2014 the year that was Part I

2014 has been a good year. In the late spring/early summer I spent a lot of time in the forests and mountains of Hedmark and Oppland and got to enjoy the majority of the the Scandinavian specialities - something that I can help YOU with. Send me an email if you are interested in guiding in 2015.

Encounters with owls were a big highlight and I will cover this family in a separte post.

January

Iceland Gull (grønnlandsmåke) in Halden

an often confiding group of 6 Bearded Tits (skjeggmeis) spent the winter at Fornebu to the delight of many

February

this Iceland Gull returned to Frognerparken in Oslo for the second year

March

Snow Buntings (snøspurv) were particularly obvious this spring including ultiple sightings in Maridalen (my local patch)

A rare Bewick Swan (dvergsvane) was one of the widfowl highlights of the spring. Here it is together with the far commoner Whooper Swans (sangsvane)

March means a lot of time spent with the fabalis Bean Geese (sædgås) that migrate through Akershus. This year they had the company of a pair of White-fronted Geese (tundragås)

Three-toed Woodpeckers are never easy to find but in March and April when drumming are much easier - this one was in Maridalen

 April

2014 was a year when I had a couple of amazing encounters with Jack Snipes including this individual from Nordre Øyeren

May

Wryneck (vendehals) are undoubtedly a favourite of mine. This was my first bird of the year

Little Ringed Plovers (dverglo) bred at Fornebu this year but with the pace of development it must only be a matter of time before even this species disappears

This singing male Red-breasted Flycatcher (dvergfluesnapper) was a great Oslo record

  June

Ortolan Bunting (hortulan) just hangs on in Norway although with its decline being global and Norway being on the edge of its range there would appear to be little that can be done locally

Blyth's Reed Warbler (busksanger) however is expanding and starting to breed in Norway

Rosefinch (rosenfink) in a species that expanded into Norway during the last century and now has a stable if scarce distribution in the south

Rustic Bunting (vierspurv) expanded west into Norway last century but is now on its way out with less than 100 pairs left

Siberian Jay (lavskrike) - this species is not often encountered but once you do locate a group they often show very well

 

Broad-billed Sandpiper (fjellmyrløper) - finding this breeding bird was a definite highlight of the year

male Bluethroat (blåstrupe) - this is still a regular species in the mountains in summer but its numbers have declined significantly

Female Dotterel - a Norwegian summer speciality

 

male Yellow Wagtail of the scandinavian race thunbergi

Great Snipe (dobbeltbekkasin) at its lek. I visited "my" lek a few times this year but didn't spend much time trying to photograph them

a common wader in forest and upland marshes - Wood Sandpiper (grønnstilk)

Wood Warbler (boksanger)