2023 The Year That Was part II

 July

July is high summer and this year I was even more focused on bugs than ever before (the bug year will get its own post later on) and seem to have recorded very few birds although I did spend a lot of time with the breeding Hobbies. At the end of the month Red-backed Shrike families became very visible and I found 4 pairs with young which is I think the best ever result.

juvenile Red-backed Shrike (tornskate)

female Hobby (lerkefalk) on the nest

August

August was taken up primarily with the breeding Hobbies and Honey Buzzards but I did fit in plenty of other birding. August is always good month in Maridalen for returning migrants and birds like Bluethroat and Yellow Wagtail were regular. A juvenile Cuckoo was a rare sighting here and when it got chased by a juvenile Sparrowhawk I was lucky to get a much acclaimed picture of the two together.

Undoubted rarity of the month was a family of House Sparrows in Maridalen which was my first sighting ever (and I’ve been going there for 22 years!).

Årnestangen was flooded most of the month so had little to offer in the way of waders although Fornebu picked up the slack slightly.

At the end of the month the Taiga Beans returned and it was suddenly autumn!

Sparrowhawk (spurvehauk) and Cuckoo (gjøk)

Great White Egret (egretthegre)

male House Sparrow (gråspurv) with Tree Sparrows (pilfink) - a Maridalen tick

young Bluethroat (blåstrupe) on autumn migration in Maridalen

juvenile Hobby

adult male Honey Buzzard (vepsevåk) on the nest with one of two downy young visible

September

Fornebu gave me Little Stint and Curlew Sandpiper which were my only records for the year and also my first ever at the locality. An adult Med Gull then delighted a different places in the fjord and I followed up the Honey Buzzards until they left on the 14th. But September was all about going to Værøy for the first time since pre Covid and the expectations were fulfilled although it is said that my expectations are quite low (hearing the call of Yellow-browed Warbler does it for me 😊)

Værøy did not deliver any major rarities but Red-flanked Bluetail, Olive-backed Pipit, Little Bunting, Richard’s Pipit and the afore mentioned Y-b Warbler made me a happy bunny. In addition there was an unprecedented arrival of Rough-legged Buzzards, lots of Jack Snipe, Arctic Redpolls, and a Hawkie.

Curlew Sandpiper (tundrasnipe)

adult Med Gull (svartehavsmåke)

juvenile Honey Buzzard

Rough-legged Buzzard (fjellvåk) with rat on Værøy

Richard's Pipit (tartapiplerke)

Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin)

Yellow-browed Warbler (gulbrynsanger)

Olive-backed Pipit (sibirpiplerke)

Red-flanked Bluetail (blåstjert)

Arctic Redpoll (polarsisik)

Little Bunting (dvergspurv)

October

October is the month for mega rare vagrants but the month started for me with the mega sedentary Siberian Jays in Beitostølen. Evening trips with the thermal camera revealed good numbers of Woodcocks in Maridalen although still no owls other than Tawny.

Fornebu illustrated that you don’t need to travel to an offshore island for a vagrant with Yellow-browed Warbler and a heard only probably Olive-backed Pipit and Bearded Tits turned up in good numbers. I have got into the habit of trying to find Tengmalm’s Owl in October and I had a few sessions this year but was only successful once which was of course the time I wasn’t trying to show others…

The rarest bird of the year, although definitely not my bird of the year was an adult male Baikal Teal that first turned up on an urban lake in eclipse plumage and then was refound in better habitat with Mallards a couple of weeks later as it was well on its way into its proper, and quite amazing, plumage. Non-ringed it will be tickable but didn’t give a wow feeling. A second twitch in the month gave me my first Norwegian Cattle Egret and I almost started liking twitching 😊

Pygmy Owl became regular in Maridalen from the end of the month and for the rest of the year but it was a record late Tree Pipit that stole the show and in Sørkedalen there was also Oslo’s latest ever Wheatear but a fall of snow right at the end of the month seemed to seal the fate of both birds and they were not seen afterwards.

Siberian Jay (lavskrike)

Yellow-browed Warbler at Fornebu

nocturnal Woodcock (rugde) in Maridalen

male Bearded Tit (skjeggmeis)

and female

Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle(

adult male Baikal Teal (gulkinnand) in eclipse

and two weeks later starting to look the part

Cattle Egret (kuhegre)

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle)

record late Tree Pipit (trepiplerke)

and record late Wheatear (steinskvett)

November

November is rarely a particularly exciting birding month but this year was above expectations. Grey-headed Woodpeckers in Maridalen, Waxwings, Bearded Tits, Snow Buntings, Jack Snipe, Pygmy Owls and visits to my Hazel Grouse kept things interesting and colourful. And then there were some proper scarce birds in Maridalen with Great White Egret, Black Redstarts and an adult White-tailed Eagle on the deck plus the House Sparrows were still around!

Snow Buntings (snøspurv) in the snow

Two Jack Snipe at the beginning of the month but that was to be my last sighting

only Maridalen's second ever Great White Egret was dropped in very briefly

and on the same day the Dale's fourth Black Redstart (svartrødstjert) also turned up

it is difficult to get too much of Hazel Grouse (jerpe)

Grey-headed Woodpecker (gråspett)

Pygmy Owl with dinner

this winters Great Grey Shrike (varsler) in Maridalen is unusually confiding

adult White-tailed Eagle

December

This December was not to be the one with any of the Taiga Trio of years gone by so no Piney, no Hawkie and no GGO. Maridalen continued to offer up its new, but less exciting trio of Pygmy Owl, Grey-headed ‘pecker and Great Grey Shrike but I couldn’t find anything more exciting. A Little Auk and a Shag at the docks were Oslo quality though.

Little Auk (alkekonge)

Waxwings (sidensvans)

Shag (toppskarv) and Razorbill (alke)