OSLO BIRDER: Cabin life update

An update from the cabin. After a week of very hot, dry weather we now have cooler, wetter weather which is forecast to continue for at least a week. This means I need to postpone my butterfly searching plans but I have already done well on this front. A random stop at a nice looking bog gave my first Norse Grayling (nornens ringvinge) which is an infrequently reported species but one I have had on my radar up here for a while. I have now seen 63 species of butterfly in Norway of which all but one are species I have just stumbled upon. If I am to see many more species though then I will need to make some more specific trips (such as to Junkerdalen again) and hope they are successful.

Close to the cabin I have found two new species for Bodø - Germanium Argus (brunblåvinge) and Moorland Clouded Yellow (myrgulvinge). Bodø is no backwater for butterfly observations so finding two new species suggests range expansion rather than them just being overlooked.

I have also found two new species of blue for the cabin area: Holly Blue (vårblåvinge) and Little Blue (dvergblåvinge) and highlighting the importance of always checking every blue you see I had 3 butterflies chasing each other and they turned out to be Mazarine (engblåvinge), Little and Northern Brown Argus (sankthans).

I’ve also been looking for orchids and have added one species - frog orchid (grønnkurle) - to my local list which takes it up to 12 species although the local broad-leaved helleborines (breiflangre) have been mowed down so I haven’t seen them this year. The local roadside has been rather viscously cut but this seems to be because they are about to improve the road - otherwise they are very good with verge cutting here and the verges sre extremely flower rich.

Birds have been a bit disappointing although a family of Pied Flycatchers in one of the boxes at the cabin provide constant entertainment.