OSLO BIRDER: 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).