My lack of recent blog activity does not reflect a
lack of birding activity, to the contrary I have been busy with both guiding
and good birding. On Sunday I again had the company of local photographer Eirik
and despite rain and wind we had a successful day around Nordre Øyeren. Today I
was guiding David and Jaye again and this time with a focus on the nocturnal
singers. With a desire to see rather than just hear the birds I chose not to go
nocturnal (I also like my bed) but rather visit known birds and hope to see
them early in the morning. The day started disappointingly with Corncrake and
Grasshopper Warbler that had both been heard during the night deciding not to
make themselves known. The Corncrake was particularly annoying because I have
heard and seen the bird each of the last three days and even managed to take good
photos of it. Time will tell whether the birds had moved on to pastures new at
the end of the night or whether we were just unlucky. The morning definitely
ended on a high though with Blyth’s Reed and River Warblers heard and seen REALLY
well and then a visit to the Tengmalm’s Owl nest (thx Rune for the tip) revealed
a youngster ready to leave the nest. We also had many Marsh Warblers, Wryneck
and Rosefinch during the day. We will have a nocturnal trip later in the week
to look for Nightjar which you really have no chance of finding otherwise.
Yesterday, whilst reccying for today’s trip I found
a tatty 1st summer Little Gull at Maridalsvannet which is only my
third record there.
There are lot of pictures and videos to enjoy here so I suggest pouring a glass of wine, sitting back and enjoying. Don't drink too much wine though or you might think some of the videos have been taken without a tripod... 😂
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| Corncrake (åkerrikse) |
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| River Warbler (elvesanger) my best ever views |
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| and pretty good views of Blyth's Reed Warbler (busksanger) |
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| young Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle) close to leaving the nest |
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| Little Gull (dvergmåke) and Swift (tårnseiler) |
and some videos taken with my phone recording the sounds
in this video in addition to the BRW can you hear Marsh Warbler and Common Rosefinch (which the BRW also mimicked)
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| cropped close up of Corncrake |
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| more River Warbler |
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| compare the mouth colour with the BRW lower down |
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| when seen like this I doubt many would get the ID right |
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| Blyth's Reed Warbler |
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| as with other acro warblers it has a much more orange mouth |
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| Tengmalm's Owl |
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| Little Gull |
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| picking insects off the water surface |
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| with Black-headed Gull (hettemåke) |
the weather has not been great for butterflies or dragonflies nor have I had much time for them but today I saw my first Large Skipper and Swallowtail
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| Large Skipper (engsmyger) |
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| this Swallowtail (svalestjert) is only the second I can remember seeing in Maridalen and was in a real hurry and disappeared quite quickly |