I have been drawn back to Nordre Øyeren daily now in
the hope of uncovering something rare. The numbers of geese are just enormous
and you can see them either feeding on stubble fields or resting on the water
at Svellet. There are at least 2000 each of Barnacles and Greylags but probably
a lot more as well as 400 Canadas. Finding something scarcer amongst all these
has proved tough going but I have now found a single White-fronted Goose,
single Bar-headed, single Pink-footed and 3 Greylag x Canada hybrids. I have
only found one bird with with a collar - a Greylag ringed in Germany in 2021
and since either close to Oslo or in Germany.
I have spent too long looking at the Canadas and have got a
headache at the amount on variability amongst them with some birds definitely
looking «wilder» than others but all probably within the variation of size and
plumage of a feral population that probably has little genetic diversity.
White-fronted Goose (tundragås)
Bar-headed Goose (stripegås)
neck collared Greylag (grågås) D780 and its history below
this Canada looked very interesting from afar
but closer up I wasn't s sure
and this one while not being so dark also looked quite different
enormous numbers
Water levels have risen a lot due to heavy rain and there is
no longer mud in Svellet so waders and dabbling ducks have vanished but there
are now 4 Little Gulls and also 4 «commic» Terns (I remember as a child hearing
the term Commic Tern and not being able to find it in my bird book. It caused
me lots of confusion for a long time until I finally plucked up the courage to
ask an older birder what it was and found out it was from COMMon and ArctIC and
referred to unidentified birds of the species pair. I also remember very soon
after calling out “Commic Tern” and it being a white dove….). I initially
thought there were 2 Common and 2 Arctic but with better views have now come to
the conclusion that there are at least 3 Common and the fourth bird is also
most likely a Common. It has been quite a learning experience where I relied
too much on jizz and behaviour to start with.
a commic tern and 2 Little Gulls (dvergmåke)
3 f the 4 Little Gulls. All were 1cy
this 1cy tern with grey secondaries must be a Common (makrellterne)
I have had 10 species of raptor which is a good showing and
my first Great Grey Shrike of the autumn.
my first Great Gre Shrike (varlser) of the autumn which I saw eating a mouse
a very distant, but very smart, male Hen Harrier (myrhauk)
Peregrine (vandrefalk) and a pale Common Buzzard (musvåk)
this immature White-tailed Eagle (havørn) flew over Svellet
and a bit later I found it on a field that had previously been covered in geese with just a few crows for company
Merlin (dvergalk)
I have also had a couple of attempts to locate the Taiga
Beans but have failed. I assume they are still around as it would be record
early if they have already left and I remember that in previous years the GPS
tagged bird(s) have shown they have often used one particular field that is
very well hidden and that I have never tried to get to as I am certain it will
just result in flushing the birds – they may well be using it again.
I have only had a couple of quick visits to Maridalen but a
perched and then hunting White-tailed Eagle was a very good sighting.
the Crane (trane) family is still feeding in Maridalen
it is very unusual to find a perched White-tailed Eagle in the Dale
All you need is some rain and then the wind to change to southerly and boom.
Fridat started naturally in Maridalen where 19 Temminck’s are yet another record but stubbornly refuse to attract any other calidris to join them. On Thursday though I finally had Greenshank there and 4 Golden Plovers so this springs wader list is very respectable and on Saturday 4 Redshank also dropped in. A short visit to Østensjøvannet gave lots of feeding hirundines in the cold northerly wind which was nice to see after a couple of years where an insect absence has meant there has hardly been any there. House Martins were the scarcest and I am worried about this species. Black-headed Gulls continue to suffer and I could see just 2 nests still occupied. Highlight was a pair of Garganey found by Jack the day before and excitingly their behaviour suggested to me they will try to nest.
After this I announced to anyone who wanted to listen that I was off to Nordre Øyeren to find a Broad-billed Sandpiper and that turned out to be a good prediction😊. I stopped first at Merkja where the american Green-winged Teal is back and a good selection of waders included 18 Temminck’s (still beaten by Maridalen). Svellet again had absolutely no waders but it was Årnestangen where the excitment was. A Bar-headed Goose on the walk out was a tickable piece of category C plastic after the Norwegian records committee has recently «upgraded» it from pure plastic category E.
The real action was to be had at the end though where an initial sweep of the dry mud flats revealed nothing… but a second sweep showed a wader walking around the corner from an unviewable bit of shoreline. Eventually a few others joined and they turned out to be 4 species with a Broad-billed headlining, 11 Sanderling being a very high spring count and 2 each of Dunlin and Ringed Plover being more expected.
But that was only the beginning of the day! In the evening I was guiding to GG Owls. This allowed me to take in a Caspian Tern at Hamar and then the owls completely outdid themselves with the male bringing 3 voles in the course of just an hour which mum fed to three hungry chicks. Happy days!!
So, after such a long day I could be forgiven a little lie in yesterday morning on what had all the hallmarks of being THE day this spring with rain and strong southerly winds forecast. I decided to allow others the joy of walking out to Årnestangen and instead went first to Maridalen where 19 Temminck’s were still present and now even displaying and 3 Greenshank and 4 Redshank were new. I reckoned it was sea gazing that was the best option today and positioned myself at Halden Brygge, Fornebu from 10:30 where a kiosk provides great shelter when it blows from the south. A flock of 30 Oystercatcher heading north as I got out of the car was a promising sign and then a minute later the sight of a flock of 21 Kittiwake was a sure sign that birds were moving. This flock headed north over the city and then a bit later a new flock of 23 came from the south and eventually landed on the water. Red-throated Divers were moving high up with 141 in total and I grilled every tern I saw with all being local Common Terns until suddenly the closest tern of the day turned out to be a Sandwich. This was big - finally after 24 years by far my biggest bogey bird in Norway had fallen😊 and I even got photos. It was heading south and as I watched it a large flock of Brent Geese came into view heading north!! It was all a bit too much. These were pale-bellied birds which usually fly up the west coast of Norway on their way to Svalbard but occasionally take a wrong turn and head up the east coast. They were obviously very confused and eventually turned around and headed south again. After this there were some smaller flocks including one which did head north and I last saw it heading over Maridalen.
Today has been a wet day but I have of course been out. In Maridalen rising water levels and a night with no rain had caused all but 3 of the Temminck’s to move. The fjord didn’t seem to have any interesting birds with the wind having turned easterly and rain making visibility bad. So Nordre Øyeren beckoned. I chose not to walk out to Årnestangen after Svellet only had 8 Temmincks to offer but Merkja had the goods with 2 Mountain Marsh Runners having already been found and feeding alongside Dunlin and Temmincks with the Green-winged Teal also still present and showing well😊
Here are videos and pictures of everything bar the GGO which I will have to come back to.
finally - Sandwich Tern (splitterne)!! and I found it myself :-)
sea gazing from Halden Brygge
confused Brent Geese (ringgås) over Oslo
here we see they are the Pale-bellied subspecies
I have not counted but reckon they are around 300
Kittiwakes (krykkje)
female Garganey (knekkand) giving unusually good views
male
Caspian Tern (rovterne)
these are probably my best views in Norway much better than the Svellet experience
Bar-headed Goose (stripegås) with Canada Geese and a Canada x Greylag hybrid
a Dunline (myrsnipe) and Broad-billed Sandpiper (fjellmyrløper) - trust me!
Sanderlings (sandløper)
Green-wnged Teal (amerikakrikkand) with normal Teal
quite a collection of birds at Merkja
a male Ruff (brushane) with 4 other wader species
Temminck's Stints
the Broad-billed Sandpipers at Merkja were much close than at Årnestangen but I still failed to get good photos
