Guess who’s back? - and not a butterfly in sight! 😊
Autumn is really upon us and the cereal fields in Maridalen
are being harvested as we speak. This always causes the first flocks of Meadow
Pipits to appear and there is also a big flock of Greylag Geese so it is nice
and birdy. A fine 1st year male Bluethroat was today’s bird of the
day but not quite as good as a Kingfisher on Wednesday and there are also good
numbers of Whinchats, Nutcrackers flying back and forth from the city where
they are collecting Hazel nuts and raptors to see including Honey Buzzards and
Hobbies.
Yesterday I needed to go to the airport to pick someone up
so made a day of it with a stop at Svellet and then a look for the Taiga Bean
Geese which have already been seen. I failed to find the geese and with no GPS
tags still functioning it has become a bit more hit and miss especially in the autumn
when they do not use the river. I did find feathers and droppings at a favoured
loafing site so can personally confirm their return
Svellet gave me my first Little Stint and Curlew Sandpiper
of the year but I am till missing three common waders for my year list – Grey Plover,
Sanderling and Great Snipe – and fear there is a real risk they remain as
absentees.
Maridalen has had a good autumn for waders and that is despite there being nearly no mud showing due to high water levels. Today 2 Ruff were on an island and over the last couple of weeks I have had flyover Curlew, Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Redshank and Greenshank aswell as Common Sandpipers along the rocky shore. The Lapwings look to have moved on sometime in July though and I saw no evidence that the two late broods produced any fledged young.
If my photos are looking even worse than usual then it is because
the bazooka has now gone into complete lock down and I cannot get any life out
of it so all pictures are with the superzoom which itself is suffering with
age.
Bluethroat (blåstrupe) in Maridalen. The colourful throat shows it to be a male
and the wing bar shows it to be a bird of the year
Whinchat (buskskvett) and Meadow Pipit (heipiplerke) very typical birds for the end of August
although this Whitethroat (tornsanger) is getting a bit late
spot the Kingfisher (isfugl)?
a bit easier here
some of the Greylag Geese (grågås) and a Whooper Swan (sangsvane)
12 Curlew (storspove) migrating over Maridalsvannet earlier in the month
and two Greenshank (gluttsnipe) that flew around looking for somewhere to land
A video of a Mink eating a Crayfish and you can see the remains of many others. Otters have recently been seen in Maridalen and if they establish themselves then they will hopefully result in a reduction in Mink numbers
Cold nights, a cold northerly wind and blue skies continue
to sing a lullaby to both birders and birds and dire is a word that frequently goes
through my mind but we are now getting to the time of the spring when no matter
what the weather there will be new birds coming although southerly winds and
rain would still be much preferred.
Svellet is now getting ready to be very mighty. Water levels
are perfect (3.77m today) and are rising very slowly, the light in the early
morning is good (meaning there is a chance of identifying what is out there)
and new waders are coming. Whilst the number of Curlew is now falling with
under 50 today the number of Greenshank is rising with the first 2 on the 24th,
7 on the 26th, 14 on the 27th and 25 today, the 28th
– the increase is nearly exponential! No Wood Sands yet but a single Whimbrel
and two Bar-tailed Godwits including a brick red male were a sign of things to come. If things stay like this
then I think the next two weeks could be cosmic!
A pleasant surprise was finding Kingfisher at a breeding
site. This winter has been so long and cold that I think that many birds will
have perished and even though we may have far fewer pairs this year than last I
think the species is now established and won’t come and go as it used to do.
Svellet 28th April. Water levels are currently perfect but it won't need to rise very much before those mudflat between me and the water disappear.
Bar-tailed Godwits (lappspove) are, despite what the local rarities committee thinks, a proper scarce bird around Oslo and especially in spring. Brick red males are even rarer
3 Greenshank (gluttsnipe) at Maridalsvannet today. An early record here and with water levels currently, and surprisingly given the weather, very high there is no mud so I am not expecting many more waders this spring
male Kingfisher (isfugl) with fish. I saw him twice with a fish which he did not eat himself but flew with it towards the bank that is here hidden by bushes and where I assume there is a nest hole
this female Sparrowhawk (spurvehauk) was in a display flight and calling today in Maridalen. She was displaying above a Goshawk teritory but it did not result in any Goshawks flying up. Note the white undertail feathers which both Sparrowhawks and Goshawks fan out when displaying
my first Whimbrel (småspove) of the year. I had previously reported a bird on 14 April which is an extreme early date. Whilst I was happy with the ID it was distant and I didn't manage to get a photo. I therefore deleted this record after a couple of days as I am a firm believer in that very early (and late) records of migrants should be documented with photos or sound recordings. This applies particularly to species which can easily be confused with a commoner species and include in addition to Whimbrel species such as Tree Pipit, Wood and Common Sandpiper, Honey Buzzard, Hobby, Garden Warbler, Yellow Wagtail and Wryneck (sound records)
My frustration at the lack of birds has been rather obvious
of late but I had forgot about the fjord off Fornebu which last winter held
exceptional numbers of seaduck due, apparently, to a vast hatch of young
mussels which they fed on.
On Thursday after an uneventful walk around Fornebu we then
checked out the sea and whilst the numbers of Common Eider, Velvet and Common
Scoter were back to normal levels (20-30 of each species) we did have 7
Long-tailed Duck which is a very good count here and best of all Elvis, the
long staying resident King Eider put in a rare appearance from land.
Also, a part of the fjord, Frognerkilen is an urban location
best known for being able to feed the ducks and swans but there is also a small
reedbed where I plan that one fine day I will add Bearded Tit to my Oslo list.
A Kingfisher has recently been reported from here and after three
attempts I also eventually saw it. Chatting to a man with a very long lens
though revealed that he had been watching it for a couple of months and has
managed to keep it quiet and not post (yet) any pictures on his SO ME so good
on him and the bird!
One of my unsuccessful visits was enlivened though with a
Jack Snipe which I think has been pushed out the reedbed due to a very high
tide and was stood upon some floating reedstems.
The weather forecast shows no return to wintery weather in
the foreseeable future and I am sure that Maridalsvannet will not freeze over
until January at the earliest. And who knows maybe we are in for such a mild
winter that it won’t freeze over at all which will be a first (though I think
that I remember one previous winter without ice before January).
Common Eider (ærfugl) and the noticeably smaller King Eider (praktærfugl)
my camera was really playing up but you can glimpse the left half of a Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin) here...
... and the right half here
Kingfisher (isfugl)
the Marsh Tits (løvmeis) are still showing well in Maridalen
The autumn arrival of auks has always been one of the
notable events of the Oslo birding calendar. The last few years though there
have not been that many and Little Auks have been more or less absent. This has
been due to a lack of strong southerly winds to push birds up the fjord which is
also the reason for a lack of almost any other exciting seabirds. This autumn
we had a small arrival of Guillemots at the end of September and probably a few
new birds since then but there are just a handful of Razorbills amongst them. These
small numbers are the result of a lack so far of any strong winds to drive the
birds north so it has been surprising to find birds on Maridalsvannet. What I
assume happens is that the birds have problems when trying to return to open
seas and end up flying higher and higher and around and around trying to find
their way out of the Inner Oslofjord and some end flying north as a part of
this endeavour. This would help explain why I found a LITTLE AUK on
Maridalsvannet yesterday despite there being no wind at all. This is my first record here and my only new species in the Dale so far in 2025.
Since Sunday there
have been a lot of Little Auks turning up on the fjord. They have been flying
north over calm seas and are clearly very lost. My theory is that storms
associated with Amy displaced many Little Auks from areas further north and
into the southern North Sea. These birds are trying to return north from whence
they came and if they were far enough east then they will end up in the Oslofjord
and if they continuing flying north despite the ever narrowing fjord they will
hit Oslo City. Yesterday morning I was watching from Fornebu and saw a steady
stream of birds arriving from the south and then flying around confused in
circles and clearly one of these birds just decided to not stop and continue
heading north before then seeing just forest and deciding Maridalsvannet would
be a good place to abort the northward flight and contemplate its choices in
life.
No other species are turning up on fjord so the movement is
restricted to Little Auks although I have a hope a Puffin may also turn up.
Fornebu is getting very quiet with just a Kingfisher to
liven things up and apart from auks Maridalen has had the first Pygmy Owls
turning up which as usual coincides with the first heavy frosts further into
the forests.
The fact I am writing about Auks in Oslo clearly means that
I haven’t travelled to Værøy. Kjell has gone up but his messages today have not
had me feeling jealous with not a wing bar or scarce bird in site. He does have
two more days though… and I wish him luck but not too much.
Little Auk (alkekonge). They do not seem to be scared of people at all and also often feed (dive) right by the shore meaning they can offer great views
look at the legs right at the back of the body
a group heading north with the Oslo - Nesodden ferry in the background
here a group flew in a circle around Lysakerfjorden and were at one point flying over land
here with the offices at Fornebu in the background
they returned to the fjord and flew right past me
before all 15 landed right in front of me. They were calling which can be heard in the video above
the Maridalen bird. Completely unidentifiable in this photo but with a landmark in the background
a Razorbill (alke)
Guillemot (lomvi) and Razorbill together
this Guillemot was hoping I had a fish for it
here it almost felt like it was performing so as to be rewarded with a fish
and my first Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) of the autumn in Maridalen
