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