I’ve been attending a great gathering of gardeners from all over Norway the last couple of days, organised by my colleagues at the Ringve Botanical Gardens.
These relatively mild days has brought with it the full first wave of spring migrants to this part of Norway and while we were on a tour of the gardens today, the place was full of newly arrived active migrants, excited by the time of year….fieldfares (gråtrost) were chasing each other through the tree tops, redwings and a song thrush (rødvingetrost and måltrost) were singing as were wood pigeons (ringdue) and chiffchaffs (gransanger) whilst white wagtails (linerle) were feeding in the grass and geese were passing over. It started to rain heavily as soon as we finished…perfect timing…and returning home the muddy water from the small river that enters the bay below the house was evident…and a robin (rødstrupe) was singing his bittersweet song! Life is good!
Spring can’t be stopped and this woodpigeon (ringdue) could be heard singing from the house today and I was woken at 6am (was 5am) by a robin (rødstrupe) singing in the garden (no complaints, always a beautiful moment to hear a returning Robin) ;) A black-headed gull (hettemåke) was also my first of the year and 4 pairs of Oystercatcher (tjeld) were feeding in the bay!!
I also heard singing siskin, great tit, blue tit, greenfinch and coal tit today!
Reports are also coming in of starlings (stær) arriving!
With the mild weather and bare patches on the fields, it’s good times again for the crow family…it seems that, by the over 300 jackdaws (kaie) counted resting in the bay before flying into the roost a km or so west of here on Friday and 250 flying over this afternoon, that overwintering hasn’t been so bad after all!
The flock on Friday was the lagest registered this year in our area!
1 and 2. Part of a flock counted from videos of 310 Jackdaws (kaie) resting in the bay on 23rd March with about 100 hooded crows (kråke)
3. A large flock of about 250 Jackdaws flew over this afternoon
A large flock of bramblings (bjørkefink) in the garden this afternoon, at least 120! This is double the highest winter flock ever recorded in Malvik, but small compared to a flock of 350 seen in February in the north of the county! Large numbers of brambling have overwintered in Norway this winter!
The first day of spring, snow showers and, right on the dot, I heard my first yellowhammer singing this morning whilst I was in the outhouse….managed to capture one short “Little bit of bread” phrase.
“1896, Edward Marston, By meadow and stream: pleasant memories of pleasant places
It is delightful to hear the yellowhammer’s song — his only song : “A little bit of bread and no cheese.”
1937, Lovely places I remember (in The Rotarian, volume 50, number 2, February 1937)
“A little bit of bread and no cheese!” cry the yellowhammers petulantly. But no one takes any notice of them.”
