Curlew Sandpipers

Nordre Øyeren is a fantastic place for waders in both autumn and spring but views are normally at long range and often with heat haze and back lit meaning a visit can often be quite frustrating with a number of possibles having to be put to the back of your mind (I’ve worked very hard with two possible Pec Sands this autumn before having to just realise I was never going to be able to confirm anything). In the “good old” days it was possible to walk out over the mudlfats and chase the waders around but thankfully in a very rare example of nature conservation in Norway the mudlfats are now legally off limits so the birds get to rest and feed without human disturbance.

Yesterday though I had the rare experience of being able to get close to some waders without breaking any laws (at least I believe so) and saw 4 Curlew Sandpipers amongst 140 Dunlins. Rather annoyingly there were no Pec Sand candidates among them and surprisingly no stints or Bb Sands. I had 5 Great White Egrets at long range and then a single bird flying overhead but a hoped for raptor bonanza failed to materialise.

In Maridalen an adult and juv Black-throated Diver suddenly popped up on the lake. They have not bred there but will most likely have bred close by on a lake where water levels (somewhat surprisingly) did not fluctuate too much.

Curlew Sandpipers (tundrasnipe) and Dunlins (myrsnipe), all are juveniles

4 Dunlin and 3 Curlew Sands

and 4 Curlew Sands in this picture

Dunlins

Great White Egret (egretthegre)

5 of them

juvenile and adult Black-throated Diver (storlom) that surprisingly appeared on Maridalsvannet

Raptors at Hellesjøvannet

With Maridalen seemingly not able to give me my autumn fix of Honey Buzzards I decided to head south east to Hellesjøvannet. I used to visit this lake quite regularly but over the last few years my visits have fallen to just 1-2 times annually. This is a shame as it is a great site especially for raptors but I now find driving such dead time that the 1 hour drive has put me off. I have had some great views of Honey Buzzards here over the years although I had noticed hardly any records from the area this year so was very unsure whether I would see any.

On the way a stop to look over Nordre Øyeren produced 4 Great White Egrets in the same bay as well as my first Pochard of the year (a species I knew I would also see at Hellesjøvannet).

Hellesjøvannet did not disappoint on the raptor front with 8 species being notched up although amazingly enough this did not include Kestrel! Marsh Harriers breed here and a noisy, and only recently out of the nest, juvenile was still being fed by both parents. There were also 2 1cy birds flying around the area which much have come from another brood. Ospreys were seen regularly and were taking fish away in two different directions suggesting two nests still had young.

Common Buzzards are the most numerous raptor and there were a couple of very pale birds which I saw quite distantly. When I suddenly had a pale bird quite close by I assumed it was one of these but I soon realised it was a young Honey Buzzard! 24 August is very early for juvenile HB to be on the wing in Norway and I can find only one earlier record documented with a photo (there are MANY other earlier reports including some by experienced observers and some that have even been “accepted” including from Jul ?!?! but they are clearly wrong and the ones from July and first half of August need to be just deleted from the system. As juv HBs are very different from the adults I assume that these reports are not a case of right species but wrong age but are wrong species and are presumably Common Buzzards. Whilst I am on the topic of incorrect reporting the same applies to Hobby with the reporting of juveniles also wrong although here it is probably just 2cy birds being wrongly aged although some records are clearly juvenile Peregrines being misidentified.)

The HB soared around and was joined by a Hobby and then a Common Buzzard with them interacting and generally making my day 😊

The other raptors that I notched up were Sparrowhawk, Goshawk and a distant White-tailed Eagle.

 

Visits to Maridalen have revealed nothing out of the ordinary but upto 12 Black-throated Divers on the lake have been a nice sight. All are adults indicating poor breeding success in the area where fluctuating water levels have clearly been a problem.

pale juvenile Honey Buzzard (vepsevåk)

and a pale Common Buzzard (musvåk)

the HB (top) with a Common Buzzard

and with an adult Hobby (lerkefalk) for company

all three birds (I have moved the closer together)

the Hobby gave the HB quite a bit of grief

juvenile Marsh Harrier (sivhauk)

the wings are not yet fully grown

mum

Hooded Crow (kråke) and Osprey (fiskeørn)

with a small pike

4 Great White Egrets (egretthegre) distantly at Nordre Øyeren

calling Black-throated Diver (storlom)

migrating Whinchats (buskskvett) are common in the crop fields in Maridalen

Dolphins and Bluethroats

A long weekend in England and school starting up again have left no time for blogging until now although I have been out and about primarily checking up on my exciting scarce breeders where the young have now left the nest although are not yet independent (more to come soon).

Otherwise Maridalen has delivered a couple of Bluethroats which is always a highlight of the autumn and there have been regular Whinchats, Yellow Wagtails and the first Wheatears. I have tried a couple of times to look for raptors and although I have recorded a few birds there has been a complete lack of Honey Buzzards. At this time of the year Honey Buzzards is nearly guaranteed if there has been successful breeding as the adults can be seen flying back and forth from distant nests with wasp comb in their claws. It is of course disappointing and a little worrying not to see them but it is all part of the cycles that long lived species go through and hopefully next year will be a good year. Common Buzzards have not been numerous either although a pair in the valley looks to have had raised 2 young. I had been hoping to find a Red-footed Falcon or two as a major invasion is occurring further south and east but I failed to turn the Kestrels and Hobbies I saw into anything rarer.

 A trip to Nordre Øyeren gave me good views of a couple of Great White Egrets.

On the butterfly front there is a bit more variety now and I have finally seen my first Queen of Spain Fritillary of the year.

After the Norwegian state made the expected (it is after all Norway where there is no other solution to “troublesome” animals than killing them) but very short sighted and uninformed decision to kill Freya the walrus it has been exciting to see some other mammals in the Oslofjord with a pod of around 60 Atlantic White-sided Dolphins (kvitskjeving) seeming to find lots to eat (many people believe the Oslo fjord is devoid of fish but this is very clearly not the case although some traditional species such as cod are undoubtedly in trouble).

1cy male Bluethroat (blåstrupe)

1cy female

the classic Maridalen shot

Atlantic White-sided Dolphin (kvitskjeving) and homosapien

a baby

I only witnessed jumping a couple of times and at long range

a Siskin (grønnsisik)

and a vert tatty Willow Warbler (løvsanger)

male Roe Deer

and a female