Wrote too soon

1^st May was it turns out not as bad as I thought. In the afternoon a Great White Egret was reported from Fornebu. A good species but not one to make me rush out of the door. However, in the evening  I had to drop Jr Jr off at a party which my phone informed me was only a further 7 minutes drive from said Egret. I had little belief that it would still be present given it was a Bank Holiday and Fornebu has become more park that nature reserve but when I turned up I immediately saw it. Nice and a Fornebu tick for yours truly 😊

It was an immature due to its yellow bill and was colour ringed although this I only discovered from my photos and cannot make out any code. I am also unsure of the colour of the ring so cannot find what scheme it is from – it looks black but the only scheme listed on cr-birding.org states it rings on the right leg whereas this is on the left.

The Egret can only count as Good as I was twitching but there was a hint of Greatness from two other birds. Three Bar-tailed Godwits had also been reported and I could see two waders sleeping in the bay. I naturally assumed these to be Barwits and paid them no further attention until I was about to go home by which time the evening sun had sunk so much that all birds in the bay were in shade. Their bills were under their wings but never-the-less something didn’t look right for Barwit and I was quite sure they were Blackwits. And indeed they were! They were very brick red and small and were clearly Icelandic birds and I wondered if there had been a mistake with the earlier reports but the two bird theory does apply here. Blackwits are not annual in Oslo and Akershus in spring and most previous birds look to be limosa but in the autumn when the species is far commoner it is definitely islandica that dominates.

Godwits of the Black rather than Bar-tailed variety

the Great (White) Egret was actively fishing and seemed to find a lot of prey

here the rings are visible. A metal ring on the right leg and a dark colour ring on the left leg but what colour is it?

Wadering

One of the main birding events around Oslo is the gatherings of migrating waders and waterfowl in Nordre Øyeren especially  at Årnestangen and Svellet. I have not given this much attention so far this autumn and have missed the best bits which are normally at the end of July when thunderstorms can bring down a vast selection of adult waders. Now in late August the species variety is significantly less and almost all birds are young birds. On Wednesday I joined up with Jules Bell for a trip to Årnestangen and Svellet and yesterday I visited Svellet and Merkja. The most numerous wader was Ruff with around 250 birds in total and more unusual birds were Black-tailed Godwit, Curlew Sand and Little and Temminck’s Stints.

In Maridalen I have continued looking for raptors and especially Honey Buzzards but despite what I would describe as perfect condition there has been very little to see although the HBs will get their own post later. A young Peregrine has been a regular sight though terrorizing a group of Feral Pigeons that frequent one of the farms and amongst the few Common Buzzards is a particularly pale bird.

Svellet has been Made Great Again and alongside lots of Ruff (brushane) are a couple of Black-tailed Godwits (svarthalespove)

on the neighbouring Merkja two male Gadwall (snadderand) in eclipse

Goosander (laksand) in Maridalen. A female (middle) has managed to raise 8 young which is incredibly gowing considering that the many Goldeneye (kvinand) broods typically and quite quickly decline to one or two, or none

here male (who has had nothing to do with the family before now), a 1cy and mum

a 1cy Peregrine (vandrefalk) has been regular in Maridalen and likes to have a go at a small flock of Feral Pigeons (bydue) that hang around one of the farms

this pale Common Buzzard (musvåk) has also been a regular sighting

I have seen evidence of a Nutcracker in the garden with discarded leaves and nuts from our Hazel Trees on the lawn and today I saw the culprit from the kitchen window:

Raptors at Årnestangen

Wednesday and Thursday were characterised by blue skies and a strong northerly wind which were conditions that I did not expect to produce very much whereas today saw a dying down of the wind and it even turning to the south plus it clouding over a bit. I therefore had no real expectations of raptors on Wed and Thur but high expectations today. As usual the outcome and my expectations diverged.

Wednesday saw me at Østensjøvannet where my raptor highlight was a male Marsh Harrier low over my head. There have been a number of records here so far this spring and with the growing breeding population not that far to the south east of Oslo I would not be surprised if they do try to breed here in a few years time.

Thursday saw me at Årnestangen and I walked out to the end for the first time this year. The high water levels meant there was no mud but some of the fields were flooded and this is where there were waders. An astonishing 51 Green Sandpipers had the company of my first 2 Wood Sandpipers of the year plus Little Ringed Plover, Lapwing, Curlew and Oystercatcher and the star bird a fine Black-tailed Godwit which has been found the previous evening. A pair of Garganey topped off the list of wildfowl and on the passerine front my first House Martin and Yellow Wagtail of the year were noted. In the field I thought the Yellow Wag was a Blue-headed (flava) but my pictures were useless and I will not claim it a such.

Raptors were the real highlight though and I had 11 species which I believe is a personal record. I had Golden and White-tailed Eagle, Common and Rough-legged Buzzard, Marsh and Hen Harrier, Osprey, Sparrowhawk, Goshawk, Kestrel and Peregrine. Barring rarities (and I really did hope to find either a Red Kite or a Pallid Harrier) the only species missing was Merlin which I saw in Maridalen both the day before and day after (today). Here is my eBird checklist.

Today was surprisingly quiet in Maridalen especially as messages kept ticking in from Nittedal to the east where there was clearly quite a lot going on. I did hear my first Willow Warbler of the year singing away and that in itself was enough to make my day.

looking out to Årnestangen from Snekkervika yesterday. High water and lots of brown vegetation

Maridalsvannet today. The ice is starting to melt around the edges but an overnight frost had caused a thin layer of ice to reform. The thicker winter ice will last a few more days at least

young (3cy?) male Marsh Harrier Østensjøvannet

Osprey (fiskeørn) in Maridalen

pair of Shoveler (skjeand) at long rainge at (for me) at Østensjøvannet

but at close range for some

despite lots od work having been done to try to make conditions more suitable for Black-headed Gulls these were the only ones that seemed to be nesting and there were less than 100 birds in total present. I think previously around 2000 paris bred.

this bird was apparantly ringed in Cumbria in December 2019 and has been seen there and Østensjøvannet annually since

2 Curlew (storspove) feeding in Maridalen is a rare sight (they normally fly over) although commoner with Whimbrel which will hopefully turn up up next week

there was a large group of male Goosander (laksand) at ØStensjøvnnet and they were diving as a flock in the manner of Cormorants

both the Mute Swans (knoppsvane) in Maridalen are ringed. The female (K933) was born in 2017 at Smestaddammen in Oslo and does not appear to have bred before although she was paired to another male last year. The male was ringed in December 2019 in Oslo as a juvenile but it is not known where he was born. He does not appear to have been in a pair before and has travelled quite a bit including to Tønsberg (69km)

The Black-tailed Godwit (svarthalespove) with Osystercatcher (tjeld) and Curlew

Garganey (knekkand)

ringtail Hen Harrier (myrhauk) at Årnestangen

this wagtail at Årnestangen was not very straightforward. It has been present (and previously photographed) since early April and on the face of it looks like a straightforward female Pied Wagtail. Only problem was it was making a lot of noise that I took to be song which should make it a male and

the rump was not particularly black

which I think makes it more likely to be an intergrade between Pied and White Wagtail

Ring Ouzels (ringtrost)

Røst day 2

My second day on Røst, although the first in daylight was a great success even if there was no major rarity (Norway’s second Two-barred Greenish Warbler which was found earlier in the week has unfortunately moved on now). This is actually my third visit to Røst after a summer visit in 2000 when I saw Snowy Owl and a visit in late September 2003 when I stayed for a couple of days without seeing too much (although my name is the NSKF rarities report for being a co-finder of an American Golden Plover which I remember very little about).

We were 8 birders on Røst today and the nature of the island makes it much easier to cover on foot than Værøy and with far less vegetation then we should discover a far higher percentage of the birds present than on Værøy. Røst has far more wetlands than Værøy so there are many more waders and ducks but there are fewer passerines especially thrushes and finches.

I have walked 28,473 steps today and am rather knackered so I will keep this brief now😊. The two highlights for me were an adult Gyr Falcon close enough for photos (all my previous sightings of Gyr have been long distance) and hearing, and of course seeing, Yellow-browed Warbler which is a very necessary part of every autumn.

Other good birds were Olive-backed Pipit, Tree Pipit (which is rarer here than OBP), Taiga Bean Goose, Arctic Redpoll and my first Black-tailed Godwit in Norland. The full eBird checklist can be seen here.

Looking north with Værøy to the right and the rest of the Lofoten islands

Sunrise on Røst

Looking south

Yellow-browed Warbler (gulbrynsanger)

Adult Gyr Falcon (jaktfalk)

Olive-backed Pipit (sibirpiplerke)

And for comparison a Tree Pipit (trepiplerke)

Black-tailed Godwit (svarthalespove)

Arctic Redpoll (polarsisik)

Golden Plover (heilo)

Long-tailed Duck (havelle)

Taiga Bean Goose - a large billed bird that may come from a long way east in Russia