Taking stock at home

Maridalsvannet on the morning of 20th May

In Oslo it seems as though migration has come to end with rain and southerly winds causing absolutely nothing exciting to turn up. Svellet also still has mud but without there being a single wader reported this morning. Even though the period of quantity of passage birds has passed we are definitely entering the highest quality time and yesterday a stonking male Black-headed Bunting was pulled out of a mist nest in the garden of a twitcher who I had no idea had a ringers licence.

Almost all breeding migrants have now turned up with the first Rosefinches, Red-backed Shrikes, Marsh Warblers and Nightjars being reported now even if I have yet to see any of them yet.

My focus has now turned to locating breeding birds both for my own benefit and also a busy period of guiding that I have coming up. Hazel Grouse has been a real nightmare this spring. A long walk on 17 May with Mrs OB and The Beast took me past 8 or 9 territories where I have previously had the species but with not a single bird being found. Today I checked 3 territories in another area including “my pair” and did finally pull a bird out of the hat which I feel confident of being able to find again. Three-toed Woodpecker has also been a headache this year so a female that gave herself away tapping on a tree was a relief but she flew off without me being able to track her to a nest.

The two pairs of Black Woodpeckers continue to entertain with the one pair still applying the finishing interior design touches to their property and the other pair working hard to fill three noisy mouths with food. In this video you can see the male using over a minute and a half to feed them individually with food he is clearly regurgitating into his bill.

the male Black Woodpecker (svartspett) that is still putting the finishing touches to his property

and two of the three young in the other nest which is at a far more expected stage

Hobby (lerkefalk) today. I have only seen a single bird and heard no calling so do not believe a pair has returned yet

Black-throated Divers (storlom)

I watched a Wood Warbler (bøksanger) with nesting material in its beak fly onto the ground here. Can you spot the nest?

here it is and is of a similar construction to Willow Warbler (løvsanger) and Chiffchaff (gransanger) nests I have previously found

On the Lapwing front there are still two birds incubating and seemingly three broods of 4,1 and 1. With the two broods of single young the siblings were lost very early on but the remaining young are now half grown and will hopefully make it. The brood of 4 is a few days younger but the parents have done very well to still have all four alive.

Checking in on the owls

Yesterday, saw me on a friends and family guiding to the owls in Hedmark. It was very successful if, as always, tiring trip.

Two nesting Great Grey Owls included my back up nest which I visited for the first time and the pair that I have now previously visited which have acted in a very aggressive way without being on the nest. On yesterday’s visit the female again announced her presence by bill snapping when we were 50m away and could not see either her or the nest. She was perched quite high in a tree and continued snapping noisily whilst we watched her. It is quite uncomfortable being there when the bird seems so unhappy/angry so we didn’t hang around but I kept looking over my shoulder as we left just in case she flew at us but instead she flew onto the nesting platform and acted very much as though she was on eggs! But this raises a number of questions:

1.      Why was she not on the nest initially? My experiences with other nesting GGO over the years has always been that the females stay on the nest no matter what.

2.      Why does she continue to be so aggressive in her behaviour? At the other nest we visited the female made no noise and hardly seemed to follow our movements

3.      Why is she so late in egg laying? The eggs (if there actually are some) must surely have been laid since my visit with Jack on 5^th May whereas I know that at the other nest the first egg was laid on 22^nd April which I think is in itself a fairly late date.

the particularly aggressive female GGO in a tree

and then suddenly on the nest platform

and the other GGO nest which is much more luxuriously furnished

A check of the Tengmalm’s nest box resulted in no joy for my trunk scratching but I was able to attach the superzoom to the tripod and lift it up such that I could see through the hole and there were at least two large young in the box. A very thorough search of the area did not reveal any adults or other young that may already have jumped out although mum must have been very close by.

 

We checked just one of the Ural Owls nests. This was the nest where the female flew out when I scratched on 8^th April so with an incubation period of about 4 weeks I was ready for the young to already be large enough that mum was no longer in the box. This meant we need to be very careful as to how we approached the area and we walked a large semi circle around the nest box. The female gave away her presence by bill snapping and when we finally saw her perched about 30m from the box she flew away from the box as though trying to draw us away. Just a couple of steps by us towards the box though brought her right back and then she kept a very close eye on us (although we did not go any closer to the box for both our own safety and also her comfort). One thing that was odd was that she seemed to be panting almost all the time. It was only about +13C so was hardly hot and she wasn’t in direct sunlight but she was pumping her throat with her bill open (but not making any audible noises) for minutes on end. The young did not show themselves in the nest opening so are hopefully not ready to leave for 1-2 weeks.

Ural Owl (slagugle)

 

A stop to listen for Ortolan resulted in no joy and although it may still be a bit too early it would hardly be a surprise if none returned this year. The last confirmed nesting was my record in 2023 and the last two years have only seen a couple of unpaired singing males, one of which is very likely to have been the male from the 2023 nesting. So, it would be no surprise if these birds are now dead and with no recruitment to this population extinction has been unavoidable.

Oslo birding since my last post has continued to be quite uneventful with rain and southerly winds having no noticeable effect. The only highlight was a thirty minute mid afternoon period in Maridalen on the 16^th just after it had stopped raining and when the sun came out. This caused a Falsterbo lite experience with 3 Honey Buzzards, 4 Ospreys, 1 Common Buzzard, 1 Sparrowhawk and 4 Kestrels moving through. Wrynecks seem to be well established though with no a mating paid and two unpaired males and after struggling with Black Woodpecker I now have a nest that is still being excavated and another where two young were being fed at the entrance. At the nest which is still being excavated I saw no splinters being thrown out but could hear one of the adults (I’m quite sure the female) knocking away inside the hole and also on two occasions drumming inside the hole!

this Black Woodpecker nest must be at least 4 weeks ahead of the other one I found

And an interesting encounter with a Beaver that just swam straight down the white water rapids

Memories

I’ve long been itching for a seagaze. It didn’t need to be a particularly good one just as long as there were a steady passage of birds. Over 10 years ago I had for a few years the habit of driving the hour to Brentetangen, just south of Moss in Østfold and seawatching from there before visiting nearby Kurefjorden. I cut some of my Norwegian birding teeth doing this and had some good birds and company doing so. Brentetangen used to attract quite a gang on good days but these days seems to get little attention. Serious birders are become a scarce species not just in Oslo but it would seem all over Norway.

I’d been looking at Windy.com for a few days and had highish hopes that yesterday would deliver some north bound passage over the sea. After a long period of northerly winds they were finally going to swing south on Thursday afternoon so by Friday there should be loads of birds. The winds did not end up being quite so southerly as initially forecast and it was quite cold but I still think that I should have seen more than I did which in terms of migration was pretty much nothing. Gannet and Kittiwake were good birds for me and are both species that usually need a real southern storm to end up Akershus waters but just 20km further south are fairly regular no matter the weather.

the view from Brentetangen looking 10km across the fjord to Vestfold

 

Kurefjorden was also disappointing with 18 Dunlin being the only calidris waders although I was sure I heard a BbS.

and Kurefjorden. I was expecting waders to be dropping out of the skies

 

Question now is how many years will it be before I try the Østfold combo again?

 

Thursday was another of those religious public holidays that Norway loves «celebrating» but for which 90% of the population have no idea why - it was of course Ascension Day and if you also don’t know what that represents then I recommend Google…

The winds may have been from the north in the morning but finally it was raining and the clouds heavy and low. Surely this would draw all the remaining serious Oslo birders out of their warm beds? Fat chance but as there seemed to be little to find maybe they were just birding smart.

I decided to keep it local. Maridalen early doors was just wet but Østensjøvannet had ca.300 Swallows and martins. I promise I looked at every single one but a red rump was not to be seen. Such a large congregation was a joy to see as the last couple of years have not seen scenes like this and means the lake again must have good numbers of insects.

just a small fraction of the Swallows (låvesvale) and a single Sand Martin (sandsvale)

Back in the Dale around 11am there was a very brief period when the rain stopped and waders flew over: a flock of Wood Sands, a couple of Greenshank, 3 Whimbrel then 160 Golden Plovers. And then it was over.

most of the Golden Plover flock (heilo)

I allowed Jr Jr to have some driving practice and drive me to Svellet but despite water levels not having risen and rain having fallen there were hardly any waders. This is strange given the passage I had over Maridalen and also a fall of arctic bound waders reported at Øra but I have noted this before that when other places experience fall like numbers of waders that Svellet can be nearly empty of birds.

 

Maridalen has had some exceptional days in late April and May always when there is rain and heavy, low cloud but they are not happening with the regularity I remember although I am sure that they didn’t happen quite as much as rose tinted memory tells me. Looking at the numbers it is actually seven years since the last big day which was 10th May 2019 but that will perhaps be a day never to be repeated.

 

This morning’s pre breakfast Maridalen visit was no less uninspiring that the last few days except for one bird that was totally not on my radar - a Taiga Bean Goose. This was my first record in the Dale although there is a previous record (but I remember seeing that bird and choosing not to put it on my list as such).

I finally found nesting Black Woodpeckers although they were still excavating which is very late. Three Great Spots were also drumming which again is late - both these species should be on eggs by now. Two Wryneck singing in the same area were to be more expected at this time of the year but no less exciting for that.

I nearly didn't pay these geese any attention but with the nakes eye thought that the bird second left looked a bit like a young White-fronted Goose (tundragås) one of which was found yesterday at Østensjøvannet. Through the bins it proved to be a Greylag but I continued looking at the other geese and the one of the top was a Taiga Bean!!

here the head and bill shape leave me in no doubt

just based on this picture though I am sure you could rgue for both Tundra and Taiga although I think the bill shape can only match Taiga and the extensive orange is also a very pro Taiga feature

It was also a large bird with a swan like stature

I would not say this bird is a classic Taiga but believe that most features are pro Taiga. I also must say that I do hate single Bean Geese and it would be much more convenient if the two species were lumped again

in the river it was also upending which I also view as pro Taiga

I had been hearing Black Woodpeckers (svartspett) and was sure they were nesting so went looking for a suitable tree and hole. These huge splinters on the road! gave away where they were.

Back to Svellet

The Beast turns 8 in September which coincidentally means that according to all that dog/human year malarkey he and I are the same age (at least for now). I guess there have been a few thousand morning walks he has taken me on over the years and we have seen a few interesting birds in the area where we live with Pine Grosbeak probably being the best. Yesterday morning though we added a new species with a Wood Warbler singing in the local wood. Although the oak dominated wood may be suitable as a breeding locality I am sure the bird was a migrant. As such I think it is only the second time I have come across a singing spring migrant (not that I have come across any non singing ones either). And that got me thinking - why do I hear many singing migrant Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers but not Wood Warblers? Is it because Wood Warblers don’t often sing on migration or is it just because there are so many, many more Chiffs and Willies that you are so much more likely to encounter one of them?

 

Svellet was the subject of my attention yesterday and whilst water levels have only risen by 2cm since yesterday and 4cm since Monday there was a considerable reduction in the number of birds. And I was able to watch that number more than half when a young Peregrine had a go at some Wood Sandpipers which of course all flew off but also never returned.

Over the past couple of weeks I have seen the waders frequently flying around due to a raptor (most often unseen) but always landing again but what I observed today clearly shows that migration awaits and the birds clearly have an unavoidable urge to keep heading north.

We have a couple of days of rain ahead of us and also southerly winds after aperiod of cold northerly winds so we may still have some mighty experiences at Svellet but it will definitely be a question of quality rather than quantity now.

I also walked out to the end of Årnestangen which was a rather quiet affair on the bird front with not a single waders at the tip but there were two butterfly surprises with my first Swallowtail and Painted Lady of the year which were not what I expected on a quite cloudy and not that warm day.

Svellet from the east

and from west looking north 13 May 2026

and looking south

and Årnestangen

In Maridalen the Lapwings continue to surprise positively with 3 broods seen - 4 and 1 were on open ground and fully accounted for but another single youngster popped out of long grass and there could definitely, and hopefully, have been more there. Two females are also on new nests and a pair were displaying so there may be yet another nest to come. They all still have to survive more farmer activity and foxes and crows but I think we are in a surprisingly good place.

my first Painted Lady (tistelsommerfugl) of the year. A faded but otherwise undamaged individual

whereas the colours of my first Swallowtail were perfect it had clearly already been attacked by birds and had chunks missing from the back of its wings

A swell day without Svellet

Today I decided to leave Svellet alone and instead visit the Oslo islands. I cannot see that anyone else has visited Svellet today so don’t know if my decision was the right one but I can see that water levels have only risen by  2cm so conditions will still be very, very mighty.

The islands gave a perfectly acceptable account of themselves even if the fjord contained not a single duck, diver, grebe or tern of any interest what so ever. Before I had even got to Gressholmen I saw a massive 4 species of waders (but only one of each)  in the tiny muddy bay by the ferry stop at Lindøya Øst (Redshank, Greenshank, Ringed Plover and Oystercatcher) and this did increase expectations rather considerably. Gressholmen’s muddy bay disappoints (me) more often that otherwise but mid to late May is probably when it is at its best. There had been no rain or southerly winds (they are from the north at the moment) so I did not expect too much but a Bar-tailed Godwit that has been present a few days was still there alongside the same species, but in greater numbers, as I had seen at Lindøya.

A singing Thrush Nightingale in exactly the same scrub as the last two years was my first of the year and a joy to listen to.

A worrying aspect of the trip was quite how few Black-headed Gulls there were. I only found two colonies and the largest was considerably smaller than it has been in previous years. I have also seen that Oslo’s normally largest colony on an islet off Bygdøy is empty this year so unless there is a large colony somewhere else then it looks like a crisis for the species (the inland colonies at Sognsvann and Østensjøvannet are small in relation to the number that normally breed on the fjord).

The absolute highlight and a slight headache came when I was getting on the ferry at Lindøya. I heard angry Hooded Crows and Swallows behind me and turned expecting to see a Goshawk. What I did see was something smaller but after a second I realised it was an owl and must be one of the earded ones. I raised my bins whilst walking and saw the face and was sure it was a Short-eared. I then got on board and reached for the superzoom and filmed whilst the ferry left the dock but only managed 20 seconds before the deckhand said I had to move inside. I was quite happy that I had managed to document only my second ever Oslo Short-eared and decided to look at the video to see if it was any good and of course to see if I had actually pressed record… Well this time I had but the owl proved to be of the longer eared variety. Still a very good bird in an Oslo context. My still only ever record of Short-eared Owl was an equally difficult experience although then I assumed it had to be a Leo and it was only the pictures that allowed me to see it was a Seo… 

a clip from the video showing the grey face and under wing tips that have fine baring and not a particularly black tip all of which say Leo (hornugle)

and here it disappears to the north over Hovedøya and towards the city

The sound of the Thrush Nightingale (nattergal) and a Willow Warbler (løvsanger)

the Bar-tailed Godwit (lappspove) on Gressholmen

The Black-headed Gull (hettemåke) colony on Nakkeskjær where I counted 65 nests although there were undoubtedly more out of sight on the far side

a close up of some of the nests

and here 9 nests on the main part of the island where they do not look to be so safe

a female Wheateat (steinskvett)

In Maridalen it was again difficult to be certain what was happening with the Lapwings but I did see more today. There were 10 adults and five young in broods of 4 and 1. There was also another female acting as though she had young in the long grass and probably two females that were on new nests but that will have to firmed up as a bit more time passes.

the single young Lapwing (vipe) with mum and a "singing" Snipe (enkeltbekkasin)

a new nest

two males have been frequently been squaring off

Svellet has never, ever, been mightier

While I was away from Oslo The Mighty Svellet has just carried on getting mightier and mightier. On Saturday a new Norwegian record count for Wood Sandpiper was made with 1800 birds counted (the previous record of 1395 birds on 11^th May 2021 was of course also from Svellet) and then yesterday the record was smashed again when 2200 were counted!! Today I estimated a minimum of 1750 birds but there were new flocks regularly arriving from the south and others looking like they were leaving to the north so the true numbers were probably a lot higher. Surprisingly no other species passed 100 and whilst the peak passage of Greenshank has clearly passed, the numbers of Ruff, Dunlin and Ringed Plover may still increase. My list can be seen here.

I had been hoping for these sorts of numbers (and conditions) but last week really feared it would not happen as water levels rose however they have since then only increased by around 5cm a day and it must be said things are perfect now. It surely cannot last for that much longer so we always have to enjoy it whilst we can. It is a surprise that nothing rare or to be honest scarce has been found but with the distances and lighting being as they are it would need to be something rather obvious like a Black-winged Stilt.

Svellet from the east. Water levels have risen a bit but there is still lots of mud and shallow water

from the west looking north

and looking south. Most birds were to the right of the picture as can be seen in this video:

In Maridalen I recorded my 150^th Oslo species of the year with Common Crossbill. That it should take so long to see the species (it was also my first in Norway) is because all the cones that caused last year to be so good for the species are now empty of seeds and all the many thousands of Crossbills that were around Oslo 12 months ago are now somewhere else in Fenno Scandinavia where there is a good crop of fresh spruce cones. Today’s birds were a pair though and I heard song so maybe they are thinking of breeding?

Regarding the Lapwings I saw a single brood of 4 today which it would be natural to assume is one of the broods I saw last week but as they were so small I am not sure if they are a new brood. There were 8 adults in total with none other seemingly guarding young in the grass but a pair was displaying and nest scraping and another female looked to be sitting on a nest (but not the same nest from 2 posts ago which now seems abandoned).