Breeding bird survey in Norway: day 1

The night was really short. I struggled getting up after having only a few hours sleep but what made me think twice was that it was raining. Not heavily but it was raining. A few birds were singing so I decided to give it a try. At certain point it even started snowing and birds became quieter. That was the moment when I decided to give up. Before that I did see and hear a few good birds for me that I haven’t seen for some time. At the first 3-4 points where I did the counts I had a few Common Redpolls, Bramblings in breeding plumage which we rarely get, Redwings and lots of Willow Warblers. There was some droppings of Moose and I also had white and brown Hare which I am not sure how to treat. It would be strange to be artic hare, shouldn’t it? I just had to stop with the survey after the first 4 point counts. Nothing was there and it was raining and snowing. I really didn’t want to waste a whole day like this especially having in mind that I have 10 more to go.

I went back to the tent and got some of that needed sleep.

Well it is now 11 a.m. and the rain still hasn't stopped.

The afternoon was pretty difficult. The rain didn’t stop and I couldn’t do anything. I spend most of the time in the car. It was pretty depressing. Did some reading but that was it. I was occasionally changing the location to make some difference but then still stay in the car. Tried a bit of birdwatching from the car but not very productive. Did see an Arctic Skua, a Red-breasted Merganser and 2 Arctic Terns though. I was getting a bit worried about this rate of progress. The only thing I could do is hoping that the weather will improve.

Went to bed or should i say into the tent as early as 7 p.m. for an early and hopefully productive start.