Summer holidays have begun and per tradition our first week is at a cabin south of Oslo near Hulvik. Butterflies are in short supply so far except for Queen of Spain Fritillaries (sølvkåpe) which are by far the most numerous species and in numbers I have never seen before.
Evening drives with Jr have become another tradition and our first one gave a good haul with 4 Moose including a mother and tiny calf, 3 Roe Deer, 2 Badgers and 3 unidentified small bats. I started with animals as that is Jr’s priority but on the bird front we had 2 Corncrake, 2 Quail, 5 Nightjar, 3 Tawny Owls, 2 Long-eared Owls, 3 Marsh Warblers and quite a few Woodcocks.
The best experience came as we were nearly back at the cabin when we found a pair of Nightjar seemingly nesting. It was as dark as it gets by then but I will spend more time with them and hopefully with the use of the thermal imager get an insight into their secretive lives.
Red-backed Shrikes are scare this year with just 2 males seen one of which was singing so unpaired but the other probably had a female on the nest.
This is the only picture I took of a Nightjar (nattravn) with the superzoom at 00:10. I should probably have taken some more but was concentrating on video
This spring and early summer has been very hot and
very dry in southern Norway and there have recently been news reports that
farmers already fear failed crops and bankruptcies. So a forecast of lots of
rain yesterday was certainly greeted by farmers but also by myself and
like-minded birders because as we all know rain in the summer can bring down
lots of otherwise high flying migrating waders. Now mid-June is not exactly peak
migration time and in fact there is a possibility that some birds are still
migrating north (e.g Ringed Plovers) whilst others are definitely going south
already (Curlew, Ruff and Spotted Redshank being obvious examples). Rain at
this time of the year is perhaps most likely to result in an interesting tern
though but either way Årnestangen and Svellet are the obvious choice of
locality to visit. A walk out to Årnestangen on a humid summers day is not to
be treated lightly. The plagues of mosquitos mean that one has to dress in long
sleaves and trousers and spray liberally with mossy spray. This means that ones
gets soaked (by sweat) even if it doesn’t rain (which of course you hope it
does).
Yesterday I arrived at the end of Årnestangen before
it rained and chalked up a singing Corncrake on the way (this species has become
VERY scarce in the last couple of years). At the tip there were a few waders:
Ringed and Little Ringed Plovers, Dunlin, a Ruff, Curlew, Snipe, Lapwing and
Wood Sandpiper but no big numbers. Whilst I waited for the forecast rain to
arrive I checked out a pair of breeding Yellow Wagtail which Erling H had
suggested I do as the male looked very much like a Blue-headed. And indeed it
was, for me it ticked all the boxes and could be safely called a flava: it had
a bluey grey head, a very bold white supercilium and a very obvious white
subocular patch. The female appeared to be a thunbergi based on having dark
smudges on her breast although females are not straightforward. A mixed subspecies
pair would explain the many intermediate birds that are seen in lowland,
southern Norway.
When the rain finally came the only new waders that
turned up were a handful of Curlew and Greenshank and after half an hour I
decided to head back to the car. As I walked along the river I noticed to “gulls”
flying towards me but as they got closer I realised they were terns and terns
that large could of course only be Caspians. I had to get my camera out of the
bag but managed to record this auspicious moment but sending out a message in
the rain with wet fingers and a wet phone proved to be a task nearly beyond my abilities.
In the evening the terns were found resting at then tip and a Red-necked
Phalarope was a quality wader find.
In Maridalen the last brood of Lapwings numbers
three tiny young and on the same field a large youngster is already flapping his
wings and flying a few metres. Fingers crossed that there are still other young
hiding away and that these that decide to show themselves make it to fledging.
I have finally found the nest of one of the Wryneck
pairs and they are using the same nest as two years ago but which was used, and
walled up, by Nuthatches last year. The young have hatched and the parents are
busy bringing ants and larve and removing shit bags.
Caspian Tern (rovterne)
the 2nd bird
both birds
male Blue-headed (Yellow) Wagtail (sørlig gulerle)
wet adult Wryneck (vendehals)
food going in
shit coming out
this Sand Martin (sandsvale) in Maridalen was close to where single pairs have previously bred in holes in a wall and perhaps they are doing so again (otherwise this species seems to have disapeared as a breeding bird in Oslo)
3 tiny Lapwings (vipe) just 2 days old
and a much larger youngster probably around 3 weeks old
My lack of recent blog activity does not reflect a
lack of birding activity, to the contrary I have been busy with both guiding
and good birding. On Sunday I again had the company of local photographer Eirik
and despite rain and wind we had a successful day around Nordre Øyeren. Today I
was guiding David and Jaye again and this time with a focus on the nocturnal
singers. With a desire to see rather than just hear the birds I chose not to go
nocturnal (I also like my bed) but rather visit known birds and hope to see
them early in the morning. The day started disappointingly with Corncrake and
Grasshopper Warbler that had both been heard during the night deciding not to
make themselves known. The Corncrake was particularly annoying because I have
heard and seen the bird each of the last three days and even managed to take good
photos of it. Time will tell whether the birds had moved on to pastures new at
the end of the night or whether we were just unlucky. The morning definitely
ended on a high though with Blyth’s Reed and River Warblers heard and seen REALLY
well and then a visit to the Tengmalm’s Owl nest (thx Rune for the tip) revealed
a youngster ready to leave the nest. We also had many Marsh Warblers, Wryneck
and Rosefinch during the day. We will have a nocturnal trip later in the week
to look for Nightjar which you really have no chance of finding otherwise.
Yesterday, whilst reccying for today’s trip I found
a tatty 1st summer Little Gull at Maridalsvannet which is only my
third record there.
There are lot of pictures and videos to enjoy here so I suggest pouring a glass of wine, sitting back and enjoying. Don't drink too much wine though or you might think some of the videos have been taken without a tripod... 😂
Corncrake (åkerrikse)
River Warbler (elvesanger) my best ever views
and pretty good views of Blyth's Reed Warbler (busksanger)
young Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle) close to leaving the nest
Little Gull (dvergmåke) and Swift (tårnseiler)
and some videos taken with my phone recording the sounds
in this video in addition to the BRW can you hear Marsh Warbler and Common Rosefinch (which the BRW also mimicked)
cropped close up of Corncrake
more River Warbler
compare the mouth colour with the BRW lower down
when seen like this I doubt many would get the ID right
Blyth's Reed Warbler
as with other acro warblers it has a much more orange mouth
Tengmalm's Owl
Little Gull
picking insects off the water surface
with Black-headed Gull (hettemåke)
the weather has not been great for butterflies or dragonflies nor have I had much time for them but today I saw my first Large Skipper and Swallowtail
Large Skipper (engsmyger)
this Swallowtail (svalestjert) is only the second I can remember seeing in Maridalen and was in a real hurry and disappeared quite quickly
When I awoke to rain and low cloud this morning the only
thing I thought about was how silly I had been to hang washing out to dry overnight.
I have clearly moved on from migration modus and into breeding bird modus. If I
had still my migration antenna up I may have chosen to go out to Årnestangen
(which has been kind to me this spring) and then I may have found the Little
Tern that instead fittingly fell to Årnestangen stalwart Erling Hobøl.
When the message on the tern ticked in just before noon I
actually got twitchy, did a u-turn and considered driving out for it but my senses got the
better of me and an empty stomach was rewarded with lunch.
So what birding did I do today? Well as I was in breeding
bird modus I was checking out Sørkedalen and close by areas. A few nights ago a
Corncrake with a strange song was reported singing. The consensus seems to be
that this is the song of a female (which has only recently been properly
understood). A couple of days later her far from dulcet tones had attracted three! males to vy for her affections. Early returning
birds can often be easier to locate and see because they sing intensely and the
grass has not yet grown high. I also thought that the gloomy conditions today would
actually mean there was more likelihood of birds singing during the day so set
off after the girls were despatched to school with moderately high hopes.
The area where the birds had been reported turned out to be
surprisingly small and urban with a main road, large car park, kindergarten and a
couple of farms surrounding it. The fields all had crops only a few centimetres
high but an area of waste ground right by the kindergarten had a lot of lush
grass, nettles and sedges and it was clearly here I would find the bird(s). One
was singing when I got out of the car and I positioned myself in a good place
and waited and hoped that there would be some activity. It is my experience
that singing birds often are visible or at least their head is and it is just a
matter of being able to locate them -which I did J
!!!!
My best ever views of Corncrake ensued although I had to
call it a day as the worsening rain threatened the future of my cameras.
After this I went into Sørkedalen where among other exciting
species I had Red-backed Shrike and Common Rosefinch. The highlight though was
4 quite large young Lapwings and four adults. Breeding had failed on this field
last year (making Maridalen the only place in Oslo with successful breeding)
and although some small young had been seen here earlier this spring there have
been no other reports and the farmer has since sown the field so another failure
was assumed – but no four young of this size is very promising! In Maridalen
however things do not look so promising (after a good breeding season last
year). I believe there were 3-4 pairs attempting to nest this year at Skjerven
but today I could only see 2 adults in the long grass and no indication of any
young. Five birds were feeding at Kirkeby which is not a good sign as if they
had young then I would have expected them to be with them.
Tomorrow I am guiding in Hedmark for some very specific and
exciting birds – hopefully I have been kind to the bird gods recently ;-)
Corncrake (åkerrikse)
the small area where it was singing from with a kindergarten top left
song sequence taken with the superzoom
the area from another angle. here you can see that the fields which may be used by the birds later in the season have only very short vegetation now
just as a rare a sight around Oslo as Corncrake are fledgling Lapwings (vipe) - here 4 in Sørkedalen
