OSLO BIRDER: To hang em or not to hang em?

Do you see anything hanging on that hook?

No?

That’s because today delivered big time 😊

Today really did feel like a make or break day for (my) Oslo bird year. If the forecast southerly winds, cloud and showers did not deliver on 9^th May then there would be no chance of this spring having a big day especially as the forecast for the next 10 days just looks to be sun. I had been thinking of playing away and seawatching at Brentetangen followed by Kurefjorden and then Dotterel searching but in the end decided, with Jack, to keep it local and stare at the fjord at Huk from sunrise. I have only done this once before but the efforts of Per Buertange a decade or so ago proved that there was potential in it. We got there at 0450 to see that there was a fairly low, and heavy, cloud base and a decent southerly wind blowing into our faces. Now we just had to sit down, keep warm and wait to find out what the bird gods had in store for us.

the view at 05:27

For the first hour or so I was thinking that I would be hanging my bins on that hook as apart from a large flock of Common Scoter resting on the sea and a Bar-tailed Godwit (Oslo #157) that had been roosting on the rocks when we arrived there was really no sign of any movement. But then things did move. First Jack picked up a skua and a dark phase Arctic (Oslo #158) passed at relatively close range. Then we heard a Greenshank calling above us and in our attempts to find it (there were 13 of them) we saw a large flock of Red-throated Divers (60) and then over the course of the next couple of hours we had a numbers of other flocks and ended up totalling 323 birds which absolutely blasts away any previous counts from south eastern Norway. We also had migrating flocks of Whimbrel which totalled 53, a huge flock of 200 Golden Plover which flew north before turning around, 70 Velvet Scoters, 3 Guillemots and an Arctic Tern (Oslo #159). Rarest though was a flyover Red-throated Pipit (Oslo #160) which we identified on call although our views did confirm it was a pipit.. and a Great Northern Diver (Oslo #161) which is an Oslo tick tick for me, #251.

One disappointing and really strange feature of the morning was the complete lack of passerine migration with not a single Yellow Wag or Wheatear for example.

We packed our bags after 5 hours and then headed to Maridalen. Here it was raining and with the low cloud expectations were not low but there was little to see although a singing Icterine Warbler (Oslo #162) and Hobby (Oslo #163) heading north were notable and new for the year.

There were 30 or so Swallows feeding over the lake so we thought Østensjøvannet could be a good call for hirundines and maybe terns or Little Gulls. There were a few Swallows and House Martins but 3 Swifts (Oslo #164) were the best we could conjure up.

So I had 8 Oslo year ticks today and I am now approaching the number of species I feel are guaranteed so if I am to have a record year I need a rush of scarce and rare birds.