this Swallowtail (svalestjert) is only the second I can remember seeing in Maridalen and was in a real hurry and disappeared quite quickly
I have not been on any proper “night singer” trips
yet this year but went out briefly last night in the rain. I managed to get
point blank views of a singing River Warbler that has been around for a few
days and was able to take pictures and video despite it being nearly 22:30 and
barely light.
Today I visited both Sørkedalen and Maridalen and
finally found my first Red-backed Shrikes of the year with two pairs in the
same place in Sørkedalen and a pair in Maridalen meaning that after having
feared it was a catastrophical year for the species that it now seems to be quite
a normal one! I think that they are just very late arriving this year.
In Maridalen I also confirmed breeding on a new field with a single youngster and adult seen so it now looks like four pairs have hatched young.
River Warbler (elvesanger) taken with the superzoom using flash
taken with the bazooka ISO 25600, 1/160 sec
ISO 25600, 1/125 sec
the bazooka using flash ISO 3200 1/60 sec
male Red-backed Shrike (tornskate)
a pair of shrikes - the female was wing shaking and I believe they mated
same female
this female was in Mairdalen and its appeareance is I believe because it had just bathed. I struggled at first to know what it was and was thinking sparrow
same bird
and her mate who wasn't showy
Icterine Warbler (gulsanger)
one of 6 singing Common Rosefinches (rosenfink) today
surprisingly I had Yellow Wagtails (gulerle) at 4 locations today. I only got to study them at one place and here all 5 birds were females of the (expected) race thunbergi
the variety in female Yellow Wagtails is bewildering
this Four-spotted Chaser (firflekkbredlibelle) was in the garden on Sunday and was a real surprise given it was the first dragonfly I have seen this year (plus an unidentiifed damselfly)
whilst walking on Sunday this Camberwell Beauty repeatedly landed on Jr Jr
