Two ticks

This week has felt quite uneventful, but I have actually added yet another species to #Oslo2024 so am now just one precious species away from the mythical 200 and Maridalen has also bagged itself a new species which I twitched this morning.

The birding related highlight of the week was a very pleasant meeting with Five Bean Geese Gentlemen from Scotland who were on a trip to Sweden and Norway to see their geese on the staging grounds. It was my second time meeting Angus and Brian and first time meeting Carl, Billy and Rick. The same geese I had seen the previous week were all present and correct but on a rainy day and viewing from a busy road it was not exactly the most thrilling way to enjoy them.

The only picture I took of the Taiga Beans and their Scottish admirers

After Monday’s very uneventful wader searching trip to the islands it was a bit galling to see that there were a lot of birds seen the next day including my much wanted Ruff which was also present on Wednesday. I was close to going out to try to see it but found the prospect of twitching a Ruff, even in the pursuit of #Oslo2024, to be just a bit too much. I did double down on my own quest to find one though and have had my eye on a couple of damp fields in Maridalen as being possible places for the species to turn up. I walked out into one of these on Thursday and a wader flew up – not my hoped for Ruff but a new one for the year never the less – a Great Snipe! Again, a new species that I had not predicted. With this I am now on 199 for the year in Oslo and 210 must in fact be a possibility although I will then need to do drop my scruples about twitching birds like Ruff.

And the new species for Maridalen? It was perhaps the most glaring omission namely Moorhen . Found yesterday by someone not realising its significance it may have passed me by were it not for Jack alerting me last night. I didn’t exactly rush there this morning but did make my way there fairly directly once I was in action and luckily enough it was still present 😊

Maridalen Gold! Who would have thought that Gull-billed Tern would turn up before Moorhen (sivhøne) which becomes the 228th species in the valley and my 211th.

dragonflies haven't featured much this year but this Septemberlibelle (migrant hawker) was flying around close to the Moorhen. When I saw my first one in Maridalen in 2019 it was at the time the most northerly record in Norway of this recent colonist. I was expecting to find out that the species has subsequently expanded much further north but a check of records now seems to show Maridalen as still being the northern limit of its range

a few second generation Queen of Spain Fritillaries (sølvkåpe) are also on the wing now