Fog and an eagle

Fog has been a bit of a problem the last few days but even if you can’t see the birds then you can still hear them. Redwings have arrived en masse now as have the first Song Thrushes (Oslo # 114) and today I heard my first singing Chiffchaff (Oslo # 115). Both yesterday and today I had a White-tailed Eagle in Maridalen. Yesterday it flew up in the fog from a Roe Deer carcass and today it flew low across the lake scaring up a large flock of 700 Pink-footed Geese that had roosted at Hammeren. Aging it has proven problematic for me but it is definitely not an adult as I first though although the tail is quite white.

A nocturnal trip on Friday evening revealed displaying Lapwings at Skjerven and a flock of 10 feeding in the dark alongside 4 Woodcocks at Kirkeby. Today though I only located 5 Lapwings in Maridalen so the large numbers appear to have been birds moving through. Also on the nocturnal trip we heard an Oystercatcher twice and had migrating Pink-feets.

Yesterday I was again on airport pick up duty and detoured to look for Taiga Beans and succeeded in finding a flock of 65 which had 2 tagged birds both of which were new for me this year. It could well be that the total in the area is more than the 110 that I have previously counted.

White-tailed Eagle (havørn) on the ice and in flight at Maridalsvannet. Yellow bill and quite a lot of white in tail but not an adult

the Pink-feet (kortnebbgås) in flight with Greylags (grågås) on the ice. I estimate 700 in the flock

and a migrating flock of Pink-feet that look a join the dots bear

Taiga Bean Geese. To the left is V7 who has lost his collar but still has a colour leg ring and on the right is the GPS bird 27 whose sender has stopped working and the inscription has now worn off but it has a leg ring Y7

zooming out

habitat shot

A Tundra and a tease

The birding definitely warrants daily bog updates but yours truly struggles to sit in front of the computer and go through the pictures although as yesterday was a day, or rather evening, that will go down in the OB annals then I almost have to. I will post first about the daytime though and just end with a teaser about the evening which was the result of a fortuned detour whilst on the way to the airport to pick up Jr.

The day started as to be expected in Maridalen. As soon I came to the first field it was obvious that birds had arrived as there were Redwings on the ground for the first time and when I would down the window they were singing😊 As I moved further into the Dale though it became apparent that there were fewer birds than the day before most likely as a result of much higher cloud cover and strong northerly wind. Many geese and Lapwing were still present though and at one point all the Lapwing flew up and there were 38 of them so smashing previous counts.

The Woodlark was not to be heard although a number of people tried but Dunnock was new for the year (Oslo #112). Here is my eBird checklist from Maridalen.

A message from fellow English birder Joel Lund asking me what type of bean Goose he had found at Bygdøy (where the great flood has now all but dried out) sent me down there and after spending a good 10 minutes going through a 100 strong flock of Pink-feet I finally saw the one with orange legs. When a bean goose is this difficult to pick out from Pink-feet then it can be nothing other than a Tundra Bean (Oslo #113) and single birds in flock of migrating Pink-feet is how we normally find them. Pink-feet are perhaps the most variable goose species and this small flock contained a number of quite distinct birds which I will show below.

Cranes (trane) in Maridalen

38!! Lapwings (vipe)

a flyover Nutcracker (nøttekråke) in Maridalen at the end of March is an unusual sighting. A migrant?

Tundra Bean Goose (tundrasædgås) - a small individual and apart from the orange on bill and legs did not differ much from many of the surrounding Pink-feet (kortnebbgås)

do you see her?

some of the striking Pink-feets. Here a small dark bird is still seems to have some retained juvenile plumage

this very dark bird looks to be in adult plumage and really stood out.

note bird on left with some white around bill. This is not unusual amongst Pink-feet of Taiga Beans

but this bird (a 1st winter) is quite extreme and definitely looked like a White-fronted (tundragås) as you scanned quickly though the flock

here are both the white fronted Pink-feet

And a teaser:

A dream come true - singing Great Grey Owl seen and not just heard!
Close to Oslo as we speak pic.twitter.com/LWQGX0TNa6

— Simon Rix (@si_rix) March 28, 2024

pre-Easter magic

Events have conspired to leave me Home Alone this week although I do have the company of my boy, The Beast (that makes it sound like I am becoming fond of him…). Now you may, or most likely may not, feel sorry for me but to be honest this has been great because Easter is my absolute favourite time for birding in Oslo and now I can bird until I, or the Beast, drops.

We have had a return to winter with a good dump of snow but spring is now so far advanced that nothing can stop the migrants from migrating and wintery weather just makes the birds more concentrated.

I have had to do drop offs at the airport twice and this allowed me to catch up with the Woodlarks that breed nearby. This is the traditional site in Akershus county although they do seem to be attempting to establish themselves in other places probably as a result of a warming climate and extensive forestry work which creates new suitable habitat.

Yesterday I decided to take my boy on a long drive and introduce him to the spring joys of Årnestangen and Aurskog-Høland and I think the Bird Gods approved of this selfless act 😉. A snow covered Årnestangen had attracted lots of wildfowl and best of all were Pintail and Shoveler. My first Meadow Pipits of the year were also present and there were generally loads of birds to see.

Onto the fantastic wetlands at Kjelle and it was overflowing with birds. Ther must have been over 1000 wildfowl on this small wetland and I set about going through every single bird. 6 White-fronted Geese were good, a male Pied Wagtail even better but best of all was a Bewick’s Swan. This species is getting rarer and rarer in Norway but is always a species to look out for amongst migrating flocks of Whooper Swans and 350 of the later was a good start point. The bird was a 2cy and I must admit to finding it difficult to identify. It’s small size was immediately apparent but the bill markings are not as obvious as on adult and I spent a good few minutes convincing myself of its identity.

Today, I kept things local and Maridalen did not disappoint for one second. Low cloud meant that passerines were passing low overhead and all morning there was a stream of Chaffinches along with Mistles Thrushes (I counted 67 with a single flock of 27 and this smashes the old Oslo record of 40), Twite, Meadow Pipits and Snow Buntings among others. The absolute highlight, and an Oslo tick to boot, was a Wood Lark. I picked it up on call flying over Kirkeby and then drove to Nes which is the only place I could think it would stop and when I got out of the car it (or another?) was singing above me😊. There is only one other Maridalen record which remarkably enough was exactly one year ago today is almost the exact same place (same bird?).

I passed 50 species in a day, in Maridalen, for this first time this year and here is my checklist 

 

My Oslo list has now risen to 111 with the following additions since my last update:

102       Linnet

103       Crane

104       Teal

105       Gadwall (a twitch to Østensjøvannet)

106       Goosander

107       Buzzard

108       Woodcock

109       Mipit

110       Redwing

111       Woodlark

Bewick's Swan (dvergsvane) and a noticeably larger Whooper Swan (sangsvane)

here it looks positively tiny

my first Kestrel (tårnfalk) of the year and already back in its nestbox

Lapwings (vipe) are getting really quite scarce now and this concentration at Kjelle represented probably most of the local breeders

male Pied Wagtail (svartryggerle) - looks like a good spring for them

migrating Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgås) at a wintery Årnestangen. Can you spot the Barnacle Geese (hvitkinngås)

an assortment of ducks at Årnestangen. Can you spot the Pintails (stjertand)?

a lonely male Shoveler (skjeand)

6 White-fronted Geese (tundragås) at Kjelle

in flight - looks to be 5 adults and a 2cy

some very rust stained Whoopers

Kjelle

my first Woodlark (trelerke) of the year near Gardermoen

Cranes (trane) in Maridalen

Gadwall (snadderand) at Østensjøvannet

Whooper Swans and Pink-footed Geese at Årnestangen. The middle bird has a neck collar and its history is shown below

it was ringed in Finland and seems to follow the less used easterly migration route to Svalbard. This is its first sighting in Norway and it will be interesting to know if there are any other sightings this spring to show which route it takes

Woodlark in Maridalen and my 250th species in Oslo!!

a pale Common Buzzard (musvåk) and one that can easily be misidentified as a host of other species

exactly 30 Lapwing on the ice in Maridalen. A record count and it will be interesting to see how many stay to breed

Snow Bunting (snøspurv) in Maridalen

a Whooper Swan with a similar neck was in Maridalen last spring and this is I assume the same bird. It looks painful but is clearly possible to live with

Hazel Grouse guiding and Smew boot filling

Since my last post I have guided for Hazel Grouse, filled me boots with the Smew which is still at Østensjøvannet and displying to Goldeneyes, watched the great flood subside and been disappointed that warm temperatures and southerly winds have not bought a flood of migrants (this happens every year yet I still get my hopes up too early in the season).

Yesterday’s guiding ended up being very successful but I had to work hard as deep soft snow made getting around in the forest difficult. In the end though we found “my” male who is now paired and he employed his usual tactic of placing himself between us and his mate and giving ridiculously good views.

male Hazel Grouse (jerpe)

female

the male Smew (lappfiskand) was triggered every time Goldeneyes (kvinand) started displaying and tried to impress a female and chase away males

crest raised in display

dogs are a serious nuisance at Hengsenga but the geese seem to be quite used to it

another male Adder (hoggorm) in Maridalen

the markings over the mouth show this to be an individual I have photographed in previous years