Buttering

Last autumn I wrote a post summarising a great year of buttering and I also listed the remaining Norwegian species I had yet to see and how I could go about that.

 Yesterday was time to start chipping away at that list and a trip to Hedmark was in order to search for Lapland Ringlet (emblas ringvinge) and Bog Fritillary (ringperlemorvinge). I chose yesterday as it was forecast to be warm but cloudy with periods of sun. I thought this would be better than a very sunny day as the butterflies were more likely to rest when the sun went behind a cloud and allow me to get photos rather than them just flying around manically.

I had an early start from Oslo and arrived at my chosen bog by 0930. I then began to doubt my strategy as there was rather a lot of cloud in the sky and no immediate sign that the sun would shine. It was warm though and moths were flying around. I thought that I might scare some butterflies up if I walked around and succeeded in seeing a Northern Grizzled Skipper (moltesmyger) which was only me second sighting ever. A couple of fritillaries also flew past quite slowly but frustratingly did not land within sight of me. I needed sun and eventually I could see that there would soon be a large gap in the clouds - and that did the trick.

Suddenly there were quite a few fritillaries on the wing. The first ones that I managed to identify were Pearl-bordered (rødflekket perlemorvinge) but most just zipped by. I did have my butterfly net with me although I am normally equally as (un)successful with it as I am at scratching on tree trunks and managed to net one. And, it was the first of my targets - a Bog. Things then became easier and I saw a number of them and got photos and it was probably the commonest butterfly there. I also had some more skippers and then a giant of a butterfly - a  Baltic Grayling (juttas ringvinge). Again this was only my second ever sighting and in total had probably 4 individuals which frequently landed on tree trunks.

I was still missing my second target species but after 2 hours I saw another dark butterfly but it was smaller than the graylings and it kindly landed and allowed photos. Embla in the box - the day was working out entirely to plan 🦋🥳.

I had good time to continue further east and check out some flower rich road verges where I have stopped a couple of times before including in July last year for Silvery Argus (kileblåvinge). I was a bit shocked to see that the verges had been scraped to dig drainage ditched but did find some untouched areas and here found a couple of Chequered Skippers (gulflekksmyger) which again and for the third time was only my second ever sighting and they were mint individuals. A few Violet Coppers (fiolett gullvinge) were past their best but were probably the rarest butterfly of the day although it is a species I have been lucky enough to see a few times before.

Yesterday takes me to 84 species of butterfly in Norway and leaves me just 17 to get.

And birds? Well, there were some but nothing to write home, or on this blog, about.

the first target to fall - Bog Fritillary (ringperlemorvinge). The line of white circles at end back of the underwing are diagnostic

from above it looks like a Small Pearl-bordered (brunflekket) but note how the black spots bleed into the triangular markings and this appears to be diagnostic

this one got me very excited and I was thinking a Friggs Fritillary but turned out to be an abberation of Bog. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of the upperwing but we can see some of it and it is mostly dark and on the underwing it is much darker than normal

and target #2 - Lapland Ringlet (emblas ringvinge). I only has this one individual with a bit missing from its wing

and my second ever sighting of Northern Grizzled Skipper (moltesmyger) and much better than my first

and my second ever sighting(s) of Baltic Grayling (juttas ringvinge) - a large butterfly that has a 2 year syklus

waiting for the clouds to move

the forest bog when the sun was shining - this type of habitat must be very common but rarely visited by anyone with an interest/knowledge 

of butterflies so many of the species may be far more widespread than the handfull of annual records suggest

and my second ever Chequered Skipper (gulflekksmyger) which was a much more satsifying sighting than my first last year which was so late and faded that it was barely recognisable

and the rare Violet Copper (fiolett gullvinge)

a tiny orchid growing on a roadside verge - Early/Northern Coralroot (korallrot)

More good guiding

I am just off the back of another two very enjoyable and successful days guiding. Wednesday was Hedmark Owls and a short and sweet best of Maridalen with Rob and Helen from Blighty and today was an Oslo highlights trips with Andy from New York.

Many good birds, good experiences, deep discussions and laughs were had. The best birds were of course Great Grey and Ural Owl plus Black Woodpecker and Wryneck on Wednesday and then on Thursday, Oslo (and suburbs) could offer amongst (many) others Thrush Nightingale, Honey Buzzard, Goshawk, Black-throated Diver (or Arctic Loon if you are so inclined), Temminck’s Stint, Velvet Scoter, Marsh, Wood and Icterine Warblers, Common Rosefinch and of course Black Woodpecker and  Wryneck. The bird that got me most excited though is one that will never appear as a “tick”. It was clearly a Branta goose and at first glance I was thinking Cackling Goose but after a bit more study it was clearly a hybrid between Barnacle Goose and either Canada or Cackling. I think Canada is the most likely other parent as it was not as small as I would expect a Cackling hybrid to be (I have previously seen one of these in Oslo in 2018) and lacked a throat collar. There is a population of feral Branta hybrids in Holland and these birds are very likely to come from there.

My own pictures are getting worse and worse but give an idea of what we witnessed. The video is from today with snippets of Thrush Nightingale, Temminck's, Rosefinch and the hybrid goose.

the lady

a high Honey Buzzard (vepsevåk) over Maridalen. Probably a female

presumed hybrid Barnacle x Canada Goose (hvitkinn x kanadagås) with Canada Goose in Sørkedalen.

The Ugly Owlet. Ural Owl (slagugle). Not long until this youngster makes the big jump

Golden (Bread) Guiding

Rest, they say, is only for the wicked (as has been pointed out to me I have got that expression completely and rather embarrassingly wrong! It is of course NO rest for the wicked…😂) and this bank holiday has seen me guiding for southern Norway’s best birds which at the moment primarily means owls. I have spent three long, tiring, but very fun, and rewarding days with Graham and Marcus Workman where were have seen Great Grey, Ural and Tegnmalm’s Owls, Black Woodpecker, Wryneck, Honey Buzzard, Common Rosefinch, Icterine and Wood Warblers, Slavonian Grebe, Moose, Capercaille and so much more.

The Great Grey and Ural were rated as their best birding experiences ever and I couldn’t possibly disagree with that.

All the birds that I have been monitoring and checking in on this spring were present and correct and showed impeccably well with my only complaint to the Bird Gods being that the two singing Common Rosefinch that we found were boring brown 2cy males instead of the bright red older males that give them their name. It was only me complaining though☺️

 

I don’t have the time to write any more as I need to allow myself a rest as I am guiding again tomorrow and most of next week. I’ll just let the photos and video do the talking - it truly has been a great weekend!

This explains the Golden Bread reference. When Norwegian birders celebrate a lifer it is a tradition to celebrate with a Gullbrød (gold bread). This chocolate covered bar of marsipan is not to my personal liking but Graham and Marcus were keen to join the tradition. Here they are celebrating GGO which was lifer #1 but there were at least 3 more after that

my footage from the weekend pales into comparison with what these two got. Graham had a top of the range Nikon set up but  Marcus was just using an iphone 11 (the same as me) with an adapter on a Kowa scope and was taking fantastic videos and stills. I hope to link to their work later once they are home and have published it. And I think I will be getting an adapter - will sure be cheaper than buying a new camera and lens that I rather desperately need and to be honest may give better results

Great Grey Owl (lappugle) - this is the "hissig" female and as usual she greeted us by bill snapping and this time growling long before we could see her. Again she was perched in a tree when we arrived but then flew onto the nesting platform so presumably has eggs but once again I can only say that her behaviour is not normal

Ural Owl (slagugle) presumed female. We glimpsed the furry tops of the heads of probably two young in the hole of the nest box and the male was also in the area

it was a joy to see this young Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle) who was looking out at dusk of his own accord (i.e no need for my poor trunk scratching to be put to the test). I reckon it was going to leave the box that same night

This sequence from the Black Woodpecker nests shows first from the nest with the three young where both parents came into feed at the same time but only after we had waited for close to an hour and a half... Our presence clearly affected the behaviour of the parents though and we had to move further back before they came in and fed the young. The sequence in the video where it almost looks like they are engaged in ritual courtship is how they were acting when they did not dare to go the nest (i.e before we moved away). Right at the end is the female in the other nest where excavation seems to be over and hopefully egg laying has begun. As they are a good month later than normal it will be interesting to see if they succesfully fledge young.

male Black Woodpecker (svartspett) and young

Slavonian Grebes (horndykker):

I also had a chance to check the second Ural Owl nest box and here the female was sat high so I reckon has newly hatched young but is around two weeks behind the other pair

Checking in on the owls

Yesterday, saw me on a friends and family guiding to the owls in Hedmark. It was very successful if, as always, tiring trip.

Two nesting Great Grey Owls included my back up nest which I visited for the first time and the pair that I have now previously visited which have acted in a very aggressive way without being on the nest. On yesterday’s visit the female again announced her presence by bill snapping when we were 50m away and could not see either her or the nest. She was perched quite high in a tree and continued snapping noisily whilst we watched her. It is quite uncomfortable being there when the bird seems so unhappy/angry so we didn’t hang around but I kept looking over my shoulder as we left just in case she flew at us but instead she flew onto the nesting platform and acted very much as though she was on eggs! But this raises a number of questions:

1.      Why was she not on the nest initially? My experiences with other nesting GGO over the years has always been that the females stay on the nest no matter what.

2.      Why does she continue to be so aggressive in her behaviour? At the other nest we visited the female made no noise and hardly seemed to follow our movements

3.      Why is she so late in egg laying? The eggs (if there actually are some) must surely have been laid since my visit with Jack on 5^th May whereas I know that at the other nest the first egg was laid on 22^nd April which I think is in itself a fairly late date.

the particularly aggressive female GGO in a tree

and then suddenly on the nest platform

and the other GGO nest which is much more luxuriously furnished

A check of the Tengmalm’s nest box resulted in no joy for my trunk scratching but I was able to attach the superzoom to the tripod and lift it up such that I could see through the hole and there were at least two large young in the box. A very thorough search of the area did not reveal any adults or other young that may already have jumped out although mum must have been very close by.

 

We checked just one of the Ural Owls nests. This was the nest where the female flew out when I scratched on 8^th April so with an incubation period of about 4 weeks I was ready for the young to already be large enough that mum was no longer in the box. This meant we need to be very careful as to how we approached the area and we walked a large semi circle around the nest box. The female gave away her presence by bill snapping and when we finally saw her perched about 30m from the box she flew away from the box as though trying to draw us away. Just a couple of steps by us towards the box though brought her right back and then she kept a very close eye on us (although we did not go any closer to the box for both our own safety and also her comfort). One thing that was odd was that she seemed to be panting almost all the time. It was only about +13C so was hardly hot and she wasn’t in direct sunlight but she was pumping her throat with her bill open (but not making any audible noises) for minutes on end. The young did not show themselves in the nest opening so are hopefully not ready to leave for 1-2 weeks.

Ural Owl (slagugle)

 

A stop to listen for Ortolan resulted in no joy and although it may still be a bit too early it would hardly be a surprise if none returned this year. The last confirmed nesting was my record in 2023 and the last two years have only seen a couple of unpaired singing males, one of which is very likely to have been the male from the 2023 nesting. So, it would be no surprise if these birds are now dead and with no recruitment to this population extinction has been unavoidable.

Oslo birding since my last post has continued to be quite uneventful with rain and southerly winds having no noticeable effect. The only highlight was a thirty minute mid afternoon period in Maridalen on the 16^th just after it had stopped raining and when the sun came out. This caused a Falsterbo lite experience with 3 Honey Buzzards, 4 Ospreys, 1 Common Buzzard, 1 Sparrowhawk and 4 Kestrels moving through. Wrynecks seem to be well established though with no a mating paid and two unpaired males and after struggling with Black Woodpecker I now have a nest that is still being excavated and another where two young were being fed at the entrance. At the nest which is still being excavated I saw no splinters being thrown out but could hear one of the adults (I’m quite sure the female) knocking away inside the hole and also on two occasions drumming inside the hole!

this Black Woodpecker nest must be at least 4 weeks ahead of the other one I found

And an interesting encounter with a Beaver that just swam straight down the white water rapids