Guiding in Maridalen

 I was guiding today for the first time in a long while and it was good. This year looks like it will be a slight improvement on last year with more international travellers coming to Norway now that Covid restrictions are lifted.

I took Pat and Cal from the USA to Maridalen and we spent a very enjoyable morning there clocking up a good selection of species in hot and windless conditions. We do so desperately need some rain though but there continues to be none forecast. We recorded 48 species which I have registered on eBird with the highlights being Lesser Spotted and Black Woodpeckers, Buzzard, Black-throated Diver, Great Crested Grebe, Green Sandpiper and Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff very pedagogically singing in the same tree.

There seems to be a pause in the arrival of new migrants but May is only a month away so well get a surge quite soon.

female Black Woodpecker (Svartspett) sticking its head out of the completed nest

and in the same tree as Europe's largest woodpecker was the smallest - a male Lesser Spotted (dvergspett)

Buzzard (musvåk)

and with a male Sparrowhawk (spurvehauk)

Chiffchaff (gransanger)

and Willow Warbler (løvsanger) for comparison

male Goosander (laksand) with Mallards (stokkand)

Green Sandpiper (skogsnipe)

Robin (rødstrupe)

male Siskin (grønnsisik) and ant

and my first Green Hairstreak of the year - a cracking little butterfly