Honey

 Yesterday, a walk in Maridalen to air both the Beast and Jr resulted in a Honey Buzzard and a evidence of successful breeding. It is amazing how difficult this species can be – after sighting three together a week ago I have failed to find any and had assumed that breeding had failed this year and the birds had moved off already. Then yesterday there was suddenly a raptor circling low over the forest 300 metres away. I raised the bins and saw what looked like a bird hanging from its talons. I assumed therefore Goshawk but before I had a chance to look at it properly noticed two raptors and Raven much further away. I turned my attention to these but could get no further than buzzard sp. I returned my attention to the closer bird and realised, eventually, that it was a Honey! It was by now further away but I took some pictures. They show that it was carrying a branch in its talons. It doesn’t look to have been picked up accidentally with a food item as I see no food and is therefore most likely nesting material as they often add to the nest as the young make it messy and some greenery helps freshen things up. The bird was a female and is probably the bird I photographed on 11 August.

I also had a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in Maridalen and also had one on Saturday in a different location. These are my first record in Maridalen this year of a species that is becoming very scarce in Oslo. Hopefully though these two records are a sign of a good breeding season.

female Honey Buzzard (vepsevåk) with nesting material