Birds and stuff

The weather at the moment seems to alternate between sun one day and rain the next. Sun means I can see some butterflies, dragonflies and maybe some raptors and rain means the chance of waders or maybe a scarce gull or tern.

Starting with birds, I paid a visit to Østensjøvannet on Sunday evening after some rain. The reason for the visit was that I know that there is a Starling roost there and I hoped to find a Rosy Starling which have been turning up in North West Europe this summer. I had ca.900 Starlings to go through which were perched on electricy pylons and swirling around in large flocks but I didn’t pick up anything pink. Over the lake there were lots of Swifts eating insects and amongst them a 1^st summer Little Gull which was already moulting into its adult like 2^nd winter plumage. It was flying quite high and catching insects side by side with the Swifts.

Today during rain and southerly winds I visited Fornebu hoping there might be something interesting on the fjord but had to be content with a young Ruff walking around on a disused car park looking rather lost.

Yesterday in bright sunshine I had a family of Common Buzzards engaging in flying practice in Maridalen but I have yet to see any Honey Buzzards which suggests failed breeding

On the butterfly front there is very little to see at the moment apart from lots of Green-veined Whites (rapssommerfugler) but there are still a few Dragons and Damsels around. A visit to some small pools and marshes gave me my first ever Arctic bluet (nordblåvannymfe) Coenagrion johanssoni. I also searched for Subarctic Darner (torvmoselibelle) Aeshna subarctica which also supposedly occur in the area but I only managed to find Common Hawkers (starrlibelle) Aeshna juncea which looks almost identical.

2cy Little Gull (dvergmåke) moulting into 2nd winter plumage

hunting insects along with a couple of Swifts (tårnseiler)

a juvenile Ruff (brushane) at Fornebu

my first ever Arctic bluet (nordblåvannymfe) Coenagrion johanssoni

here it is trying to mate with a much larger and uninterested female Northern Damselfy (spydblåvnnymfe)

the female after she shook off the males advances

and a male Northern Damselfly Coenagrion hastulatum

a Common Hawker and not the Subarctic Darner I was hoping to find. The small pale (yellow) spot behind the eye being a no no

and another Common Hawker just emerged from its pupa

There are still a lot of Beautiful Damselflies (blåpraktvannymfe) in the right places

a Comma (hvit C)

Lesser Marbled Fritillary (engperlemorvinge) are the commonest Fritillary now but are looking quite worn

this Four-spotted Chaser (fireflekkbredlibelle) has also seen better days

a third species of damselfy is still on the wing - Common Blue Damselfy (innsjøvannymfe) Enallagma cyathigerum

Common Darter (senhøstlibelle) Sympetrum striolatum

Black Darter (svarthøstlibelle) Sympetrum danae