Stork twitch

With two twitches in the course of just three days I may have to call myself a dirty ol’ twitcher 😊

Following Saturday’s successful twitch of the King Eider I surpassed myself on Monday when I without hardly a second thought headed off to see a White Stork just minutes after getting the message. I was out in Maridalen and with fog lying over the valley felt that I had little more to gain being there so drove the 35 minutes to successfully twitch the Stork which was a county if not country tick. It was even more successful when I found out that the bird flew off just 30 minutes after I left. Maybe I could get the hang of this? An hours drive at the moment could give me Red-breasted Goose, Red Kite and Firecrest and I am considering it…

Other than the Stork it has been fairly uneventful birding although the first Swallow and Wheatear have turned up in Maridalen and the slowly melting ice is revealing more and more mud and upto 22 Green Sandpipers is a clear record count and a very promising sign for what may turn up over the next 4-5 weeks.

White Stork - many that turn up have rings showing them to be releases in the Swedish reintroduction scheme and therefore not tickable but this bird was kind enough to lose its rings..

Three-toed pecker in the Dale

Cranes (trane)

The lake is still over 90% frozen but the ice has turned a dark colour and will break up soon especially if there is wind or rain

Ring Ouzel (ringtrost)

first Swallow (låvesvale)

and first Wheatear (steinskvett)

this pipit called and showed itself to a Meadow (heipiplerke) but the thin flank streaks are very much a Tree character

this photogenic Moorhen (sivhøne) was at Østensjøvannet and is still a species I need in Maridalen