It is the middle of April and the next six weeks are the
most exciting of the year (in the Oslo area at least). In addition to many new
birds for the year there are also new birding sites to reacquaint myself with
and I have now competed my first walk to the end of Årnestangen for the year as
well as my first grilling of the mighty Svellet.
Conditions today at Svellet were magical and I have a small
but growing hope that this will be one of those Svellet springs that are
entered into the history books, or at least get remembered on this blog. Today
the water level (3.61m) was perfect and there were enormous areas of shallow
water and wet mud. 2000 Teal and 234 Curlew were both good counts and the quality
came in the form of a male Garganey, a Bar-tailed Godwit plus two very early
Ruff and a Redshank. The weather over the coming weeks will be key to whether
conditions remain perfect and we need just enough rain such that the mud doesn’t
dry up but not too much rain (or sun that causes lots of melt water to flow down
the river) such that water levels do not rise too quickly. I hope every birder
in Oslo and Akershus is praying to the Birds Gods.
Svellet from the eastern side. Even though I describe conditions as perfect the distances are very long and a scope is essential and even then not always enough to identify all the birds out there
and some of the Teal (krikkand) and also the Garganey (knekkand). As I said they are a long way away
Årnestangen has also delivered with another very early wader
in the form of a Whimbrel, an early Swallow and a good selection of raptors
including a Red Kite which flew low over my head without me seeing it but that
I then caught up with in the scope at about 6km range…
Taiga Bean Goose and Greylags at Årnestangen today. This is a relatively late bird as were the 4 Tundra Beans I saw yesterday
the bird was close to the Geylags in size and had a long slender neck and long thin bill with thin lower mandible.
I had a very enjoyable and successful morning guiding
Barbara from Canada on Monday and we saw 60 species including Jack Snipe, Black
and Red-throated Divers, Lesser Spotted and Black Woodpeckers. And if you don’t
believe my description then read Barbara’s 😊
one of three Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin) at Fornebu. This bird has been regularly feeding in the open and to me looks very much like a Broad-billed Sandpiper...
and a more expected shot of a Jack
and a Common Snipe (enkeltbekkasin)
male Kestrel (tårnfalk) in Maridalen
and a Mistle Thrush (duetrost) in The Dale
Little Ringed Plover (dverglo) are back at Fornebu and will hopefully breed again this year
and Ringed Plovers (sandlo) are also back at last years nest site although they have less and less space available to them
My expectations are, of course, sky high but even if they
were lower then I would have been disappointed the last few days. I keep
expecting that rush of raptors, ducks or to be honest anything feathered but it
just ain’t happening. I have visited the (once) mighty Svellet a couple of
occasions to witness slowly rising water levels covering bone dry mud and if
this continues then we can kiss goodbye to the springs greatest bird experience
in these parts. Conversely if water levels gradually fall in the next couple of
weeks then we could be lucky enough to experience something special. Time will
tell but the first Greenshank of the year today were at least enough to keep me
optimistic.
The Ring-necked Duck was refound on Thursday. Some of Oslo’s
finest had looked for it the day after I
saw it without it being discovered and after that it seemed to be forgotten
about until a sharp pair of eyes refound it 3 days later. I saw it yesterday
when it was getting involved with the displaying Tufted Ducks which had me thinking
it would stay around for a good while. I could not find it today though so
either it has gone or I was observant as the finest a few days ago…
a pair of Ringed Plovers (sandlo) are breeding at Fornebu despite there being less and less suitable habitat. Here the male was incubating what seemed to be just 2 eggs
and the first Little Ringed Plover (dverglo) of the year at Fornebu which may also try to breed
Whilst I was away at the weekend the ice melted on
Maridalsvannet. This is early but despite it having been so dry the water
levels are currently high so the lake doesn’t yet look that appealing. That
being said though there have already been some good birds and maybe when the
ice doesn’t melt until the end of the month as is often the case that means
that a lot of birds are missed out on as they cannot splash down even if they
wanted. Both species of diver are already back and their display calls ring
around the valley. More impressively though has been the three , yes 3, species
of grebes that have graced the lake. Following last years first ever record of
Little Grebe in the Dale a bird in exactly the same place it was probably the same
bird. Great Crested Grebe is more expected but a Slavonian Grebe hanging out
with Teal is record early as this species normally passes through, and not
annually, at the end of the month.
Raptors are still very thin on the ground but the first Osprey
of the year turned up on Tuesday and a Peregrine was hunting in the valley
today. Today also finally saw the first day with really good numbers of
passerines on the (very dry) fields: Bramblings, Redwings and Meadow Pipits
were the most numerous.
A real treat today was being able to listen to the calls of
migrating Curlews and a flock of 6 really wanted to land but in the end gave up
and flew north.
an ice free Maridalsvannet looking towards the south
my first Osprey (fiskeørn) of the year - a particularly well marked female
migrating Curlews (storspove)
Little Grebe (dvergdykker)
Slavonian Grebe (horndykker)
and the best picture of all, a Great Crested Grebe (toppdykker)...
there have been up to 10 Lapwing (vipe) on their favoured two fields and there are already two nests. Nest 1
Nest 2
Green Sandpiper (skogsnipe)
a Kestrel (tårnfalk) today and a Brambling (bjørkefink)
a young Peregrine (vandrefalk) that I saw three times today
Yesterday I thought I would see if Sørkedalen had anything more to offer and caught up with the plastic hybrid goose that has been around for a couple of weeks and a real piece of plastic had me for quite a few seconds thinking I had seen my first Ring Ouzel of the year…
what looks to be a hybrid Emporer x Barnacle Goose together with Pink-feet
Stonechat was for a long, long time my Norwegian bogey bird.
I even saw three Siberian Stonechats before seeing my first normal one in 2018.
Since then though they have been like buses and I have even seen two in
Maridalen (both found by Halvard). On Thursday I made that three and pleasingly
found it myself. This was also my third! in Oslo this year so was not an
addition to #oslo2024. I would willingly swap two of the chats for a single YbW
which is a species I have probably seen close close to 100 times more of in
Norway (although only the once in Oslo).
Yesterday saw Jack and I giving the islands some real effort
but had nothing eastern for our troubles. Late Swallows and Greenshank, an
early Purple Sand and a flyby Kingfisher were the highlights alongside the now
expected Shag.
A visit out east on Wednesday gave me my first Rough-legged
Buzzard of the autumn and four different Great Grey Shrikes but once again I
drew a blank on harriers.
Stonechat (svartstrupe) in Oslo
Rough-legged Buzzard (fjellvåk)
juvenile and adult White-tailed Eagle (havørn). The juvenile was stil begging for food
with an even larger bird
Two Common Buzzards (musvåk). The paler bird of the type that are often mistaken for Rough-legs
Kestrel (tårnfalk)
Purple Sandpiper (fjæreplytt). This is actually the earliest ever autumn/winter record in Oslo
