Brook Lampreys and other things

After making a big deal of Wryneck in my last post I have been entertained daily by the singing unpaired male and today discovered a pair in Maridalen who seemed to be nesting (although I didn’t locate the nest). I have had distant sightings of Honey Buzzards but am no closer on my quest of finding out where they breed although apparently it is much easier from July onwards to locate them.

Three-toed Woodpeckers after seeming to be everywhere are now difficult to find and I can only find a single male. I assume that the females are on eggs and that once the young hatch they will become more active again. Three-toed breeds a lot later than both Great Spotted and Black who both have large young in their nests now.

An unexpected highlight yesterday was noticing some eel like fish in a tiny stream. They turned out to be Brook Lampreys (bekkeniøye) which is an extremely under-recorded species in Norway. The ones I saw were egg laying and they will apparently all die very shortly afterwards. It is a fascinating species and it is well worth reading about them, for example here on Wikipedia.

There are quite a few dragon and damselflies out now and all I have managed to identify are the same as the species I posted last time which I have now had confirmed as northern damselfly / spydblåvannymfe / coenagrion hastulatum and northern white-faced darter (ruby whiteface) / østtorvlibelle / leucorrhinia rubicunda.

This afternoon I had my first guiding session for a while with a Eirik, a Norwegian photographer who had a few species he wanted photos of. Wryneck, Three-toed Woodpecker and Black-throated Diver were at the top of the wish list and luckily I know where to find them 😊

this 2cy Peregrine (vandrefalk) was a surprise yesterday

and this 2cy Buzzard (musvåk) was new and caused me a bit of a headache at first

male Common Crossbill (grankorsnebb). The breeding season is finished for this species and there are less noticeable now although this male did show very well

in the breeding season it is normally Lesser Redpolls (brunsisik) that one finds in Maridalen but these looked like Common Redpolls (gråsisik)

a one legged pear

and its mum

Wryneck (vendehals)

egg-layng Brook Lampreys (bekkeniøye)

And here is a video of Three-toed Woodpeckers from a few weeks ago that I had forgotten to post