Unexpected July birds

Yesterday saw fairly good weather and a walk with Beast in Maridalen revealed a few odonata with the first Darters of the year now on the wing. Butterflies though were limited to many whites in active flight over a crop field with the only one I saw well enough to identify being a Green-veined (rapssommerfugl). A nettlebed was alive with Small Tortoiseshell caterpillars though.

On the lake a family of Black-throated Divers with two small young suggests a new and late nesting attempt as there was no suggestion that the initial attempts by either pair had been succesful with changing water levels being the likely culprit. Six adult Red-throated Divers were made of a group of 4 vocal birds who were I assume failed or non-breeding birds whereas two others including one in flight looked more like birds finding food to take to young on a distant pond in the forest.

A scolding Marsh Warbler indicated young nearby and a male Red-backed Shrike had at least one begging youngster in tow.

One doesn’t need to take lunch into the field at the moment with enormous quantities of wild raspberries and mushrooms although blueberries are scarce around Oslo this year.

Today the rain took me to Nordre Øyeren and Årnestangen. There is now also some mud in Svellet and this also held good numbers of waders. In total I had 19 species of wader with three new species compared to Sunday (Spotted Redshank, Oystercatcher and Lapwing with just Golden Plover absent today).  Totals of interesting species were 27 Grey Plover, 12 Barwits, 6 Knot, 4 Ruff, 5 Curlew Sands, 5 Sanderling, 119 Dunlin (all adults still) and 2 Spotted Redshanks.

An afternoon trip to Ikea where I spent more time queuing to get in (50 minutes) than inside allowed me to check the fjord at Fornebu on the way home. A summer plumaged Guillemot and a Pink-footed Goose were most unexpected.

Pink-footed Goose (kortnebbgås), Barnacle Geese (hvitkinngås) and Greylag Geese (grågås)

adult summer plumaged Guillemot (lomvi) which is not expected offshore Oslo in July

Nutcracker (nøtekråke) in Maridalen yesterday. This bird had mu on its bill and had probably been burying hazel nuts

and a juvenile Red-backed Shrike (tornskate)

Small Tortoiseshell (neslesommerfugl) caterpillars

the forest's gold