With
unsettled weather and some rain, I opted for a very early morning trip to
Årnestangen today knowing that the girls wouldn’t mind being allowed a lie in.
There were waders but not much diversity – mid August is often a bit of a quiet
period as the adult arctic breeding waders have mostly already moved through,
but the juvenile birds have not yet started their migration. Therefore, most of
the birds at this time of the year are breeding birds from southern and mid
Scandinavia.
I did
however have a whopping 4 Broad-billed Sandpipers consisting of three juveniles
(all seen at same time) and a much darker bird with heavy streaking on breast
and flanks that must have been an adult (unusual in autumn). The waders were
often very difficult to see due to vegetation but first a Marsh Harrier and
then a Peregrine pushed them up and then many of them including one of the
juvenile BBS landed pretty much as close as they could and showed well. There
were 40 odd Dunlin (only 6 adults) and 30 Ringed Plovers but no stints or Curlew Sandpipers.
Two adult Knot that briefly landed before heading south were the only arctic
waders. It is already getting late for Wood and Green Sands and I had none and
only a couple of Common Sands were left. There was also a smattering of Lapwing,
Curlew, Snipe, Redshank, Greenshank and Ruff around.
On the
way back, I saw a juvenile Slavonian Grebe that is in an unusual transitional
plumage that has caused a lot of confusion, but its identity seems to be
accepted now.
A quick stop in Maridalen revealed three Bluethroats still present.
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| Juvenile Broad-billed Sandpiper (fjellmyrløper) with adult Dunlin |
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| at various angles other than side on.. |
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| with a juvenile Dunlin (myrsnipe) |
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| adult and juvenile Dunlin |
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| adult Knot (polarsnipe) |
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| an absolutely terribl picture of a older female Marsh Harrier (sivhauk) that was very pale underneath |
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| still at least 4 Ospreys (fiskeørn) including juveniles begging for food |
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| juv Peregrine (vandrefalk) who I can thank for pushing some of the waders closer to me |
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| Broad-billed Sand, Ringed Plover (sandlo) and Redshank (rødstilk) |
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| 1cy female Bluethroat in the Dale |
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