All the birds I wanted to see in one place at Mosvannet

After our shopping at the biggest grocery store at Amfi Mall at Madlamark, we decided to go for a jaunt around the lake in the greeneries (it's summer time) as compensation. Temperature was hovering around 26 degrees and the skies blue. We packed shrimp salad in ciabatta for lunch and off we went to the woods.

It's a huge piece of woodlands with an expansive lake in the middle, the verge of the lake is surrounded by tall old trees. This tme of year they are all fresh and green. Plenty of activities along the path : jogging, strolling, walking the dog, biking among others. There's also a kunts museum along the way for those who prefer a slower pace stimulation. Birdlife was also very lively amongst the foliage, on the waters it's close to being fabulous.

The birds in the foliage reminds me very much of birding in the rainforest, you can hear them calling from all over the place, but you are extremely lucky to get a quick glimpse. If you peer hard enough, you'll probably see them since they are either black, brown or brownish. In Borneo, they are most likely green, so you may not even see them.

Those on the water are different, another story altogether. They maybe flitting about amongst the reeds happily ekeing out a living, bring out the sandwich and they'll be all over you like some imported Labuans from Jupiter 8. So this day I had my fill of some of my once rare and sought after birds (in Malaysia anyways) at a park in Norway while eating shrimp sandwich on a bench. I must thank that cute little blonde girl who brought her leftover breakfast bread to happily feed the denizens of the lake.

Eurasian Coot. I remember birding in pouring rain with Musa Musbah and Sara Wong out in Pujut 7 Lakes for what we thought was a coot, turned out to be Common Moorhen.

Black-headed Seagull. Closest view I had of this guy previously was on a tiny sandflat in Lawas during MNS Waterbirds and Wetlands Habitat Survey, it was a tiny dot amongst thousands of terns at the time.

Tufted Duck. We (Musa, Sara and I) may have seen it one heavily raining day at Pujut Lakes but was never certain. A few of them came along for lunch today.

Great Crested Grebe. I saw this fella many times while living in Holland, always from a fast train or from a car going to some other destination. I hope to capture their pre-mating ritual on these pages one of these days, Mosvannet could be a great place to start.

Chaffinch. A new bird for me.

I'm glad we made that Mosvannet trip, within the week I cleared all my "must see rare Malaysian ticks when in Norway" list. What is rare for some, are common as breadcrumbs in other places. That's how nature works out the distribution map. Now that I'm over my "maybe rare" list from Malaysia, I 'm hoping to see more less familiar birds as I spend my days in this new birding patch of mine.