A Swallow doth make a spring

In the two days since my last post I have had three new species for the year but I am still praying that we get some rain soon so that we get a real fall of migrants. Yesterday I had my first House Martin which was a really early date and the earliest ever in the Dale. Today was Barn Swallow and Willow Warbler on a more expected but still early date. These two species cannot fail to bring a BIG smile to lips and both were also not shy in giving their classic spring sounds.

Today there was also a clear arrival of duck on the lake with a flock of 34 Teal and 6 Tufted Ducks moving around quite nervously as though they had better places to be. Now is the time of year to be checking out Svellet and Nordre Øyeren but water levels there are extremely low ahead of a feared spring flood (due to lots of snow in the mountains) and the birds are a long way from land with lots of heat haze forming sandflats between you and the birds. These very low water levels now though promise well for a couple of weeks times when wader passage will be peaking.

Raptors have failed to show as I had hoped but yesterday I enjoyed watching the local Buzzard pair eating frogs – they were ripping off surprisingly large strips of bloody flesh from their amphibian prey.

Butterflies are very noticeable this spring especially Small Tortoiseshells which seem to have good winter survival. Today I saw three Green Hairstreaks which is my seventh species for the year so far, the others being Brimstone, Small Tortoiseshell, Comma, Peacock, Holly Blue and Camberwell Beauty. I have also seen an unidentified white butterfly which was probably Green-veined White.

my first Barn Swallow (låvesvale) of the year - its very long tail streamers leave little doubt that this bird is a male.

this flock of 6 migrant Tufted Duck (toppand) were quite nervous and often in flight. Behind them is one of 5 Black-throated Divers (storlom) on the lake today

my first Willow Warbler (løvsanger) of the year which was giving its beautiful song

this male Yellowhammer (gulspurv) was clearly not well. It had blood around its bill, kept closing its eyes and was shivering.

Green Hairstreaks (grønnstjertvinge) are really small and very difficult to find when perched on something green!

Maridalen's earliest ever House Martin (taksvale) deserves a picture no matter how bad it is