Rosefinch and Cuckoo in Maridalen

I had a quick visit to Maridalen yesterday in light rain and it gave me a new species for the Dale for the year and also good views of a scarce species.

The new species was Common Rosefinch. There used to be a few breeding pairs but it has become very scarce in the last few years and you are more likely to hear a Whinchat mimicking a Rosefinch than the actual bird. When I heard a short burst of Rosefinch song from an area where a Whinchat has been singing this week I was therefore expecting it to be mimicry but had to check it out to be certain. To my surprise it was actually the real deal that was singing although it was a brown, 2cy male. Whilst watching this bird I then heard a Cuckoo cuckooing not too distantly and was able to get close enough to see it. I cannot actually remember seeing a singing Cuckoo in the Dale so this was a cool experience (although in the mountains over the next few days we should see and hear many).

a male Cuckoo (gjøk) in the rain

male Common Rosefinch (rosenfink). A male because it was singing and a 2cy because it is brown (males do not become red until their 3rd year)

and a male Common Whitethroat (tornsanger) that is still unmated. This year is a good one for the species in the Dale with a number of singing males

Head scratching

When I make statements that spring migrations is over that is of course not correct and we are now in the period, right at the end of the season, where the most exciting birds can turn up.

I was quite sure I heard a Serin in Maridalen on Tuesday but it was too brief to be sure and it is only now that the “proper” nocturnal singer season begins as the vegetation become high enough to hide, and support, the high summer birds. There are unfortunately few signs that this year will be very productive at night with next to no records so far in SE Norway of species like Corncrake, Quail, Spotted Crake, Grasshopper, River or Blyth’s Reed Warblers. And a trip into Maridalen with Jack last night revealed just a single Marsh Warbler with no joy with the Nightjars either.

Tomorrow, I am off with Conor to the cabin in Valdres for third time and Jack will be joining us. Whilst we are enjoying mountain birds galore I am sure that Oslo will experience a rush of rares!

Yesterday I added Oslo #183 to my list with a successful twitch to see 10 Dark-bellied Brent Geese that have been in the fjord for a couple of days and I can only hope that any other attempted Oslo twitches this year will go so smoothly (as failed twitches quickly put me off the idea for a long time).

 

Dark-bellied Brent Geese (ringgås)

Birding wise, Maridalen has revealed more surprises, head scratching and joy on the Lapwing front. The two (re)nesting pairs are still safely on their nests and have survived thunderstorms and huge amounts of rain. Lots of gulls feeding in the fields and which could take the eggs are kept at a distance by the ever vigilant males so by around 20 June we should have young although by then the crop will have grown so high that it will probably not be possible to see them anymore. The real surprise though which still has me scratching my head came on the other, original field where I had seen a brood of 4 recently hatched young on 23 May. I did not see them again until 28 May when an adult was accompanied by 2 young so it looked like 2 had been lost. But yesterday, 29 May, it was all very confusing. There were 4 adults on the field, seemingly 2 pairs about 200m from each other. I also saw that there was a youngster with each “pair” and then after a long time managed to see that there were actually 2 young with each pair. All the young looked to be about a week old and that leaves me with some questions I suspect I will never get an answer to.

Is there now a fourth breeding pair that has nestedsuccessfully without me having any clue?

Or, has the original brood of 4 somehow been split in two and possibly been adopted by another pair?

The two sets of young remained separate in both the morning and afternoon so it was not just a temporary split.

Lapwing (vipe) family #1

 

young look to be about a week old

family 2

young here also look about the same age

nest 1

nest 2

The Whooper Swans are still on “their” nest but if it is the Mute Swan eggs that they (although I think it is only the female that has been on the nest) are incubating then they should be hatching any day soon as I first saw the Mutes on the nest 22 April and the incubation period is around 36 days.

The Hobbies have disappeared again although I did discover the Hooded Crows nest that had clearly attracted them to the site where they were on Monday and Tuesday. They should be laying eggs any day soon so I hope I find their chosen site.

At a Black Woodpecker nest that I have not spent much time observing this year (although I hear them a lot) I was aware that the first youngster left the nest on 24 May. It was therefore very surprising to see another youngster still in the nest yesterday, 5 days later. The male was calling constantly from a nearby tree in attempt to lure it out but without success whilst we were there. Owls and raptors usually have a wide range of ages for their young as they start incubating from the first egg but I thought woodpeckers only started incubating once the whole clutch was laid so for there to be such a difference in development of the young is unusual unless this last youngster is in some way injured and unable to leave the nest.

Black Woodpecker (svartspett) young

dad

here calling to get to get Jr out of the nest

Bugs are of course causing me to look down and I had a new and long awaited species with a Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk Moth (smalkantet humlesvermer). I found it originally in constant movement and could not see which of the two similar species it was (Broad-bordered is commoner and one I have seen before) but when a cloud covered the sun it immediately started nectaring and I was able to see it well and get photos. I have previously seen either Narrow or Broad-bordered buzzing past me in Maridalen but this is the first time I have been able to identify one to species.

Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk Moth (smalkantet humlesvermer)

a male Orange Tip (aurorasommerfugl)

and my first Heath Fritillary (marimjellerutevinge) of the year

there are a lot of cats in Maridalen and they undoubtedly take a lot of birds although this one will be viewed favourably by most people as it has "only" taken a rodent

Proclamations

After having walked out to the end of Årnestangen today I can with confidence make two proclamations:

 

    1. Spring passage is over, and

    2. Mosquito season has begun

 

I can also add that there were no good birds found anywhere yesterday evening and with that I say over and out and time for a soothing bath.

Disappointment

I know, I know, reading too much into weather forecasts is a fools game but as I frequently say “you’ve got to be in it to win it” and “he who dares wins (Rodney)”.

Well, the actual weather was not quite as juicy as the forecast from a day ago with no real rain over night or in the early morning but we did have a couple of really heavy thunderstorms midday.

I started off at Østensjøvannet hoping to find hirundines, swifts, marsh terns and Little Gulls galore hawking insects low over the water but ended up with no hirundines at all, just 3 Black-headed Gulls and a few Swfits high up.

Maridalen was next and here I was expecting the same species as at ØV but with the addition of rare waders on the slightly larger speck of mud at Kirkeby. Here I did actually get one of my targets but it was the most basic of expectations for today – Sand Martin, Oslo #182, but other than there was no sign of any arrivals. A few tens of Black-headed Gulls were hawking insects as they have been doing for the last few days but yet again there were no smaller cousins with them.

A small flock of crossbills went over calling and I really got the feeling they were Two-barred but they never gave the trumpet call. An invasion of this species seems to be brewing so we can hope there will be birds in the autumn and winter.

Otherwise the pair of Hobbies were in the same place as yesterday and seem very settled there although I still cannot see a nest for them to use.

 

I never made it to Gressholmen as Jack was already there and his frequent negative messages let me know I didn’t need, unfortunately, to make the journey.

 

There have been no messages from anywhere else suggesting that anything interesting at all has turned up in south eastern Norway as a result of this weather but maybe in the evening something good will be found.

finally, an Oslo Sand Martin (sandsvale)

a thoroughly drenched Hobby (lerkefalk)

the pair with the male (I believe) in focus

and the female

and an attempt to have both in focus

trying to dry out the tail feathers

male on left I think

Awaiting thunder and rain

I write this on Sunday afternoon whilst looking at the weather forecast for the next 24 hours feeling certain than something exciting has to turn up. Southerly winds, rain and thunder at the end of May could not be a more promising scenario. Now I just need to wait and see if the bird gods agree with me.

I have good news to reports from Maridalen with there now being 2 Lapwings on nests so it looks like BOTH the pairs that failed at the first attempt have relaid. Interestingly they are both on the same, new field and the nests are roughly the same distance apart as previously. Incubation is 26 days so there is still a long time to wait to see if they succeed. I have also not sighted the 4 young again although I am sure they are just in long grass.

Today in temperatures of 25C there was excitement with my first Honey Buzzard, Oslo #181, of the year which sky danced over me before circling for a long time. I am not entirely sure but it could well be last years breeding male. Hopefully there will be a lot more sightings and a nest discovery in the coming weeks.

The Hobby pair were also making a lot of noise at a new site. Time will tell if this is their chosen nest site for this year (I couldn’t see any old Crows nests) or just part of their pre nesting routine.

A nocturnal outing to Maridalen last night was again quite uneventful with NO warblers (yet) but a very distant Nightjar and a roadside Moose sort of saved the night. It must also be said that without Jr’s good ears and eyes that I would not have had these either.

male Honey Buzzard (vepsevåk)

Hobby (lerkefalk). Judging by its behaviour I believe this was the male

and this the female

Lapwing (vipe) new nest #2

looking at the graph it looks inevitable that I will hit 200....

The year that keeps on giving

Yesterday was not just about Oslo year ticks I also had good and very surprising news on Oslo’s Lapwings. First a pair is attempting again but what shocked me was to see an adult with 4 small young. The young are too small to possibly have come from the failed/abandoned nests as they would have had to have fledged a week ago. So, this means they come from a nest I wasn’t aware of. There were three pairs at the beginning of the month but after that I only was aware of the two pairs whose nests I had found. Clearly though the third pair was nesting more secretively and good for them!

At Årnestangen of the three nesting pairs one is still on the nest, another seems to have failed (possibly due to the nest flooding) but were seen mating and the behaviour of the third pair suggested they had (unseen) young. Worryingly though there was a flock of 43 adults that were clearly failed/non breeders. I don’t know from how far they had come but this suggest a very bad breeding season locally.

 

Today’s trip to Gressholmen was rewarding if not surprising as Jack had got there before me and had been very productive. By the time I got on the ferry I knew I had three Oslo # waiting for me and sure enough just a couple of minutes after getting to the island I heard Thrush Nightingale #178, then saw Grey Plover #179 and a few seconds later a Dunlin #180. It was overcast and we even had a few spots of rain but the heavy rain or thunderstorms that we prayed for did not materialise but Monday is still looking to be a good day. Other than the aforementioned waders there were only 4 Ringed Plovers, 2 Common Sands and a few Oystercatchers but it always felt like something good could drop in although after 3 hours I decided that reality and feelings were not coalescing and home beckoned.

my eBird summary showing that I have now, as of 24 May, seen as many, or more species in Oslo than I have managed in a whole year since 2020 when I started using eBird

So, I need “just” 12 species to beat my record from 2019 and another 9 to hit the mythical 200. So, what is likely?

Honey Buzzard is as good as certain and Sand Martin and Bluethroat almost so and in recent years Water Rail and Jack Snipe have proved to be reliable in early winter. Capercaille is a species that breeds in Oslo’s forests so with an appropriate amount of walking and searching should also be a species I can find. Other than these though I am dependent on certain events happening.

Rain or thunderstorms that grounds waders and potentially terns and Little Gulls either in the next week or in July/August.

A good autumn wader passage regardless of rain.

A good arrival of night singers.

Autumn storms that bring in seabirds.

An influx of northern species in the late autumn such as owls or Grosbeaks, and a few real rarities and perhaps most importantly the ability to go twitch when necessary.

 

Currently I am slightly birding aide handicapped as my tripod head is busted so scope use is rather limited and I managed to lose my thermal imager and despite retracing my steps countless times it remains lost but I can’t see that slowing me down!

Grey Plover (tundralo) and Ringed Plovers (sandlo)

Grey Plover with Oystercatcher (tjeld)

and with Dunlin

singing Thrush Nightingale (nattergal)

Jack with everything staked out for me

the bay at low tide when a few spots of rain fell and I thought anything could happen

adult Lapwing (vipe) with a chick in Maridalen!

and then there were 4

they can only be a few days old

and the bird that is attempting to nest for the second time

a male giving a distraction display at Årnestangen

failed breeders

this is a good spring for Siskins (grønnsisik) and they can now feed on dandelion seeds

pair of Shoveler (skjeand) at Årnestangen