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
My final two days in Tromsø saw a continued reduction in the number and variety of waders at Langnes which I have now visited three mornings on the trot when Jr had lectures/meetings. It was already starting to feel like a local patch away from home and I will be following sightings in Tromsø more closely from now on and am already looking forward to my next visit.
It was surprising the number of species that still had unfledged young which may be a result of a very late spring here. Redshank, Arctic Tern, Common Gull, Eider, Meadow Pipit and Reed Bunting all still had young either in the nest or not fully grown.
Adult Arctic Tern (rødnebbterne). It had a couple times dive bombed me pulling up only centimetres from my head but I failed to film this
The reason the adult was angry was the presence of this juvenile that could barely fly
Meadow Pipit (heipiplerke) which had young nearby and a juv Willow Warbler (løvsanger) which seemed attracted by its alarm calls
This young Common Gull (fiskemåke) may not make it
I am currently in Tromsø where I am helping Jr settle into her new life as a student at the university here. Tromsø is a great town (to call it a city is rather overdoing it though and who ever came up with the description «Paris of the north» should take some time out from describing things) and we are currently enjoying very warm temperatures although in just a few months it will be all snow, darkness, hopefully northern lights and unavoidably thousands of foreign, mostly asian, tourists seeking these «exotic» delights.
Now though this town which boasts the most northern football team, and now also McDonalds, in the whole, wide, world is full of nervous students about to start a new life, apprehensive parents, and yesterday the whole circus that accompanies professional cycling when the last stage of the Arctic Race of Norway was held here and myself and Jr managed to photobomb the winner interview, it was my birthday afterall🥳
I have only allowed myself a little birding and am only using the bus to get around but there is a lot of potential up here. Prestvannet, a small lake 10 minutes bus journey from downtown is a fantastic place with many breeding, and noisy, Red-throated Divers, a good variety of ducks, a few waders including Spot Red when I was there (and apparently lekking Ruff in May) and both Common and Arctic Terns. Tromsø is on an island and the surrounding fjord obviously has potential. By the airport there are some mudflats and here I had a good collection of waders including (distant) Red-necked Phalarope, Little Stint and Ruff. Turnstone also breed in the area and I look forward to seeing them next spring. There were hundreds of seaducks too far out for my bins to ID so I may have to bring my scope on future visits as there must be the chance for some interesting species.
Downtown is full of breeding gulls with Kittiwakes nesting on window ledges, signs and more recently especially built «hotels» which allows incredibly close contact with these birds and their nests. Common and Herring Gulls are also common urban breeders and I have never seen such a concentration and variety of urban breeding gulls before.
Prestvannet
A Spotted Redshank (sotsnipe)
Red-throated Diver (smålom) with a surprisingly small young. Others were nearly fully grown
This Common Gull (fiskemåke) was ringed here as an adult in August 2018. In Feb 2022 it was in Hull, UK
This bird was ringed here as an adult in August 2010 and has been seen regularly but only in Tromsø
Langnes near the airport where I searched for waders
A young Ruff (brushane)
An Arctic Tern (rødnebbterne) that clearly had young nearby as it was very unhappy with my presence
A Sedge Warbler (sivsanger)
My first Little Stints (dvergsnipe) of the year
Adult and juvenile Redshank (rødstilk)
Oystercatchers (tjeld)
Whilst many young Common Gulls were already fledged this youngster still has a number of weeks before independence
This Meadow Pipit (heipiplerke) was still feeding young
The Kittiwake (krykkje) hotel
I haven’t yet managed to find out any information about this ringing scheme. It doesn’t cease to amaze me that colour ringing schemes can be so hard to work out - surely you only colour ringing schemes can because you want to get reports of observations
The first quarter of the year is now complete and an ice
free Østensjøvannet is sure sign that spring is here as was the sound of
singing Chiffchaff today. The ice has gone very quickly at Østensjøvannet – on Wednesday
when I saw the Smew there was just a small ice free area where all the birds
were concentrated but by Saturday all the ice was gone. The period when there is
just a small ice free area is a good time to be at Østensjøvannet because it is
possible to get good views of many species so it is a shame that it was so
short this year. The Saturday visit was to see a Pochard that had been found
and another visit today revealed both the Pochard and Smew to still be present.
There must be a lot of small fish as there are good numbers of Goosander but
there are few dabbling ducks and unfortunately the Black-headed Gulls look like
they have already decided they are not nesting here for yet another year. The
lake has previously had up to 2000 breeding pairs and lots of work has been
done to ensure there are suitable nesting sites but something else, which I
believe is a lack of food, has put the gulls off the lake.
In Maridalen the first Meadow Pipits have arrived and Twite
remain in very good numbers but there is little else and definitely no raptor
passage which I hope to see each day with sun….
female Pochard (taffeland) at Østensjøvannet
and a male Tufted Duck (toppand)
I scanned all the gulls for something rare but reading colour rings was the most exciting thing in the end. Here three different types of colour ring on Black-headed Gulls. The white and green are Norwegian and the red is from the UK (I have yet to receive details on it)
J88E was the oldest bird and was ringed as an adult female at Østensjøvannet 31st May 2015. It has been seen many time since but only in the Oslo area and it wintering grounds are unknown
J0280 is the bird that has travelled most. Ringed in Oslo 9 June 2022 it has been seen in Milton Keynes, England in January of both 2023 and 2025
Whooper Swans (sangsvane) are still moving through and this group was in Maridalen yesterday
Adders can be found sunning themselves in the same places each (sunny) day and it is still only males that are out
Black Woodpeckers (svartspett) are excavating a new hole after using the same one for the last 3 years
