Wednesday 7 April 2010

Two good days

Yesterday saw me up at Maridalen fairly early but low cloud and cold temperatures resulted in few birds although Song Thurush was new for the year and a calling Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was a good bird.

Down to Bygdøy again for another look at the geese. The Taiga Bean and White-fronted Geese were both still present along with a pair of Gadwall which were new for the year and a good bird in these parts.

At lunch I saw that a Mandarin (a Norwegian tick) for me had been sighted at Østensjøvannet so I went for it and easily saw it along with Moorhen and Coot which were new for the year.


Today I headed South East to Aurskog Høland. Here there is annually flooding which attracts water birds and especially Whooper Swans and Cranes. In total between the towns of Lierfoss and Bjørkelangen I had 480 Whopper Swans and 125 Cranes. Also to be seen were 6 Golden Plover with 50 Lapwings, 7 Green Sands, 4 Wigeon, 20 or so Teal (many hundreds will appear in the coming weeks), a singing Great Grey Shrike and a Rock Pipit in amongst 80 White Wags and 2 Meadow Pipits. The habitat of a flooded field far more suited Water Pipit which would have been a major rarity but it was just a nice scandinavian race Rock Pipit coming into summer plumage. Here are 2 videos. The first of the shrike with calling Golden Plovers in the background and the second displaying Whooper Swans (be warned they are quite noisy!).

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