2018
must go down as a good year. I had a lot of guiding in the spring and early
summer and with Great Grey and Hawk Owls in Hedmark, Great Snipe and Dotterel
in Oppland and Red-breasted Flycatchers closer to home there were always some
special species to show.
I
also managed to find some good birds with Norway’s 6th Greater Spotted Eagle, 8th Pied-billed
Grebe and and refinding (for the 4th succesive year) Norway’s 3rd (Asian) White-winged Scoter topping the bill.
This year’s Værøy trip was not blessed with the best weather but a Red-flanked
Bluetail ensured that I was a happy camper and a couple days with Kjell in
Jæren in November gave real quality birding.
My
year list of 253 was a very respectable total and included a surprising 8
Norwegian ticks: White-backed Woodpecker, Black-throated Thrush, Stonechat,
Pied-billed Grebe, Brown Shrike, Buff-bellied Pipit, Greater Spotted Eagle and
Desert Wheatear. With the long overdue pecker and chat, I have now seen all of
Norway’s breeding species with the exception of Leaches Petrel which will
require some luck to see. My Akershus year list of 217 was a new record and was
a result of it being a good year rather than a lot of twitching. 180
species in Oslo was also very respectable and of these the 138 were in the
mighty Maridalen. When I first started to record an Oslo list in 2012, 150
species was considered a real milestone so it just goes to show what a little
focus on a local patch can achieve.
Two species that were alarmingly scarce this year were Wryneck and Wood Warbler. Wryneck had been relatively numerous in 2017 but Wood Warbler was also very scarce in 2016 but had been relatively numerous in 2015. It will be interesting to see their numbers in 2019.
January
started with the Firecrest and Bearded Tits surviving the cold and very snowy
winter at Fornebu and an Arctic Redpoll in Oslo’s Botanical Garden. Kingfishers
and Hawk Owl were also to be found and some warm southerly
winds on 18 January brought two very unseasonal Lapwings.
In
February I guided a group of Spaniards in Hedmark looking for taiga
specialities and we scored big time with Pine Grosbeak, Hawk Owl and Siberian
Jay. Highlight of the month for me though was finally seeing a White-backed Woodpecker in
Norway.
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| Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) in Maridalen in February |
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| Pine Grosbeaks (konglebit) in Hedmark |
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| Hawk Owl (haukugle) in Hedmark |
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| Siberian Jay (lavskrike) in Hedmark |
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| Finally, a White-backed Woodpecker (hvitryggspett) |
March
started with an NSKF (rarities committee meeting) at Jæren and here I was able
to tick Black-throated Thrush plus see a male Steller’s Eider and best of all
close views of Woodcocks feeding on Kjell’s lawn. A Glaucous Gull near Drammen gave exceptional views as it hung around ice fishermen waiting for cast offs.
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| Black-throated Thrush (svartstrupetrost) |
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| Steller's Eider (stellerand) |
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| Woodcock (rugde) |
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| Glaucous Gull (polarmåke) |
April
started very wintery which caused the Scottish Bean Geese lots of problems and
they staged for most of the time at a new site further south in Østfold and a
few trips here proved very birdy at the start of the month and I was able to
show Magnus and Denise from Scotland “their” birds on the spring staging
grounds. Flocks of Snow Buntings graced Maridalen and the wintery conditions elsewhere made a relatively ice free Fornebu very productive for a short period with Black Redstarts, Shore Larks and
the absolute highlight for me being finding a male Stonechat! Purple Sandpipers
were yet again a spring feature at Bygdøy and were ridiculously tame at times. My search for a self found male Pallid Harrier continued with a second hybrid male at Årnestangen..
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| Snow Buntings (snøspurv) in Maridalen |
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| Purple Sandpiper (fjæreplytt) at Bygdøy |
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| Stonechat (svartstrupe) at Fornebu |
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| Hybrid Pallid x Hen Harrier (stepp x myrhauk) at Årnestangen |
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| and a pure Hen Harrier same place |
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