Sunday came and went but where were the birds. The weather
forecast was correct with cloudy skies, no wind and some showers – surely the
sort of stuff to make May 5th a dreamy day. Well clearly not. There
must be something blocking northward passage further south because this lack of
birds doesn’t make sense. Today was equally quiet so I am now pinning all my
hopes on Thursday when cloud and southerly winds are forecast and surely the dam
will break.
Yesterday I was in the Dale by 0530 and a migrating and
calling Red-throated Diver from the doorstep at home had me expecting great
things. Well that was just a cruel tease and I had left Maridalen already by
0700 to go to Østensjøvannet which was if anything even worse with just a
pitiful collection of the expected birds and nothing of any interest on either
the lake, the fields or in the sky. My day was sort of saved by then going to Huk,
Bygdøy to twitch a Red-necked Grebe that Andreas G had found from his boat but even
here the view was so distant that it gave no real satisfaction. New Oslo year
species did arrive during the day though with the following added: #152 Yellow
Wag, #153 Spotted Fly, #154 Black Grouse (a very distant bird heard displaying),
#155 House Martin and #156 the grebe.
An update on the swan saga is that the Whoopers continue to
sit on the Mutes nest (and eggs?) and there were still two pairs of Mutes
yesterday although only one today. Yesterday the male Whooper flew around the
lake and attacked both sets of Mutes. He sent the original pair packing and
they decamped to the other side of the lake (and are the ones who seem to have
left today) but the new pair put up a much better fight. The female managed to
hide (see photos) and the male did have to flee but he soon returned acting quite
triumphantly. The male Whooper was joined by his female who flew across the
lake calling and the two then celebrated their supremacy with whooping and wing
flapping. I have managed to read the rings of the new Mute pair but the ringing website is currently down so have yet to find out their stories.
Further checks of the Three-toed pecker wood have drawn a
blank so it definitely looks like something fatal has happened.
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my first Spotted Flycatcher (gråfluesnapper) of the year |
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a female White Wagtail (linerle) at Maridalen's best birding spot |
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the male Whooper Swan (sangsvane) on his way to beat up the second Mute Swan (knoppsvane) pair |
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the male Mute did initially adopt his territorial posture and looked like he was going to put up a serious fight |
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