Kiting

The weekend ended up being very memorable. Birding outings to Maridalen and Nordre Øyeren were not particularly productive other than twitching a Green-winged Teal but a strategically planned long drive to Sweden for Jr to practice her driving ahead of her test and also to do some cheap shopping allowed me to stop at Gjølsjøen and hopefully put to bed my search for Red Kite in 2025. Me going to a place to see them is of course not the same as finding one unexpectedly close to Oslo but as we saw 4 which is the second highest count in Norway (the highest being 5 on 9 April 2023) I think we can say it was an outstanding day. After I had spotted one bird and we preparing to leave Jr then asked “what is that big bird?” and pointed at something through the windscreen. It was so distant that she had to help me find it but it turned out to be Red Kite #2. We then raced off to try to get closer which worked like a charm then it was joined by #3 and #4!! There have been many published records of up to 2 birds in the area this spring but the species would seem to be very well established and being so close to the Swedish border it is perhaps no surprise. It is a great area with breeding Marsh Harriers and I also had a female Hen Harrier and a very distant ringtail that seemed more like a Pallid.

Red Kite (rødglente) #2 which was the bird that showed best

#2

#2

#2

and #3

and #1. #4 was more distant did not get photoed as I was too interested in #2 and #3 that were closer

ringtail Hen Harrier (myrhauk)

Green-winged Teal (amerikakrikkand) at Merkja. This is where I last saw the species and it is very likely the same, returning, bird

the vertical bar of the Green-winged and the horisontal bar of the European Teal

a quick stop at the Black Redstart (svartrødstjert) was very successful and he was actively singing

in Maridalen a pair of Three-toed Woodpeckers seemed to be searching for a suitable tree to excavate a hole in and were moving from tree to tree tapping very loudly. Here the female has sent some splinters of bark flying

the male

there are quite a few Wrynecks (vendehals) in Maridalen now. The original male now has a mate and I saw them checking out old GS Woodpecker holes to choose where they will nest and there are also two currently unpaired singing birds

being out at dawn allows one to see Beavers too

A quiet period

We are into the most exciting time of the year in the Oslo area but it can also be the most frustrating and disappointing if the weather does not play ball. Sunny days with northerly winds can feel birdless whereas southerly winds and some rain can produce great arrivals of all sorts of feathered fancies.

We are of course in a sunny, northerly wind period….

But if one is prepared to leave Maridalen and even Oslo and participate in twitching lite then there are of course good birds to be seen.

I visited Hellesjøvannet again on Wednesday and with the knowledge I had learned over the course of 5 hours the day before I felt confident that I would be able to get more than a glimpse of the Bittern. I stood in the same place as the day before and waited and waited for two whole hours without hearing a single boom. I knew that the bird had been heard earlier in the morning and after the two hours during which I had ascertained that there were 2 pairs of Marsh Harriers breeding and an additional female who seemed to be wanting to get the attention of one of the males (polygamy is fairly regular) I decided to drive to the southern end of the lake where I could see there were a couple of birders. I asked them if they had heard the bird during the previous two hours to which the answer was no and then straight away it boomed….. from where I had been standing. Returning there pronto it then proceeded to boom in total 9 times during the course of only 58 minutes! It was however a little further away than the previous day and seeing it proved to be a fruitless exercise.

I have paid a couple of visits to Nordre Øyeren with my first trip of the year out to the tip of Årnestangen and of course visits to Svellet. Water levels continued to rise quickly until 22 April with rises of over 20cm a day but since then it has fallen it has fallen by 15cm over the course of 3 days. Currently it looks absolutely bloody fantastic baby, a wader heaven but yesterday I did not see a single wader there. The reason for this is probably two fold: the weather has not been conducive to an arrival of waders and secondly the shallow water is currently (due to the previous rapid rise in water levels) covering mud that has been bone dry for months and is therefore free of any invertebrate food. Should we have a period now of warm weather and gradually falling water levels we should though end up with fantastic conditions for waders with food rich areas of mud gradually being reexposed over the next 3 weeks. I am allowed to be optimistic 😉

view over Svellet on 25 April. Lots of mud and lots of shallow water. Fingers crossed for the next 3 weeks 🤞

 

rapidly rising water levels until 22 April

and gradually falling since.

Årnestangen gave me good views of a female Lapland Bunting and a male Hen Harrier (although rather selfishly I was disappointed it wasn’t a Pallid).

Yesterday, I went to Maridalen’s eastern sister valley, Nittedal to see a Great White Egret that has been there for a few days and enjoyed good views of it perched in trees by a lake and heronry. Another trip to Årnestangen after this gave me long range views of a male Stonechat. This is, I believe the same bird that was found on 13 March and which I then saw the subsequent day. Since then there have been occasional records of a male in the area and given how good the bird has been at disappearing both times I have seen it and that it was singing yesterday I reckon we are talking about a territorial male that has perhaps wandered around a bit in his search for a mate. I have also seen Kingfisher both visits to Årnestangen and firsts for the year have been numerous with Wood Sand, Whimbrel and Yellow Wagtail noted.

Maridalen doesn’t get forgotten completely and there has clearly been ducks moving through with good numbers of Teal aswell as Common Scoter, Red-breasted Merganser, Pintail, Wigeon and Tufted Duck.

I will start though with a video of Monday's Great Grey Owl nest

male Hen Harrier (myrhauk). My first of the year and never a species I see often but I was still annoyed it wasn't a Pallid (steppehauk)

Kingfisher (isfugl) is now an annual breeder in Nordre Øyeren with probably multiple pairs although they are recorded surprisingly infrequently

female Lapland Bunting (lappspurv)

and here you can hear it calling which is how I discovered it

a (Lesser) Redpoll. It was singing so is I presume a male but completely lacks red/pink on on the chest

Marsh Harrier (sivhauk) pair

and here the male displaying which I think was for the benefit of the additional female that was in the area

Great (White) Egret (egretthegre) and Grey Heron (gråhegre). Lack of plumes means this is an immature bird but they will surely be breeding here soon

they are remarkably acrobatic in flight

and like Grey Herons are quite at home in trees

this Hooded Crow caused the egret to fly off

the Stonechat (svartstrupe) was always quite distant

but up to 7 (all male) early Whinchats (buskskvett) showed much better

and something for a later posting

Easter reprieves itself

I may have had to leave Oslo but Easter did eventually deliver the always hoped for good birding of the spring festive season.

There was also some luck involved. I am sleeping poorly at the moment which often results in me leaving the house for a quick early trip to Maridalen. On Monday though I awoke at 02:50 and feeling rather perky I decided to get up and put in action a plan I had been hatching: head north to Hedmark to find some Great Grey Owl nest sites, twitch a returning Yellow-legged Gull in Hamar and see anything else that might turn up.

The drive went quickly and when I had my first stop at 5am the skies were lightening up and as I got out of the car to scan some recently felled forest there was a cacophany of noise from thrushes but also clearly larger birds. The Black Grouse were not to mistake but I was at a bit of a loss as to another bird. It reminded me a bit of Red-throated Diver but the noise was coming from a pine tree… I could just make out a large bird and it was a female Capercaille and another was calling close by. This is the peak time for leks so I was not sure why they were not at a lek but maybe they have already mated. Another noise also caught my attention and I had a feeling I knew what it might be. I walked towards the noise and saw what was clearly a raptor nest in a large pine and there was a big heading sticking up from it - I had found Great Grey Owls in a natural nest! What was even better was the terrain meant I could look down on to the nest - I had struck gold. The female was clearly calling to let her mate know she was hungry and quite soon I was able to watch him fly in with a vole for her which caused her to call lots. The male then spotted and flew towards me to check me out😊 

This is the first nest I have found completely on my own so I was chuffed.

I enjoyed the owls for a bit and then drove on hoping to find more owls hunting. That didn’t happen but I had three more female Capers and I visited a platform I knew about and had a GG on it but it couldn’t beat «my» nest.

Hamar and a dirty twitch followed and I saw the gull even if I didn’t manage any photos but was just happy with the tick and couldn’t wait to leave the town. The nearby delta at Åkersvika was a bit disappointing but a nearby Rookery was a novel sight for me as this species it incredibly local in Norway.

I had by now got news of a booming Bitteren and a singing Black Redstart back Oslo way and although it was only 11am the day already felt old. I decided that the Black Red would be enough for the day as it was literally on the way home and was able to see it fairly quickly.

The Bittern only had to wait a day and successfully twitched yesterday. It was at Hellesjøvannet where I heard the last of my only two other Norwegian Bitterns back in 2013 but unlike then I actually saw the bird this time and managed a fairly decent recording of the booms. Just like with GGO the very deep «song» is very difficult to localise as it is almost louder the further away it is and in addition it only sang every 20-30 minutes but eventually we reckoned it had to be less than 100m from us in a stretch of reeds that were less than 10m wide. I thought the thermal imager would make it easy to find but it picked up nothing. I switched to continual scanning with the scope and after a looong time it was finally there walking through the reeds. I took up my camera but didn’t even know where to point it and returning to the scope it had vanished again.

female Great Grey Owl (lappugle) on the nest before sunsrise

the male checking me out after it had delivered a vole to his mate

filming the nest after sunrise

enjoying? the sun. For a species that is built to survive freezing winters and hunt in snow I am surprised at how far south they have started breeding and they do not seem to keen on strong sunlight

the nest from below. I am not sure which raptor built it

this short video is taken with the superzoom and phone and you can hear the begging calls of the female. I need to edit videos I took with the bazooka which include the food delivery and will post later

the platform nest

the female Capercaille (storfugl) that I saw after having first heard it and not recognised the call

The call can be heard in this video after footage of another female I had along the road. At the end some distant Black Grouse (orrfugl) can also be heard

these two females were far more easy to observe. They had very different plumages with one being much paler and also having a large red skin area above the eye. I do not know if this is age related

this female was darker and lacked an obvious area of red skin above the eye

the paler female with a lot of red above the eye and also an almost male like "beard"

this one also puffed herself up in a way which I considered to be male like

the paler bird

male Black Redstart (svartrødstjert). The male that bred at the same site last year was a 2cy whereas this bird is a full adult. It is therefore reasonable to assume it is the same bird one year older

Hellesjøvannet on a cold (only +5) and wet (constant drizzle) day which maybe explains the infrequent booming from the Bittern (rørdrum) which chose to boom from the narrow belt of reeds in the middle rather than the more extensive reedbed to the right

The booming can be heard surprisingly well in this video which is much better than the video in my post from 2013 which I have linked to above. As it sang so infrequently I only managed to press the record button after it first started so it lacks the initial noises. The video has 4 different sequences.

a Rookery close to Hamar. The species is exceptionally local in Norway but it clearly has n problem being close to people. In addition to the rookery being right by houses the birds were also feeding in gardens

even if I didn't manage a picture of my first Norwegian Yellow-legged Gull (which is paired to a Lesser Black-backed) I did manage a photo of mating Lesser Black-backeds which are ignoring the plastic owl which is supposed to scare them off

the drizzle at Hellesjøvannet had caused a concentration of all three hirundines. Here a Sand Martin (sandsvale)

Sand Martin and Swallow (låvesvale)

it may be a pants photo but all three species are visible

I spent little time in Maridalen and this was the highlight - two female Pintail (stjertand). This is not an annual species and previously has always been pairs or single males so two females was something different