Guiding Kite

I had my first post-holiday guiding today and had the pleasure of showing Patricia from Georgia (USA sate and not ex-Soviet republic) the birds that Oslo has to offer in a morning session. We birded Maridalen and had a good selection of the commoner birds. At this time of the year birds have stopped singing and many birds are in post-breeding moult and become very skulky and difficult to find. Birding is therefore a lot less rich than in for example May but we did come across a few mixed flocks though which contained up to 8 species and had the first autumn migrants such as Yellow Wagtail and Whinchat.

As we were approaching the end of the outing we commented that we had not seen a single raptor so I decided to go looking for the Hobby that has been so reliable recently. He wasn’t to be found but as I scanned I picked up a large, distant raptor in a glide flight. I didn’t get a Common Buzzard vibe and thought that finally I would see my first Maridalen Honey Buzzard of the year. Getting the scope on it though I immediately saw that it was no Honey Buzzard but a kite! At the distance it was difficult to see too many details but my impression was that it had to be a Red Kite and my poor photos confirm this. This species is still rare in and around Oslo but is now becoming annual and this is the second Maridalen record. The views were not good at all but yet again guiding has turned up a good bird – I really should do it more often ;-) !!

Red Kite (glente) - just about recongnisable

Queen of Spain Fritillary (sølvkåpe) - a species of butterfly that seems to be becoming commoner around Oslo

there are far fewer large dragonflies in Maridlen which may explain why the Hobby may have moved on but there were hundreds of newly emerged Black Darters.