Thursday 30 April 2015

Expectations not met

In hindsight it is difficult to believe how high my expectations for today were. With southerly winds and rain from about 5am I was expecting a fall of biblical proportions in the Oslo area. I was able to start fairly early at Fornebu and quite quickly realised the folly of my thoughts. Despite the weather seeming perfect (although perhaps too cold) there were clearly few if any newly arrived birds. I did have a female Lapland Bunting (lappspurv) which I discovered at close range but she flew off as I tried to improve on my hopeless photo attempt from Maridalen earlier this year. A pair of Little Ringed Plovers (dverglo) were the first recorded here this year and were already in breeding modus and were angrily chasing off a Common Gull (fiskemåke). I reckon that LRPs will continue to be able to breed at Fornebu even as the development continues but reckon the Ringed Plover pair that is attempting to breed will increasingly have problems. So far this year it looks like things are going OK and one of the adults was engaging in its distraction display as I went past suggesting the other adult was sitting on eggs nearby.

A Water Rail sang from the reedbed but despite being close by remained invisible and a White-fronted Goose (tundrågås) that has been around for a week showed well with Greylags although was clearly more wary than them. The small amount of white around the bill and black belly bars suggest this is the same bird as at Bygdøy and probably a 3rd cy.

Despite my disappointment at Fornebu I continued into Maridalen still with high hopes – I was thinking Golden Plovers and various other waders and ducks. Pairs of Common Scoter (svartand) and Tufted Duck (toppand) on the lake plus a flyover Merlin were all that I could must up though.
one of the LRPs



Redshank (rødstilk) and Greenshank (gluttsnipe) at Fornebu

White-fronted Goose (tundragås)


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