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
The weekend ended up being very memorable. Birding outings
to Maridalen and Nordre Øyeren were not particularly productive other than twitching
a Green-winged Teal but a strategically planned long drive to Sweden for Jr to
practice her driving ahead of her test and also to do some cheap shopping
allowed me to stop at Gjølsjøen and hopefully put to bed my search for Red Kite
in 2025. Me going to a place to see them is of course not the same as finding
one unexpectedly close to Oslo but as we saw 4 which is the second highest
count in Norway (the highest being 5 on 9 April 2023) I think we can say it was
an outstanding day. After I had spotted one bird and we preparing to leave Jr
then asked “what is that big bird?” and pointed at something through the windscreen.
It was so distant that she had to help me find it but it turned out to be Red
Kite #2. We then raced off to try to get closer which worked like a charm then it was joined
by #3 and #4!! There have been many published records of up to 2 birds in the area
this spring but the species would seem to be very well established and being so
close to the Swedish border it is perhaps no surprise. It is a great area with
breeding Marsh Harriers and I also had a female Hen Harrier and a very distant
ringtail that seemed more like a Pallid.
Red Kite (rødglente) #2 which was the bird that showed best
#2
#2
#2
and #3
and #1. #4 was more distant did not get photoed as I was too interested in #2 and #3 that were closer
ringtail Hen Harrier (myrhauk)
Green-winged Teal (amerikakrikkand) at Merkja. This is where I last saw the species and it is very likely the same, returning, bird
the vertical bar of the Green-winged and the horisontal bar of the European Teal
a quick stop at the Black Redstart (svartrødstjert) was very successful and he was actively singing
in Maridalen a pair of Three-toed Woodpeckers seemed to be searching for a suitable tree to excavate a hole in and were moving from tree to tree tapping very loudly. Here the female has sent some splinters of bark flying
the male
there are quite a few Wrynecks (vendehals) in Maridalen now. The original male now has a mate and I saw them checking out old GS Woodpecker holes to choose where they will nest and there are also two currently unpaired singing birds
I spent an age going through all the videos I took on Thursday
and was rather underwhelmed by the results but since I’ve used so much time on
them I’ll inflict them on you anyway.The video of an adder was taken at very close range just after I had discovered
it. Prior to me filming it was hissing aggressively at me but of course stopped
once I started filming although you can hear one hiss as I move (think I lost
balance) which unfortunately means the video is then blurry.
The superzoom also often has big problems focusing
as can be seen in the Lesser Spotted video but as it can be hand held is so much
easier to use. The Green-winged Teal video is filmed with the bazooka using the
tripod but it was so windy that there is shake. At long range I also need to
use the digital zoom which means filming at only 25 frames per second which
also impacts the quality (the superzoom can film at 60 fps).
Even though the northerly winds continue and it
feels like there is nothing to see (you really have to work up some enthusiasm
to even go out) it is still the end of April and three days without blogging causes
a real build up of experiences that need sharing (plus far too many photos and
videos that have to be gone through).
On Thursday I visited Østensjøvannet and there is
always lots of activity there in the spring. The Black-headed Gulls didn’t seem
to have started nesting which may be a result of the weather and a lack of food
at the moment. Various ducks were present including my first Shoveler of the
year and the hybrid Wigeon x Mallard who was fighting a male Mallard for the
attentions of a female Mallard and may well have been the winner.
Various trips to Maridalen have not revealed too
much although the White-fronted Goose is going strong and the Black-throated
Divers are on the lake. A Dipper on the lake far from a stream must have been a
migrant and was an unexpected sighting. I also got good views of the Crane pair
bugling but have no idea of whether and where they are thinking of attempting
to breed. Males of Lesser Spotted and Great Spotted Woodpeckers drumming in a
duet was a novel experience and it took me a while to realised what I was
listening to.
Yesterday afternoon I had to drop Jr Jr off at a
friends in Lillestrøm which gave me an excuse to visit Svellet again. I stopped
off first at Merkja and bumped into another birder who kindly gesticulated and
said “it’s there”. I had to ask what “it” was and found out the Green-winged
Teal was there. There were three groups of the most ardent listers in the Oslo
area watching the bird and had apparently been doing so for quite a while. The news
though hadn’t been disseminated beyond the ranks of the Twitcher. This is an
old chestnut of mine but I don’t get any less irritated every time it happens –
why are there so many more takers rather than givers in the birding game? I
know that twitching is inherently a takers game but if we all decided to be
takers then there would be nothing to take….
This morning I had to pick up Jr Jr and my leaving
the house coincided nicely with a message about 3 Shore Larks not far from
where I had to go. Although a breeding bird in the Norwegian mountains they are
rarely seen on passage (just two records ever in Maridalen for instance) and it
is always a joy to get to see one. I was lucky that the finder, Èric, stayed
until I arrived as they were in a very large ploughed field and blended in
perfectly - I did get to see them well thankfully.
Not too far from Oslo a Cattle Egret was identified
and then localised via Facebook and this has been the centre of gravity for birders
of all hues over the last couple of days. I have not yet summoned the enthusiasm
for the close to two hour round drive that is necessary but hope that this still
major rarity turns up closer to Oslo. What is assumed to be the same bird has
been seen at three places now after first appearing on the south coast and it
is not inconceivable that its journey will take it to Maridalen although with a
lack of cows in the Dale it will be dependent on following the plough to look
for food.
I took quite a lot of video yesterday but that will
have to wait until a later post.
Shore Lark (fjellerke)
not at all easy to find in a ploughed field
all three Shore Lark
much better views of the male Green-winged Teal (amerikakrikkand) and his European cousins than on Wednesday
he was part of a group of unpaired males that were following this female around
note the difference in head pattern with the american bird lacking the yellow lower border to the face mask
the American version also has a much warmer coloured breasy although some European birds can also be like this
here he is displaying
and being told to get lost by the female who is presumably a European Teal but it is impossible to know. I have once seen a hybrid between these two (sub)species
these 3 Greenshank (gluttsnipe) were my first of the year and I also had my first Swallow
Black-throated Diver (storlom) on Maridalsvannet
bugling Cranes (trane) in Maridalen
male Great Spotted Woodpecker (flaggspett)
and male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett)
male Sparrowhawk (spurvehauk)
And some pictures from Østensjøvannet
Black-headed Gull (hettemåke)
the Wigeon x Mallard hybrid and a pair of Mallard
the hybrid definitely thought the female Mallard was his
the breast of the male bears witness to fights with other birds
not often I have taken pictures of Moorhen (sivhøne)
