Wood Pigeon steals the day

This winter is so mild! All of yesterday’s snow was washed away by rain today and ice is melting fast on the lakes. I was checking my blog entries from February/March in previous years and the differences are huge. Things could of course change again but the way things are looking now spring migration could be close to a month before last year (which was a very late year). Today, at Fornebu, I had a Wood Pigeon (ringdue) heading purposely NE looking very much as though it was a migrating bird – it’s not often one gets excited by Wood Pigeons!

The usual suspects were again present at Fornebu with the shrike showing well but the beardies just heard pinging once although we didn’t hang around too long. In the reedbed at Storøykilen I glimpsed a Water Rail (vannrikse) running through the reeds which is my first record of the year. A complete lack of record for five weeks suggests that this species left the reedbed during the coldest period but that they have now returned. The ice has started melting in the bay here and there is enough open water again for the local Mute Swan (knoppsvane) pair to have returned.

today's installment of the Great Grey Shrike Diaries

In Maridalen a male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett) was my first sighting of the year (although I have heard 2 calling). It is amazing how all woodpeckers other than the Great Spots seem to disappear in the winter only to appear again from March when they start drumming.