Still no YbW

Many kilometres have been walked since my last post and many a time have I stopped to listen to a distant call that I thought heard interesting but I am still to hear a Yellow-browed Warbler and my autumn is still missing something vital. Were I to have travelled to a wind blown island then I would have filled that hole but this autumn has so far not been very productive at all in Norway so I wouldn’t have seen very much at all and the would probably just have got very wet and pissed off.

Things have been so quiet here that I have found myself leaving Oslo in a last ditch effort to at least get some good raptor experiences before winter comes. A trip to Årnestangen did result in two Hen Harriers but not quite the views I was hoping for and a trip out to Aurskog Høland gave many Common Buzzards and Kestrels but nothing more interesting. An upswing in rodent numbers is happening further north which probably explains why Rough-legged Buzzards haven’t started coming through yet as they must be finding enough to eat in the mountains although the first snow which will come soon may well push them south. A couple of records of Great Grey and Hawk Owl in south eastern Norway does give some hope that these species are also moving around and the coming months will be interesting.

my first Hen Harrier (myrhauk) of the autumn and as usual I fail to get a decent photo

a juvenile Buzzard (musvåk) showed slightly better

and an adult male Kestrel (tårnfalk) even better

I got very close to this Kingfisher (isfugl) which was I believe I quite recently fledged juvenile (from a third brood?) but it was always well hidden in the riverside bushes

another collared Greylag Goose (grågås)

Also from Trøndelag in mid Norway, my sighting at Årnestangen was the first reading since it was rung. The population of Greylag Geese that goes through the south east of Norway every autumn has now become enormous

the tagged Taiga Bean Goose has now left Norway. Look at the straight line it is flying in although the kink at the end suggests it has realised it was heading too far to the south

it is not often I see a bull Moose with such large antlers as selective hunting means that there are hardly any older bulls to be seen

a farmer was cutting silage and attracted lots of covids as there were clearly lots of rodents being exposed (and perhaps killed). This Raven found something