Even though I was very happy with how spring had
been it was the autumn and early winter that were the real highlight of my birding
2022.
July
Following tradition, although one that was not
followed in 2021, most of July was spent at the cabin above the Arctic Circle
in Bodø. I had a few trips to the bird rich Klungsett fjord but failed to find
anything too exciting this year amongst the many hundreds of moulting ducks. A
Black-winged Pratincole had been found just a kilometre from the cabin three
weeks prior to my arriving and was last seen the previous day which was very galling.
Orchids and butterflies kept me occupied though and
I added 4 sought after arctic butterfly species to my list plus on the drive
home Apollo which must be the ultimate Norwegian butterfly.
Back in Oslo we saw Freya the walrus before she was
shot… and at the end of the month we managed another Beitostølen trip where
butterflies again headed the bill. (I should probably write a post dedicated to my butterfly year)
The very last day of July gave me the first ever
proof of successful breeding of Little Ringed Plovers at Maridalsvannet and an
adult Arctic Tern and juvenile Ruff were sure signs of autumn passage.
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| apollo butterfly |
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| Freya the walrus |
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| adult Arctic Tern (rødnebbterne) Maridalsvannet |
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| adult and juvenile Little Ringed Plover (dverglo) Maridalsvannet |
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| juvenile Ruff (brushane) Maridalsvannet |
August
The first week of August was not even finished when
I scored my third Maridalen and first Oslo tick of the year in the form of a
juvenile Black Tern. I was on parental errands when it was found but luck was
with me and I successfully twitched it in the evening.
The real highlight of the month was documenting the
first recorded breeding of Hobbies in the Dale with 2 young fledging and
providing weeks of entertainment.
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| my first Black Tern (svartterne) in Oslo |
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| juvenile Hobbies (lerkefalk) |
September
The month started with my first stay at Store Færder
Bird Observatory with Halvard H and despite there being no rarities it was a
great trip and one I would like to repeat. Getting up close to migrating waders
was perhaps the highlight although an out of habitat Bearded Tit was the rarest.
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| juv Little Stint (dvergsnipe) |
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| juv Sanderling (sandløper) |
Mid month twitching gave me fantastic encounters
with juvenile Pallid Harrier and Red-footed Falcon but this all paled into
insignificance on 21 September 2022 when FINALLY I added Dunlin to my Maridalen
list with not just one but a flock of three birds together with a Ringed Plover.
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| juv Red-footed Falcon (aftenfalk) |
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| juv Pallid Harrier (steppehauk) |
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| my first Dunlin (myrsnipe) in Maridalen together with a Ringed Plover (sandlo) |
At the end of the month (and through the autumn) I
started using the thermal imager I received as a 50th birthday
present and found that Jack Snipe are far commoner than we knew!
The month ended with a few days on Røst. I had been
planning on reacquainting myself with Værøy but circumstances meant a last
minute change of island. I arrived a couple of days too late to see the
Two-barred Greenish Warbler that had been found in the week prior but I was
very happy with Olive-backed Pipit, Yellow-browed Warbler and Gyr Falcon.
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| Yellow-browed Warbler (gulbrynsanger) |
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| Olive-backed Pipit (sibirpiplerke) |
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| adult Gyr Falcon (jaktfalk) |
October
After Røst I was straight up to Beitostølen for my
second late autumn visit there and although there were no unusual birds it was
nice to spend time with Sibe Jays again. On the way home a message from Halvard
alerted me to a Stonechat he had found in the Dale and that was duly twitched
at dusk 😊
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| Sibe Jay (lavskrike) |
My only proper seawatch of the autumn gave me a very
distant Sabs Gull but it was not the autumn for lots of sea gazing. Owls on the
other hand showed and Per Christian and I again had a great evening with
Tengmalm’s Owl on the edge of Oslo and Pygmy Owls also became a feature in the
Dale.
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| Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle) |
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| Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) |
Rarest bird and most infuriating was Oslo’s first Dusky
Warbler which I found at Østensjøvannet but which never allowed itself to be
photographed. This was a lifer.
Evening trips with the thermal imager revealed quite
a few Woodcock still in Maridalen but no hunting owls which was my real hope.
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| Woodcock (rugde) |
November
Bearded Tits at Fornebu in November and a female
Grey-headed Woodpecker showed well occasionally as did a wonderful Kingfisher.
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| female Grey-headed Woodpecker (gråspett) |
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| close Kingfisher (isfugl) |
Surprise of the year was perhaps a Ural Owl that was
found at two sites in Oslo and allowed itself to be admired and was my third
Oslo tick of the year.
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| Ural Owl (slagugle) |
Mid month I visited Jæren for some birding and a
birders Christmas dinner and Firecrest and Stonechats headed the bill.
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| Firecrest (rødtoppfuglekonge) |
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| a (presumed) hybrid Mallard x Gadwall together with a female Wigeon |
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| Stonechat (svartstrupe) |
December
December is not a month when you expect to find a
rare warbler but Fornebu provided me with a Hume’s Leaf Warbler which was
easily my bird of the year. I found it on December 5th and it
survived a couple of weeks despite snow and -15C but eventually seemed to succumb.
Amazingly 2 tristis Chiffchaffs were also found and ANOTHER Hume’s a kilometer
away. Fornebu had lots of other scarce birds and I must admit to nearly
forgetting about the Dale.
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| Hume's Leaf Warbler (blekkbrynsanger) in the snow |
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| and conserving heat with a tristis Chiffchaff a couple of days before the last sighting of either bird |
A Hawk Owl made me drive half an hour from Oslo but
other than that I was very content with keeping it local.
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