OSLO BIRDER: 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.