We had a return to winter weather yesterday with snow and
sleet all day! It is forecast to be the same tomorrow and then will then get a
bit warmer at the weekend and next week.
I had high hopes for the snow today and in the end was not
disappointed. I started in Maridalen and hoped that there would be a large fall
of ducks and waders and the fields would be covered in pipits and wagtails.
That wasn’t exactly how it turned out but there were 3 Wood Sands and 5
Greenshank on the fields (rather than the lake) which is unusual and there were
quite a few thrushes including a Ring Ouzel. On the lake there was a Slavonian
Grebe (only my 3rd record here) which showed very well despite the
snow!
I decided at this point to warm up in the car and head out
to east to Svellet and Aurskog Høland. I was hoping for lots of waders and had
a specific plan to find Dotterel. Svellet has very little mud and much fewer
waders although there were still 70 Wood Sands, 60 Greenshank, 15 Whimbrel, 6
Redshank, 5 Ruff, Oystercatcher, Curlew and LRP. The waders were quite flighty
and there were higher numbers along the Nitelva River and on Merkja than
yesterday. Merkja also still held a male Garganey.
Moving east I found a flock of 161 Golden Plover but no
Dotterel can you believe it. I checked a number of other suitable fields and
racked up a few small groups of Whimbrel and another small flock of Golden
Plover but nothing else apart from Lapwings which all looked to have had their
first breeding attempts ruined by ploughing but some seemed to have relaid.
At Hellesjøvannet there were hundreds of hirundines and I
hoped their might be something good amongst them including Black Terns and
Little Gulls but in the end I couldn’t even find a Sand Martin with just House
Martins and Swallows represented. They frequently flew up alarm calling but the
only raptor I saw was a Peregrine. I had no Marsh Harriers here but had two
males later by Hemnessjøen which are probably breeding birds there. There were
quite a few Yellow Wagtails and Willow Warblers feeding in the reeds at
Hellesjøvannet where a surprising sound was that of a singing Reed Warbler.
I decided to head back to Oslo with enough time to pop into
Maridalen and that turned out to be a good decision. I kept scanning ploughed
and sowed fields and a black corvid made me stop. I first thought Raven but
when it stood beside a Hooded Crow I realised I was dealing with a Carrion Crow
which is not annual around Oslo. There is always the possibility of a hybrid
but this bird looked all black. I also had to rule out a 2cy Rook but size and
structure all match Crow.
When I got back to Maridalen it was still snowing and was
not pleasant at all. I stuffed the camera under my jacket and went walking over
the fields. There were now 2 Ring Ouzels and 2 Mistle Thrushes (rare here after
April), 7 Wheatear (up from 2 in the morning), still Wood Sands, 400 Wood
Pigeons and best of all a stonking male Lapland Bunting. It flew up from the
path in front of me and flew around for what seemed like an eternity before
eventually landing in the middle of the fields where some rocks means the
farmer can’t plough. By this time it was snowing heavily but I managed some
shots.
I then topped it all off by finding two male Bluethroats!
I was very happy with my day but it finished even better
when I got a text from Stig Kalvatn at 1930 – 3 Little Gulls in Maridalen!! A
patch tick for me which I was enjoying 15 minutes later. When I saw them they
were resting on a rock in the lake but Stig had had them hawking over the
fields.
As I write this at 6am it is still snowing heavily outside
so I am looking forward to finding out what more Maridalen has to offer….
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| May 10th in Maridalen |
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| male Bluethroat (blåstrupe) #1 |
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| #2 |
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| The Carrion Crow (svartkråke) |
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| Carrion Crow and Hooded Crow |
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| in this picture the bill looks much more like a Rook (kornkråke) but it just shows how careful one should be with poor quality pictures |
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| Golden Plovers (heilo) but no Dotterel yesterday |
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| Lapland Bunting (lappspurv) - a surprisingly OK flight photo |
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| and on the deck with Fieldfares (gråtrost) and a Chaffinch (bokfink) |
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| photogenic Lapwing (vipe) |
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| 3 adult Little Gulls (dvergmåke) in the gloom on Maridalsvannet - a patch tick! |
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| male Marsh Harrier (sivhauk) |
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| an unusual combination: Mistle Thrush (duetrost) and Wood Sandpiper (grønnstilk) |
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| and late Ring Ouzels (ringtrost) |
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| Slavonian Grebe (horndykker) on Maridalsvannet with Mallards. Note that one of the Mallards is an "intersex" bird |
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| Swallow |
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| some of the hundreds of Swallows and House Martins at Hellesjøvannet |
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| waders at Svellet including Whimbrel (småspove), Oystercatcher (tjeld) and Ruff (brushane) |
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| Whimbrels |
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| the weather made finding insects difficult and this Willow Warbler (løvsanger) was searching in a reedbed where a Reed Warbler (rørsanger) was singing |
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| This female Yellow Wagtail (gulerle) is probably of the race flava with its strong supercillium and clean breast but females are not easy |