After missing two species in Tuesday’s guiding I of
course then heard the Corncrake in its usual place the same evening and then on
Wednesday morning had great views of a Grasshopper Warbler (which had been
discovered the day before) at Østensjøvannet. A Sedge Warbler (less than annual
in Oslo) was also reported from ØV but I only managed to locate a strange
singing Marsh Warbler in the same place.
On Wednesday evening I took David and Jaye out again
with the main target being the pure nocturnal singer Nightjar. We succeeded
royally with a male and female showing well, if briefly, at the relatively
early time of 23:15. I also made up on Tuesday’s misses with the Grasshopper
Warbler also being bagged and the Corncrake fell eventually although we did
only hear rather than see it but all is well that ends well 😊.
In Maridalen the sun shone and I spent some time
trying to find interesting dragons and damsels on Wednesday. I just found it
really frustrating with the dragons mostly flying too fast and not perching
visibly and the ones that looked interesting mostly defied my attempts at
taking pictures. A strange, and large insect proved to be a Water Scorpion
(probably common but very rarely reported) and it was quite amazing watching it
our of the water and pulling itself along sedge leaves.
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| an unusually good view of the Grasshopper Warbler |
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| Nightjat (nattravn) - it was close but all happened too quickly such that I did not get the photos that I could have hoped for |
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| lack of white in tail and wings shows it to be a female |
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| the non-breeding Whooper Swan (sangsvane) pair in Maridalen |
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| this Willow Warbler (løvsanger) was annoyed with the Grasshopper Warbler. It is a very grey and long looking bird unlike most of the local breeders |
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| Osprey (fiskeørn) in Maridalen |
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| Water Scorpion (vannskorpion) - a big beast and quite scary looking! |