Loads of birds!

I frequently am accused of being overly optimistic in my bird forecasts and expectations but I see that my predictions in my last post for Svellet were actually very pessimistic. The wader fest is far from over as the water levels have stopped climbing (at least for now) and there clearly is enough food available as wader numbers which fell on Wednesday rose sharply yesterday (when I did not visit) and were still high today. Viewing conditions are far from great which is par for the course there but today I was able to pick out a Temminck’s Stint although another one on nearby Merkja was much easier to view (as were two yesterday evening which I twitched at Fornebu).

Yesterday gave me a non-wader mass bird event and a quite unique one at that. Very large numbers of Willow Warblers have been seen crossing the fjord from Nesodden and they have been then concentrating at Østensjøvannet. It would appear that frost nights to the north (temperatures were under zero on Tuesday evening as we drove home form owling) are stopping the nocturnal migration of the Willow Warblers and they seem to be stopping their northward journey in the Oslo area and then continuing northwards during the day and moving whilst also searching for food. There is not an overabundance of insects yet in Oslo but Østensjøvannet clearly has good numbers. There were over 1000 Willow Warblers as I walked around the lake and every tree and bush was dripping with them. They were also feeding in long grass, on the short grass of playing fields, on a newly ploughed field, on the paths and many were sallying after insects in the manner of a flycatcher from any available perch including fence wires. It truly was an amazing experience both visually and orally as birds were also singing everywhere. There were not many other species that had clearly arrived with the WWs except for Blackcaps which were more common that normal but not in exceptional numbers. That there were lots of insects to eat though was shown by House Sparrows that were flycatching and Bramblings taking insects alongside the WWs in bushes.

This video gives some idea of how it was but does not pay the experience the justice it deserves:

Svellet 8th May as viewed from the eastern shore

and viewed from the west - still lots of mud and shallow water which clearly has more food than I expected after the water levels rose so quickly

A really heart warming sight at Østensjøvannet are the Black-headed Gulls (hettemåke) that are nesting again. There are three small colonies (including this one) and scattered single nests around the lake and the total number of nests may not be much more than 50 but this is in stark contrast to last years dire situation but also the 2000 odd pairs that used to breed here. Fingers crossed that there are lots of fledged young in a month or two. There is also a good colony at Sognsvann - it would appear that the two most visited lakes for recreational use are attractive to both humans and gulls - but I have yet to notice any nesting on the fjord so I fear that overall things are not good for the species

yesterday and today I could not see a single young Lapwing (vipe) in Maridalen but there is a new nest although as this field was only ploughed on Sunday I am not sure whether she is incubating or just in the egg laying phase

and the Mute Swans (knoppsvane) are now finished with nest building and are on the nest although I do not know whether any eggs have been layed yet