Record early migrants

Finally there were some unexpected birds.

Yesterday morning in Maridalen was very quiet and this morning started the same. Despite some slight overnight rain there were still very few birds to see with over 100 Fieldfares on the fields the only obvious arrival until around 8am when suddenly lots happened. First a Wryneck started singing, then two Swallows flew over, then a Willow Warbler sang, a Marsh Harrier flew over and a Slavonian Grebe appeared on the lake!! The Wryneck and WW are my earliest EVER in Norway, both by 4 days, and can definitely be described as exceptional records.

Here is my total eBird checklist and a short video with as far as I can hear the sound of 10 species: Wryneck (vendehals), Chaffinch (bokfink), Willow Warbler (løvsanger), Greylag Goose (grågås), Blue Tit (blåmeis), Chiffchaff (gransanger), Great Tit (kjøttmeis), Song Thrush (måltrost), Curlew (storspove) and Green Sandpiper (skogsnipe).

a very early Wryneck (vendehals)

and an equally early Willow Warbler (løvsanger) - if you think this picture doesn't show why it isn't a Chiffchaff (gransanger) then you can hear it singing in the video

my first Swallow (låvesanger) of the year

and already my third Marsh Harrier (sivhauk) of the year in Maridalen. Surely some other half decent raptors should turn up soon

a third Lapwing (vipe) is now sitting