Despite my best intentions I have spent quite some time this week with Honey Buzzards with a few checks on the regular nest but also trying to triangulate on a nest that I believe must exist in Maridalen. I am now within a just a few hundred metres of it and with luck will locate it tomorrow…
Other than that there is an increase in migrants in
Maridalen with a few pipits, wagtails, Whinchats and Wheatears on the stubble fields
and the organic vegetable patch still hosting Red-backed Shrikes and best of
all a couple of Bluethroats.
The Maridalen swan saga continues. After the Mute
Swan pair was driven off leaving behind a small cygnet (which I have not seen
for a couple of weeks and presume has perished) something serious has now happened with the Whooper Swan
family. On the 18th the pair were at Kirkeby and in Nesbukta there
was a single, lost looking cygnet. I then had no sightings of any swans until
today when the pair were again at Kirkeby but with no sign of the cygnet. Prior
to the 18th they had seemed like a very tight family unit with the
adults leading the two cygnets around and never leaving their side so what happened
on the 18th? Why would the pair abandon one of the young and what
happened to the other? Were they attacked by a fox or dog? Or have the pair
themselves turned on their own young? They are a very aggressive pair with
their frequent attacks on the Mutes and any other Whoopers that dare visit
Maridalen in the breeding season. Have they finally lost it and once their own
young reached a certain size seen them as a threat? They are getting on now and
have bred since 2010 but after rearing at least 40 young between 2010 to 2021 things
have changed and since then they have struggled with 3 fledged young in 2023
their only success in this period.
Water levels at Årnestangen and Svellet have been
very high but started falling again from the weekend and a visit to Svellet
today revealed lots of birds on newly (re)exposed mudbanks with 160 Ruff a very
good count and out of 10 species in total a Black-tailed Godwit was the
highlight.
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| Bluethroat (blåstrupe) in Maridalen |
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| Red-backed Shrikes (tornskate) are still finding lots to eat in the organic vegetable patch |
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| the Whooper Swan (sangsvane) pair and a single cygnet alone 1.5km away on 18 August. I have seen the adults again today, although not yesterday but have not seen the cygnet |
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| the family on the 15th |
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| one of three Three-toed Woodpeckers (tretåspett) that entertained my whilst I was on Honey Buzzard watch |
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