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.
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| Hawk Owl (haukugle) |
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| Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin) |
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| Bearded Tit (skjeggmeis) |
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| Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) |
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| Long-eared Owl (hornugle) |
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| 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.
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| Taiga Bean Geese (taiga sædgjess) |
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| the northern lights in Maridalen |
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| 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.
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| Stonechat (svartstrupe) |
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| adult Iceland Gull (grønnlandsmåke) |
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| Bewick's Swan (dvergsvane) |
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| Black-throated Thrush (svartstrupe) |
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| 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.
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| family of White-fronted Geese (tundragås) |
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| 4 male Lapland Buntings (lappspurv) |
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| 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.
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| hybrid Pochard (taffeland) x Tufted Duck (toppand) |
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| Dotterel (boltit) |
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| male Bluethroat (blåstrupe) |
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| Hoopoe (hærfugl) |
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| male Firecrest (rødtoppfuglekonge) |
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| Broad-billed Sandpiper (fjellmyrløper) |
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| 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.
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| Hawk Owl (haukugle) in Valdres |
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| an unusually close view of a singing Cuckoo (gjøk) with an angry Willow Warbler (løvsanger) |
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| bird of the year - Gull-billed Tern (sandterne) at Maridalsvannet |
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| and my find of the year - Caspian Tern (rovterne) at Årnestangen |
