A Swallow doth make a spring

In the two days since my last post I have had three new species for the year but I am still praying that we get some rain soon so that we get a real fall of migrants. Yesterday I had my first House Martin which was a really early date and the earliest ever in the Dale. Today was Barn Swallow and Willow Warbler on a more expected but still early date. These two species cannot fail to bring a BIG smile to lips and both were also not shy in giving their classic spring sounds.

Today there was also a clear arrival of duck on the lake with a flock of 34 Teal and 6 Tufted Ducks moving around quite nervously as though they had better places to be. Now is the time of year to be checking out Svellet and Nordre Øyeren but water levels there are extremely low ahead of a feared spring flood (due to lots of snow in the mountains) and the birds are a long way from land with lots of heat haze forming sandflats between you and the birds. These very low water levels now though promise well for a couple of weeks times when wader passage will be peaking.

Raptors have failed to show as I had hoped but yesterday I enjoyed watching the local Buzzard pair eating frogs – they were ripping off surprisingly large strips of bloody flesh from their amphibian prey.

Butterflies are very noticeable this spring especially Small Tortoiseshells which seem to have good winter survival. Today I saw three Green Hairstreaks which is my seventh species for the year so far, the others being Brimstone, Small Tortoiseshell, Comma, Peacock, Holly Blue and Camberwell Beauty. I have also seen an unidentified white butterfly which was probably Green-veined White.

my first Barn Swallow (låvesvale) of the year - its very long tail streamers leave little doubt that this bird is a male.

this flock of 6 migrant Tufted Duck (toppand) were quite nervous and often in flight. Behind them is one of 5 Black-throated Divers (storlom) on the lake today

my first Willow Warbler (løvsanger) of the year which was giving its beautiful song

this male Yellowhammer (gulspurv) was clearly not well. It had blood around its bill, kept closing its eyes and was shivering.

Green Hairstreaks (grønnstjertvinge) are really small and very difficult to find when perched on something green!

Maridalen's earliest ever House Martin (taksvale) deserves a picture no matter how bad it is

Nocturnal outings and Hazel Grouse

A nocturnal trip to Maridalen on Wednesday night revealed Woodcock and Snipe but nothing more interesting. It would appear that another 3 birders were also out during the course of the night and it seemed I missed a Marsh Warbler and lots of Tawny Owls (I have yet to note this species in 2018!).

On Thursday I biked a but around Oslo and failed to find Black Redstart even though one seems to have settled down at last years breeding site. A flyover Hobby here though was a good bird. I found a singing Icterine Warbler just a stone’s throw from the house which is a god urban record but found no House Martins at a colony that has seemed to decline year for year and maybe now is over. It is possible though that the extremely hot weather we are having has meant that nest building is impossible and they may just be waiting for rain or else have moved elsewhere (there are quite a few in Maridalen).

In the evening Per Christian went out for our first proper nocturnal trip of the year. It is still early in the season but the very hot weather which is forecast to continue should be good for bringing in birds. We started in Østfold where a Bittern has been present a while and this was booming already when we arrived at 20:15. The reedbeds here were not extensive at all and we thought we might actually see it but gave up after an hour. We did have a singing Wryneck nearby (only my third record in 2018) but no raptors in the area – I had expected to see Hobby and Honey Buzzard.

Working our way back to Oslo we had 3 Marsh Warblers, 2 Thrush Nightingales, 2 Nightjars singing together, a Corncrake and finally in Maridalen a Tawny Owl. With three Moose this must go down as a successful start to the season. The Corncrake and Nightjars were particularly pleasing as they were at close range and could really be heard well although my attempts at recording them have ended up in the recycle bin.

Today had me walking in the hills above Maridalen searching for Hazel Grouse and I succeeded with good views of a male but I had no repeat of my Greenish Warbler discovery of last year. Wood Warblers have also finally made it into Maridalen so maybe things are just delayed. There was also a Marsh Warbler singing in Maridalen which we had not heard around midnight and most likely arrived in the early hours.

male Hazel Grouse (jerpe)

I never manage to get the sharp, well lit photo I hope for because they are always in the shade of the forest and give you only a few seconds before they whir off

Black Woodpecker (svartspett)

male Reed Bunting (sivspurv)

an old male Common Rosefinch (rosenfink)

It also looks like 2018 will be a good year for butterflies and today I had my first Green Hairstreaks and Holly Blue plus Camberwell Beauty, Comma and Speckled Wood.

Green Hairstreak (grønnstjertvinge)

Holly Blue (vårblåvinge)

Some videos

Today’s birding involved trying to get to grips with the breeding situation for some of Maridalen’s scarce breeders. I finally, after suspecting it for a while, confirmed that a 2cy female Goshawk is breeding. It is apparently very rare for them to breed at this age and breeding is expected to not be successful. Behaviour today suggested that she is no longer sitting on eggs but whether they have hatched or failed I am unsure but time will tell.

The Greenish Warbler was seen by other but my midday visit did not reveal it nor hardly any other singing birds. There was a good selection of butterflies thought including my first Green Hairstreak and Comma of the year as well as a few Camberwell Beauties.

I also include three videos from last weeks Hedmark jolly.

2cy female Goshawk (hønsehauk) breeding

Green Hairstreak (grønnstjertvinge)

Treecreeper nest

Camberwell Beauty (sørgekåpe)

Hazel Grouse guiding

I was guiding to my newly found Hazel Grouse site this morning. The target was to get a picture but with this species that is never an easy task (I doubt I will ever again get pictures approaching those I managed on Monday). There was no problem finding the grouse. A male started singing ca.400m before we got to where I had the bird on Monday and showed well in flight and on the ground but never for more than a few seconds at a time and there was lots of vegetation here such that one had to be very quick with the camera and hope that the autofocus would lock on but an acceptable picture was taken! We continued up to where I had the bird two days ago but didn’t find one here. Walking back again we had another bird singing between the two sites. It would appear that the noise we made triggers the bird to sing. When Hazel Grouse fly they make quite a lot of noise and I have also noticed that when walking on the ground they are quite noisy so I wonder if they use and respond to noise as a way of locating each other. Continuing we also had a bird singing where we got the picture so here were two males holding territory very close to each other.

I didn’t stop for much more birding in Maridalen but three 2cy Whooper Swans were on the lake. These have been seen at a few other sites around Oslo recently and I assume they are last year’s youngsters from Maridalen. I have been unable to locate the breeding pair in the last couple of weeks and they have either found a very secluded breeding site or have perhaps have found it necessary to leave the Dale?

Despite the sun and heat (only 27C today in the shade but just as hot in the sun) I went to Svellet. The water has risen by 10cm since yesterday and despite there still being lots of sandbanks the birds had clearly been affected by this. Instead of being in the north where they were yesterday they had moved to the south and were frequently flying around. The exposed mud/sand banks have become very dry and I assume that when they are covered in water that it actually will take a few days before they become a source of food. It is therefore important that the water does not rise too quickly. Number of Greenshank (50) and Wood Sandpiper (300) have fallen as had Ruff (down to 61) but Spotted Redshanks were up to 4 and there were 6 Curlew and a Whimbrel. A Spot Red was also on Merkja and along the river just north of Svellet I found 2 Temminck’s Stint so the first calidris have arrived! The possibility of some rain tomorrow evening and heavy cloud on Friday evening gives the chance of some interesting birds showing up (one can always hope…)

 

my first Temminck's Stint of the year. This does count as a record shot :-)

some of the waders at Svellet today

Wood Sandpipers (grønnstilk)

Wood Sand

Wood Sand (left) with Redshank (rødstilk) giving a good size comparison

Redshank

Ruff (brushane) - 5 males and 12 females

more distant Ruff. Here you can see that some of the males are strutting their stuff and displaying

Spotted Redshank (sotsnipe) at Merkja. There were also 4 on Svellet

4 Greenshank (gluttsnipe) and 2 Curlew (storspove). These two species were able to feed in deeper water than the Wood Sands and Ruff

This Wood Warbler (bøksanger) showed very well in Maridalen but unfortunately I had managed to set the ISO to 3200 so the picture quality is far from what it should have been

 

all seems to be going well with one of at least 3 pairs of Goshawks that breed in Maridalen

Green Hairstreak butterfly - only the second time I have seen this specie

Garden nature

When birds are scarce then butterflies often offer some interest. In the garden today we found this female Green Hairstreak which was very tired and presumeably on its last legs after having survived the winter and laying its eggs.

This is a very small butterfly. The picture was taken at a distance of 1cm and the picture has been cropped.
Otherwise in the garden we have nesting Blue and Great Tits, singing Lesser Whitethroat, a Pied Flycatcher singing from 3 houses away.