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
The weather is nothing but variable at the moment. Today was
blessed with blue skies and bright sun and seemed like a good day for some
Hawkie hunting. I headed our east and first checked out the Hemnessjøen and
Hellesjøvannet areas for waterbirds. Hemnessjøen was ice free but had few birds
with 19 Goosander the highlight (I was hoping for Smew). Hellesjøvannet was
completely frozen and the only excitement here was a good sized flock of
Yellowhammers which I felt certain would reveal a Pine Bunting (this autumn has
seen record numbers arrive in Norway). I did have poor views of a couple of
females almost entirely lacking yellow in their plumage but couldn't string
them into their rarer cousin.
The only concentration of wildfowl I had was at Bjørkelangsjøen with a whopping
452 Canada Geese which quite surprisingly is the largest count reported in
Norway this year. Only a decade ago there were counts of around 1000 birds in
Akershus but it would look like the campaign against this black listed species
(pricking eggs and I believe focused hunting) is having some effect although
with a flock of this size it is clearly still a fairly numerous bird. I’m not
quite sure why this species is being targeted. I of course get that it is an
alien species but don’t quite understand the damage it does. Feral Greylags and
Barnacle Geese are far more numerous in south eastern Norway and I don’t know
what the Canada Geese are doing that these species don’t. The only thing I can
think of is that Canada Geese often nest on lakes in forests which the other
species don’t and they may somehow be effecting this ecosystem negatively –
that said though it is my experience that Canada Geese have become commoner in
these forest habitats around Oslo at the same time as they have almost
disappeared from Østensjøvannet (where they have been controlled) and I would
imagine this is a direct result of the egg puncturing at Ø’vannet – these geese
are clever cookies and have moved away from the place where they rear no young
to places where they manage to!
What about Hawkie then?
The bird I have visited a couple of times recently was still
there sitting on top of the tallest trees he could find and not be at all
photogenic despite the sunlight. I decided to be patient and hope he would move
lower and closer but instead he just vanished when I was looking elsewhere (head
down in my phone).
On the drive home I was luckier though. Stig Helge Basnes
has had a roadside bird a couple of times on his way to work in the last few
weeks and although I have driven past the spot on a number of occasions I have
not seen this bird, not until today that is. On my way out in morning I looked
for it but didn’t see it but on the way home there it was. Perched on a
telegraph cable right by the (busy) road. I turned the car round and was able
to stop less than 10 metres from the bird but it immediately reacted to me
stopping and flew into a tree after I had just managed a couple of hasty back
lit photos. I then parked up and observed it from the car. I thought that it
was looking for rodents in the roadside verge under the cables but suddenly if
flew over the road and 30 metres out into a stubble field it hovered before
plunging to the ground. It was a while before it flew up onto a telegraph pole
and I’m sure it had caught something but when I drove closer it flew further
away into some woodland. Amazing that it saw the mouse at such range and cool
to see it hovering (which I have only observed a couple of times before) but no
photos of this behaviour unfortunately.
I had time to check Maridalen at the end of the day and all
of yesterdays bird were present and correct plus the 5 Scaup were again there –
where were they yesterday???
Top grade Hawkie available on a street near you
no doubt that I came close but it was all too quick to get a really good photo
the first Hawkie of the day - much too high up
Goldfinch (stillits)
a female Yellowhammer (gulspurv) with very little yellow in its plumage and a bird that really stood out in the flock
an unwanted mink in Maridalen. It seemed to have its eye on a Mallard but wasn't quick enough
my only Great Grey Shrike (varsler) of the day - in good ol' Maridalen
An overnight dusting of snow was threatened by rising
temperatures and rain this morning so I went early (well 10am when it was light
enough to see anything) to Fornebu hoping to find some tracks in the snow to
see what might be out there but that normally goes unseen.
At the reedbed at Storøykilen I had tracks of humans and
dogs but more interesting was Roe Deer which are fairly common here and a
couple of birds. One was I believe a thrush sp. and the other something bigger.
It led out of the reedbed followed a tiny stream of open water and then went up
a bank into a shrubby area. Checking my available literature and the interweb
I’ve concluded with Water Rail although must admit that I find this difficult
and also had to look at Pheasant, Woodcock and Common Snipe (Jack Snipe would
be much smaller).
At Koksa I heard Bearded Tits and Reed Buntings but despite
a lot of patience was only rewarded with a sighting of a single Reed Bunting in
flight. A Water Rail made a lot of noise around the only area of running water
and I managed a picture of sorts as it ran through a relatively open area of
reeds. I had hoped to find tracks of this individual to use as a reference but
found none that matched. I did find some tracks along the edge of the water but
believe these were of Blackbird a few of which were also in the area.
I had some mammal tracks which crossed a frozen bay and
concluded with Mink without being 100% sure although cannot imagine what else
would be in this area.
what I've concluded are Water Rail (tracks)
and a picture of a Water Rail.......
What I believe are Blackbird (svarttrost) tracks - note the long back toe
Back for a few days in Oslo I paid my first trip in a while
to Maridalen. The hot weather we have had most of this spring and summer seems
to have resulted in a very good breeding season for Swallows (låvesvale) and
White Wagtails (linerle) with many youngsters to be seen. A single Common
Rosefinch (rosenfink) showed itself and two singing Lesser Redpolls (brunsisik)
are an indication of breeding which would be the first time here. I saw a single
beaver and more disturbingly a family of mink which showed no fear of me – will
it be ever possible to get rid of this disastrous introduced species?
Five adult Black-throated Divers (storlom) together on the lake were probably a group of failed breeders but a Red-throated Diver (smålom) that flew off with a fish is most likely breeding nearby.
Signs of a good breeding season can also be seen in the garden
where broods of Greenfinch, Tree Sparrow, House Sparrow, Blue Tit, Great Tit
and Fieldfare were being fed by parents today.
Last night I took my eldest daughter on a long promised trip
to look for Beavers (bever) in Maridalen. We had to wait until 21:30 for one to
show after having previously seen a Mink swimming with a prey item in its
mouth. The Mink swam out from where the Beavers lodge is and had me struggling
for a bit until it came closer to us. We picked up the Beaver from its air
bubbles and saw it swimming underwater beneath us as we stood on a bridge. We
never saw it surface and it was another 20 minutes before we saw it again at
some distance swimming away from us over the lake.
Birds included the Wrynecks, Red-backed Shrike and Grasshopper Warbler which is
now singing right by the road. No sound from the Corncrake though.
Due to poor light and incorrect camer settings there were no decent pictures but I'll upload these two anyway
Underwater beaver. If you let your imagination run wild you will see the tail and two back feet. Only half the body is visible as I managed to cut the head off
Mink with prey item in mouth. You can see the legs of the prey but I am not even sure if it is an animal or bird
