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Friday, 29 December 2023

2023 The Year That Was part I

I write these review posts mostly for my own benefit as it is nice to go back remember what has happened the last year so please bear with me 😊

The year was pretty good birding wise but nothing exceptional. I added two species to my Maridalen list, one the ultra-rare Gull-billed Tern and the other the ultra-common and long overdue House Sparrow.  My Oslo list also grew by two with a Broad-billed Sandpiper on Gressholmen as well as the G-b Tern and my Norwegian list grew by three with in addition to the tern a Baikal Teal and Cattle Egret.

Of the birds mentioned so far I only found the House Sparrow but I did manage to find some good birds during the course of the year including Caspian Tern, Great White Egret, Olive-backed Pipit although I feel that my efforts are not rewarded as much as I could hope for.


January

The year started pretty well with up close and personal meetings with Hawk Owl and Jack Snipe and then from the 10th I spent a lot of time with a roost of Long-eared Owls that provided much entertainment. They did precious little during the daytime but some nocturnal visits revealed hunting birds.

Bearded Tits also entertained throughout the month and were extremely popular with the photographers.

Hawk Owl (haukugle)

Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin)

Bearded Tit (skjeggmeis)

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle)

Long-eared Owl (hornugle)
LEOs vary a lot in size and colour


February

The Long-eared Owls were my main priority but towards the end of the month the first spring migrants started turning up including a record early arrival of the Scottish Taiga Bean Geese.


Taiga Bean Geese (taiga sædgjess)


the northern lights in Maridalen

an owl and a moon

March

The month started well with Oslo twitches to see Stonechat and Iceland Gull. The former is becoming almost expected in the spring whereas the latter remains a rarity and an adult as this bird as even more so.  Winter then returned but at the end of the month I twitched out of, but close to, Oslo for a magnificent male Black-throated Thrush and a Bewick’s Swan.


Stonechat (svartstrupe)

adult Iceland Gull (grønnlandsmåke)

Bewick's Swan (dvergsvane)

Black-throated Thrush (svartstrupe)

Hazel Grouse (jerpe) showed well in the month

April

The month started slowly with lots of snow still on the ground. I visited the Taiga Beans a few more times and towards the middle of the month they were joined by a family of White-fronted Geese.

Hen Harriers were perhaps bird of the month with a number seen migrating over Maridalen and best of all a male that stopped to hunt. Lapland Buntings turned up twice in Maridalen including a flock of 6 birds with the males singing being a real highlight.


family of White-fronted Geese (tundragås)

4 male Lapland Buntings (lappspurv)

male Hen Harrier (myrhauk)

May

The month started with ice still on Maridalsvannet and 1 May was a disappointing day but things quickly warmed up after that and there was quite a rush of the commoner migrants.

On 6th May a male Pochard x Tufted Duck hybrid arrived on Maridalsvannet. Given that Pochard has never been observed there I felt a bit cheated to get this hybrid but it was a very cool bird.

Fornebu delivered a bird that I long to find in Maridalen with a showy Hoopoe and a trip south of Oslo gave a large trip of Dotterel. Towards the end of the month a weekend at the cabin at Hulvik gave me an incredibly distant male Surf Scoter, a bird which had been seen migrating further south and which I knew could come my way.

Firecrests are slowly establishing themselves in Norway as breeding birds and Jeløy an hour south of Oslo is an area where they can be heard singing. I paid a visit at the end of the month and had one male.

Bird of the month was probably the Broad-billed Sandpiper that Jack D found on Gressholmen. This is the locality to find one in Oslo but I had really hoped to find one in Maridalen last year when the water was so low.


hybrid Pochard (taffeland) x Tufted Duck (toppand)

Dotterel (boltit)

male Bluethroat (blåstrupe)

Hoopoe (hærfugl)

male Firecrest (rødtoppfuglekonge)

Broad-billed Sandpiper (fjellmyrløper)

a 1cy male Black Redstart (svartrødstjert) at the month end


June

The month started with a trip to Valdres with Conor in a repeat of our trip of 2021. All the usual, but great, suspects were seen.

Butterflies and dragonflies started taking over back in Oslo (and it was a very good season for them) but on the 10th when birds were far from my mind and I was firing up the BBQ with a beer in hand I was lucky enough to be driven up to Maridalen to see the undoubted bird of the year, a Gull-billed Tern. This was a species I would never have imagined would turn up in the Dale and when I was sent pictures asking to help identify it I refused to entertain the idea…

A trip away from Oslo gave me long wished for displaying Broad-billed Sandpiper, new butterflies and two of Norway’s rarest breeding birds – Ortolan and Rustic Bunting (a single pair of Snowy Owls that bred in the north of Norway this year after a number of years absence may deserve the title of rarest breeder).

My rarest find of the year came in the form of two Caspian Terns that I stumbled upon at Årnestangen.


Hawk Owl (haukugle) in Valdres

an unusually close view of a singing Cuckoo (gjøk) with an angry Willow Warbler (løvsanger)

bird of the year - Gull-billed Tern (sandterne) at Maridalsvannet

and my find of the year - Caspian Tern (rovterne) at Årnestangen

displaying Broad-billed Sandpiper (fjellmyrløper)

and breeding Red-necked Phalarope (svømmesnipe)

my best ever views of Nightjar (nattravn) in near daylight

the female from Norway's only known pair of Rustic Bunting (vierspurv)
and the male


and the male from Norway's only know breeding pair of Ortolan Buntings (hortulan)


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