OSLO BIRDER: Back in the saddle

Today I was back in the guiding saddle and it felt good. With Corona restrictions being lifted and Norway really not having suffered (yet) it felt OK to be out again yesterday morning. I was guiding David and Jaye, an American couple who are living in Oslo at the moment and who are keen users of eBird which I have also recently become.

Our first target was Black Grouse which meant we had as early a start as possible (05:30) so that we could hopefully catch them lekking. We headed for the most accessible lek that I know of and as we approached after a good uphill walk we heard at least one male displaying. I flushed a female from the ground and we then approached the male. It was both bubbling and croaking but flew out of a tree top (where we had not previously seen it) at long range and showed briefly in flight. That was then it. We found no other birds despite waiting in the area and did not even hear any distant birds. We had succeeded in finding the species but I had hoped for much better views even though it was very cool to hear the bird. Maybe the early and hot spring means that peak activity has passed.

There is starting to be a bit of variety to the dawn chorus in the forest. Song Thrushes and Chaffinches dominated but we also had Willow Warblers and surprisingly also Tree Pipits with at least 5 birds heard singing which were my first for the year.

Surprisingly, our long walk in the forest did not reveal a single woodpecker but relocating to Woodpecker Wood gave us a pair of Three-toed, nest building Great Spots and a flyover Black. In addition we saw Green later. There were disappointingly few birds on the fields but we did see Ring Ouzel and Mistle Thrush plus my first Oslo Wheatear of the year. In the deciduous woodland Chiffchaff, Willow Warblers and the first Blackcaps were singing.