In Oslo it seems as though migration has come to end with rain
and southerly winds causing absolutely nothing exciting to turn up. Svellet also
still has mud but without there being a single wader reported this morning.
Even though the period of quantity of passage birds has passed we are definitely
entering the highest quality time and yesterday a stonking male Black-headed
Bunting was pulled out of a mist nest in the garden of a twitcher who I had no
idea had a ringers licence.
Almost all breeding migrants have now turned up with the
first Rosefinches, Red-backed Shrikes, Marsh Warblers and Nightjars being
reported now even if I have yet to see any of them yet.
My focus has now turned to locating breeding birds both for
my own benefit and also a busy period of guiding that I have coming up. Hazel
Grouse has been a real nightmare this spring. A long walk on 17 May with Mrs OB
and The Beast took me past 8 or 9 territories where I have previously had the
species but with not a single bird being found. Today I checked 3 territories
in another area including “my pair” and did finally pull a bird out of the hat
which I feel confident of being able to find again. Three-toed Woodpecker has
also been a headache this year so a female that gave herself away tapping on a
tree was a relief but she flew off without me being able to track her to a
nest.
The two pairs of Black Woodpeckers continue to entertain
with the one pair still applying the finishing interior design touches to their
property and the other pair working hard to fill three noisy mouths with food.
In this video you can see the male using over a minute and a half to feed them individually
with food he is clearly regurgitating into his bill.
the male Black Woodpecker (svartspett) that is still putting the finishing touches to his property
and two of the three young in the other nest which is at a far more expected stage
Hobby (lerkefalk) today. I have only seen a single bird and heard no calling so do not believe a pair has returned yet
Black-throated Divers (storlom)
I watched a Wood Warbler (bøksanger) with nesting material in its beak fly onto the ground here. Can you spot the nest?
here it is and is of a similar construction to Willow Warbler (løvsanger) and Chiffchaff (gransanger) nests I have previously found
On the Lapwing front there are still two birds incubating and seemingly three broods of 4,1 and 1. With the two broods of single young the siblings were lost very early on but the remaining young are now half grown and will hopefully make it. The brood of 4 is a few days younger but the parents have done very well to still have all four alive.
As we enter October the number of species around Oslo has
declined greatly. It is now a week since I last saw a White Wagtail, 12 days
since I saw a Swallow and 3 weeks for Willow Warbler. New species that are turning
up now (and bang on time) are Great Grey Shrike with a bird showing well in
Maridalen and Jack Snipe at a few sites but disappointingly no Rough-legged
Buzzards (yet). And no rarities either.
The first storm of the autumn is due to hit tonight and tomorrow
but I fear will be too much south east than south to push any exciting birds
into the inner Oslofjord. I am sure I will gaze at the sea though anyway and dreaming of Leaches Petrels and Sabines Gulls.
Maridalsvannet has had a few Guillemots which turned up
after some not particularly strong southerly winds, still an adult and juv Black-throated
Diver and a Common Scoter which unusually for the autumn was an adult male. The
Whooper Swan family is reunited and feeding on stubble fields which must mean
the young can now fly although I have not actually seen them do so.
I dropped Jr at the airport this morning after she had a mid-term
break at home and then used this as an opportunity to see if I could relocate
the Taiga Beans which of course I couldn’t and they may well have moved on
already although none have yet arrived at the Scottish wintering grounds. My travels
turned up a few raptors (7 species in total) including my latest ever Hobby
which was a bird that really had me going for quite a few minutes as it seemed much
too large and I was seriously wondering if maybe I had Norway’s first ever
Eleanora’s Falcon in my bins…
spot the birdy
Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin)
when it caught some sunlight the colours on the back showed their richness
today's 1cy Hobby (lerkefalk) which appeared very large and was also quite dark
it seemed to have no problem finding insects not that I could see them
Great Grey Shrike (varsler) in Maridalen
it is noticeably scaly on the underparts
it frequently flew and took insects in flight
I am not sure what they were though
the scaly underparts would suggest a 1cy bird but the lack of a wing bar suggests an adult
apart from the insects it spent a lot of time looking down suggesting rodents were on the menu
Tomorrow I am off to Lista for their annual Bird Race. This will be only my second ever visit to what can
probably be fairly described as Norway’s premier birding locality and
definitely the home of Norway’s most famous bird observatory. If I am lucky I
will also win the evening quiz and be crowned Norwegian Birding Champion 2025 (after being runner up on my previous visit in 2017 although most likely I
will be knocked out in the early rounds... The birding should be good though and
with a bit of luck a rarity or two will turn up when we are there.
Local birding has been pretty good though this week although
a hoped for rush of seabirds this morning after a night of strong southerly
winds revealed not one single non-local seabird and the only real unexpected sighting
was a juvenile Honey Buzzard battling into the headwind to cross from Bygdøy to
Nesodden.
I have been to check on the Taiga’s a couple of times and
found them to be on the same stubble field that they used for the first time
last autumn and then also used this spring. This is quite typical that they
will change preferred field in one season and then also use it the following
1-2 seasons and I would not be surprised if next spring they choose somewhere
else. When they are on a stubble field they can be surprisingly difficult to
count accurately and they have also had both Canada and Greylag Geese, and a
hybrid between the two, in amongst them but in the end I concluded that the
flock size was still 129 meaning no additions or depletions.
Visits to Hellesjøvannet with raptors in mind turned up
trumps with a Red Kite and lots of sightings of Hobbies, Marsh Harriers and
especially Common Buzzards with one “kettle” containing 18 birds.
I have only had fleeting visits to Maridalen but had a real
head scratching surprise today when I discovered a family of four Whooper Swans
on a field and then river (they were very shy) 4km away from where I had last
seen the intact family on the lake. The young were large but not fully grown
and I am sure could not fly meaning they must be the Maridalen family but I don’t
know how to explain the sighting of 18 August and my subsequent sightings of
just an adult pair or no birds at all.
Red Kite (rødglente) at Hellesjøvannet. Only my second in Akershus (I have had more in Oslo) and the first one I have managed to photo. Clearly not a juvenile but other than that my knowledge of moult and plumage in this species doesn't allow me to say any more
I was very lucky to come across this juv Goshawk (hønsehauk) eating what looks to be a Jackdaw (kaie) right by the road at the Taiga Bean place.
Lots more pictures lower down
male Marsh Harrier (sivhauk) at Hellesjøvannet who was regularly bringing small rodents to two juvenile that would fly to meet him and would catch the mouse mid flight
an adult Hobby (lerkefalk) catching a dragonfly whilst brave Swallows (låvesvale) try to chase it off
the wings have been removed
a bit of nictating membrane
Taiga Bean watching
V8 and kids are in the video but when they are distant and in stubble I cannot unfortunately see any legs rings
part of the Taiga Bean Goose (taigasædgås) flock
here with Canada Geese, a Greylag and a hybrid between the two
a family of Cranes (trane)
just a single Pochard (taffeland) at Hellesjøvannet and very few other birds including only 2 Great Crested Grebes suggests to me a lack of oxygen, and life, in the water. There were 3 visits from at least 2 Ospreys and they left with a fish each time on their first attempt which I reckon means there were fish at the surface gulping air
the highlight of today's seas gazing at Fornebu was these juvenile Knot (polarsnipe) that flew in from Huk and landed on the rocks in front of me
I was not expecting to see these today in Maridalen. I will try to see if the beak patterns allow me confirm that these are the regular pair
the flight feathers of the juveniles are not yet fully developed so I am quite sure they have not flown in from somewhere else
