Some pleasant surprises in Oslo and Maridalen regarding
breeding birds means I am not completely over into the butterfly world just yet.
On the lake there was suddenly a single adult Mute Swan with
5 small young! This is just like last year in that they suddenly appeared but
this year I was better prepared and had discovered the nest on 26 May. After
that discovery of the nest though I had been unable on subsequent attempts to
see any birds on it (although it was very difficult to see) and had only a
record of single adult on 1 June and then a pair flying over the lake (not near
the nest) on 9 June. I therefore assumed that the nesting attempt had failed
and the birds had moved off. To suddenly see an adult with young was therefore
a shock and it was equally surprising that I could not find the other adult
anywhere on the lake. Has the male died or moved off? And if so how did the
female managed to incubate and feed without me ever seeing her? And the pair I
saw on x June – were they visitors? Perhaps the other pair that started nesting
and then gave up? An answer to the first question is that P578 who I saw on
Maridalsvannet on 29 April, and his ring was again read on 24 May, who is the
male of the pair that bred last year and I assume the father of this years young
was seen on 16 June at Fornebu where he and his mate had spent the winter – so
it looks like he has left his mate to fend for herself! Did this happen before
the eggs hatched?
Mute Swan (knoppsvane) - presumably female PC79 who bred here last year - with 5 small young but not with her mate (P578) who has flown down to Fornebu!
The Black-throated Diver pair (one of perhaps two on the
lake) still have a single youngster and have moved quite a way from the nest
with it.
Black-throated Diver (storlom) family
The ever growing cereal crop on the Lapwing field makes seeing
the birds very difficult but yesterday I could see 3 (2 + 1) almost fully grown
young which is a great relief but the fate of the two last nests remains unknown.
a nearly fully grown Lapwing (vipe) young
And finally, I had Red-backed Shrike in the Dale this year
and it seems to be a nesting pair so fingers crossed for their success.
pair of Red-backed Shrikes (tornskate) in Maridalen
and the male on his own
A visit to Østensjøvannet today also revealed lots of young
birds. Best of all were the Black-headed Gulls which have had their first successful
breeding season (at least as a colony) for a few years with many large young on
two islands. Great Crested Grebes, Coot and Mute Swans also had young (the
later no larger than the ones I saw on Maridalsvannet) and surprisingly a
female Goldeneye had 11 quite large young with her. This raises two questions –
are they all hers? Perhaps unlikely. And how have so many survived so long? Normally
the vast majority get eaten either by gulls or pike.
Black-headed Gulls (hettemåke) have had a successful breeding season at Østensjøvannet
and a male Gadwall (snadderand) which once again seems to have chosen Østensjøvannet to moult although this year there were no records earlier in the spring
I frequently am accused of being overly optimistic in my
bird forecasts and expectations but I see that my predictions in my last post
for Svellet were actually very pessimistic. The wader fest is far from over as
the water levels have stopped climbing (at least for now) and there clearly is
enough food available as wader numbers which fell on Wednesday rose sharply yesterday
(when I did not visit) and were still high today. Viewing conditions are far from
great which is par for the course there but today I was able to pick out a Temminck’s
Stint although another one on nearby Merkja was much easier to view (as were
two yesterday evening which I twitched at Fornebu).
Yesterday gave me a non-wader mass bird event and a quite
unique one at that. Very large numbers of Willow Warblers have been seen
crossing the fjord from Nesodden and they have been then concentrating at Østensjøvannet.
It would appear that frost nights to the north (temperatures were under zero on
Tuesday evening as we drove home form owling) are stopping the nocturnal
migration of the Willow Warblers and they seem to be stopping their northward
journey in the Oslo area and then continuing northwards during the day and moving
whilst also searching for food. There is not an overabundance of insects yet in
Oslo but Østensjøvannet clearly has good numbers. There were over 1000 Willow
Warblers as I walked around the lake and every tree and bush was dripping with
them. They were also feeding in long grass, on the short grass of playing fields,
on a newly ploughed field, on the paths and many were sallying after insects in
the manner of a flycatcher from any available perch including fence wires. It
truly was an amazing experience both visually and orally as birds were also
singing everywhere. There were not many other species that had clearly arrived
with the WWs except for Blackcaps which were more common that normal but not in
exceptional numbers. That there were lots of insects to eat though was shown by
House Sparrows that were flycatching and Bramblings taking insects alongside
the WWs in bushes.
This video gives some idea of how it was but does not pay
the experience the justice it deserves:
Svellet 8th May as viewed from the eastern shore
and viewed from the west - still lots of mud and shallow water which clearly has more food than I expected after the water levels rose so quickly
A really heart warming sight at Østensjøvannet are the Black-headed Gulls (hettemåke) that are nesting again. There are three small colonies (including this one) and scattered single nests around the lake and the total number of nests may not be much more than 50 but this is in stark contrast to last years dire situation but also the 2000 odd pairs that used to breed here. Fingers crossed that there are lots of fledged young in a month or two. There is also a good colony at Sognsvann - it would appear that the two most visited lakes for recreational use are attractive to both humans and gulls - but I have yet to notice any nesting on the fjord so I fear that overall things are not good for the species
yesterday and today I could not see a single young Lapwing (vipe) in Maridalen but there is a new nest although as this field was only ploughed on Sunday I am not sure whether she is incubating or just in the egg laying phase
and the Mute Swans (knoppsvane) are now finished with nest building and are on the nest although I do not know whether any eggs have been layed yet
Regular readers of this blog will be aware of my exceptional
ability to fail to take exceptionally good videos. I am not talking
about my videos being shaky and out of focus as that at least means I took the
video, no I’m talking about all the videos I fail to take because of
my continued inability to press the record button.
Yesterday evening saw yet another monumental f**k up and
quite possibly the all-time best video that I never took when
I had a Great Grey Owl at about 15m range with a large vole in its bill. The
vole was still alive and its feet twitching when the owl delivered the killer
bite to the head, ate the head and then swallowed the body all whilst looking
at me. The light was good, it was in sharp focus and I was holding the
superzoom steady but had I pressed record? I thought I had, I even thought I
had checked the red circle was showing in the top right corner of the view
finder. But no, of course, I hadn’t and I am still kicking myself.
We are talking about a video (that wasn’t) so incredibly
good that David Attenborough would have paid me for the honour of narrating it.
This video which was taken immediately after has me
expressing my utter contempt for myself whilst the owl looks on….
Great Grey Owl (lappugle) just after it swallowed a big vole but you'll just have to take my word for that as I FAILED to film it
This happening arose as Jack accompanied me on a trip to
deepest Hedmark to try to get to the bottom of the GGO situation anno 2026. We
checked 4 platforms and 2 old Buzzard nests without finding any incubating GGs.
At the platform that I have visited twice before in April the pair were present
and the female was very aggressive with bill clicking beginning when we were
50m away and had yet to see her. She also adopted a threat posture and looked
like she might fly at us at any moment. Her bill clicking also brought the male
in who sat a bit less open but also clicked at us. This aggression from GGO
when they do not have young to protect is most unusual (perhaps unprecedented) as
is the fact that the pair clearly remains in breeding modus but have not yet
laid eggs and it is surely too late now.
the female in threat posture
the male
the males
the pair with the female on the left
The hunting bird we saw was an encouraging sign but the fact
it ate the vole rather than flying off with it to feed a mate leaves me not
knowing whether or not it was a breeding bird. I do know of an occupied nest
but have yet to visit that site as it has been important that I find my own
birds but I may have to give up on that hope for this year.
We ruined our finger nails scratching on trunks under every
woodpecker hole we saw with only a Great Spotted pecker ever flying out but at
a nestbox we did finally find breeding Tengmalm’s although it was Jack who
scratched so I still do not know if I have a technique that works.
Other birds seen were a couple of Capers but again females,
Black Grouse, Wryneck and Woodcock but it was a cold day with temperatures
falling below zero as soon as it got dark and that probably caused less
activity than we could have hoped for.
we had two roadside sightings of Moose
Back in Oslo this morning I was faced with the realisation
that springs undoubted highlight - the wader migration at Svellet - is pretty
much over. Water levels rose another 20cm yesterday to 4.03m and whilst there is still
mud and shallow water there are clearly few remaining areas where there is food
in the mud and wader numbers were nearly halved from yesterday and many were
just roosting rather than feeding. It is a travesty that such an
internationally important staging post for shorebirds cannot be managed better
but that pretty much sums up «conservation» in the world’s richest and «best»
country.
Svellet 6th May. There is still (dry) mud but water levels have risen a lot
In Maridalen it looks like the 3rd Lapwing nest has now hatched with there being four young near it and no bird still incubating and yesterday’s brood of three is actually four but I never saw these two broods simultaneously so there remains a very small chance that one single brood of four 1-2 day old young was able to cross a ditch.
a brood of day old Lapwing (vipe)
rarity of the day was this all black corvid on the Lapwing field. I concluded with it being a 2cy Rook (kornkråke) rather than a Carrion Crow (svartkråke) but it ain't always straightforward especially at distance in heat haze. Interestingly the Lapwings which always tried to chase away any intruding Hooded Crows left this bird alone
Birding’s a funny old game. You spend your whole day with
the word dire going through your mind and then first one bird and then another,
neither of which is even that rare, suddenly makes it a good, indeed great,
day.
I am trying to check Svellet daily so as to document its
greatness but today (water level has fallen by 3cm to 3.74m) saw a reduction in
Greenshank numbers, it may have only been two fewer birds but there goes my
exponential growth hopes. The two were replaced by a single Redshank and single
Ruff so there is a quantity over quality argument. Tomorrow though….
The greatness came in Maridalen but I did have to work darn
hard for it. Dry fields are now being ploughed but that doesn’t mean any new
birds – not even any Wheatears yet. With a lack of migrants I found myself in
the forests where a pair of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers was nice but it reminded
me that otherwise it has been a very poor ‘pecker spring in the Dale. I have
only heard Black drumming one, have not found 3 toes and even Great Spots don’t
seem to be numerous – I only had one today! I thought I would give a final try
for 3 toe though and after drawing a blank at one of the usual breeding sites I
tried the other and FINALLY I would one. It was a single female and she wasn’t
drumming and gave no real indication of breeding but further visits will
hopefully reveal a pair although I am not too confident.
So that was one bird but how about the other? The light and
some wind had made looking for waterfowl on the lake difficult but as I was
driving out I gave it one last go and saw a group of 7 ducks a long way out. I
had to use the scope but immediately saw that I had hit patch gold – a male Pochard
with Tufties!!! This has been looooong overdue in the Dale and comes after
Ring-necked Duck and a hybrid Pochard x Tufted Ducks. Now Pochard isn’t a common
bird in Oslo although sightings are more of less annual at Østensjøvannet where
birds can hang around and have probably bred before. Maridalsvannet is by no
means a good location for the species but neither is it for Tufties but on
migration birds will always stop off for a day before continuing their nocturnal
migrations. That it would turn up with a flock of Tufties has always been how I
assumed I would find one and it seemed to be interested in a female Tuftie so
there may be more hybrids in the works
Pochard is probably the most obvious species we were missing
in Maridalen and the valley list is now 228 species as reported onArtsobservasjoner and making it the premier location in Oslo. My Dale list is now
212 and I bloody chuffed with that!
If things continue like this then there may be daily updates
to the blog!
GREAT. no prizes for the picture but I reckon you can see there is a male Pochard (taffeland) and some Tufties (toppand)
GOOD. Finally a Three-toed Woodpecker (tretåspett) at one of the normal breeding sites in Maridalen but I only found this female so I am uncertain as to whether there is breeding
a Lapwing (vipe) nest which the farmer has marked. He will be ploughing soon and there was also another nest which I am confident he will find. I counted 7 birds today with these two and their presumed mates nearby, another male who may also have an unseen nesting female and a pair who by their behaviour had me thinking they have failed in their first breeding attempt but are thinking of another go.
in addition to the pair who I filmed mating (see below) but have yet to build a nest there have also been two lone Mute Swans (knoppsvane) on the lake. This one allowed me to read its ring and P578 is the male of last years breeding pair that earlier in the spring was being territorial at Fornebu but now seems to have given up both on breeding and his mate PC79 although more likely something has happened to her (nothing is reported on either of them since 7 April)
apart from a few Meadow Pipits (heipiplerke) these two Ring Ouzels were the only passerine migrants I noted in Maridalen
It’s been a long while since my last post and it has been an
infuriating time but I’m sure I’ve written something similar many times before
at this time of the year. We have entered what a lull with sunny, dry weather
meaning no meaningful arrivals of birds and also difficult viewing conditions
especially at Årnestangen and Svellet where long distances and hear haze become
a real issue.
It is spring though and of course new birds are arriving but
it is a trickle and there is no volume of birds. Slavonian Grebes have made
their annual visit to Maridalsvannet, a visit that seems to come earlier and
earlier each year. Other species that have arrived early are Wryneck, Pied
Flycatcher, House Martin and Willow Warbler but raptor migration is still a
dream despite me trying from a variety of places – I have yet to see a Hen
Harrier let alone a Pallid..
I have just had two good days of guiding with Margie and
Greg from Wisconsin where we racked up 85 species with Wryneck, Lesser Spotted
Woodpecker, Ring Ouzel and Rough-legged Buzzard amongst them. Despite us starting
the day early it became quite hard going after around noon with the sunny
weather causing a real decline in activity. This sunny weather is forecast for
at least the next 10 days so I fear that the magical Svellet spring that I was
predicting may already be unlikely. The day we do get some rain though could
end up being one of those days though.
After guiding and drop off at the airport I continued north
for an evening in owl land. I twitched a Great White Egret on the way which I
actually managed to see from the motorway at 110km/h but did also stop to
admire a bit better.
Owls are a mixed picture. Ural Owls are giving me my best
ever joy with the species with two nest boxes that I have checked now being
occupied - this amounts to nearly 10% of the known Norwegian population!
Great Grey Owl though is a different story. I again visited
the two nests from last year and found no birds by the natural nest. By the
platform the female was still present but not on eggs. She is a strange one
though and gave herself away by bill clicking when I was still close to 50m
away and had not yet seen her. She is clearly territorial.
One person who knows a lot more about owls than me reckons
it is just still early in the season and that birds will nest and lay eggs whereas
another reckons the rodent population has collapsed. Time will tell but unless
they lay eggs in the next week or two it will be too late. In the Facebook
group Ugler i Norden there are updates from a platform that has a camera
watching over it. Here birds were first seen coming to the platform already 22
Feb and mating was observed from 7 April but the first, and so far only?, egg
was not laid until 2 months later on 21 April. This to me suggests a pair who
want to breed but are finding the food situation very borderline.
When in the forests a roadside female Capercaille was a
treat and I continue with my tree scratching whenever I see a suitable hole.
This time I did get a bird but and a Stock Dove was very unexpected given where
I was but why oh why couldn’t it have been a Tengmalm’s?
Six Slav Grebes (horndykker) on Maridalsvannet - an Oslo record count!
a single bird two days later may well have been in addition to the six
Two Ring Ouzels (ringtrost) - it always feel like a big relief when I see these in the spring as it is a species I never feel guaranteed to see in Oslo (but do)
female Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett) whilst guiding. This bird was making a lot of noise and was I reckon unpaired and getting desperate
my first Wryneck (vendehals) of the year and another good bird to see whilst guiding
a great looking old Black Woodpecker hole that I was sure would reveal a Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle) but instead and for me very surprisingly revealed a Stock Dove (skogdue). At least my tree scratching skills seem to be OK now.
roadside female Caper (storfugl)
Great White Egret (egretthegre)
Great Grey Owl (lappugle) - the same bird as in my previous owl post
Ural Owl (slagugle) - also the same bird as in my last owl post
but he she is with her mate (on the left). I have rarely encountered the male at a nest site and then they are normally much shyer than this bird seemed to be. He flew in after the female called and maybe felt he had a job to do
and Ural Owl nest #2. This box is old and the bottom starting to fall out perhaps suggesting that whoever put it up no longer checks it and I hope it survives the season
Maridalsvannet on Monday morning. Lovely weather but no many birds
a very long, straight road in Hedmark's deep forests
A pair of Ringed Plover (sandlo) is clinging on at Fornebu and here, and in the video, the male is creating nest scrapes for the females approval. The area they were doing it in was very close to paths and roads so I suspect they will struggle.
I finally managed to read the rings on the Mute Swan (knoppsvane) pair that is visiting Maridalsvannet this spring. Surprisingly they are not the same pair that bred last year which have established themselves at Fornebu now. This pair have been seen together since March 2025 when they were at Østensjøvannet but did not breed . The female P576 was ringed as an adult in 28km away in March 2017 so is a mature lady. She bred in 2022 with another mate but did not raise young whilst the male was ringed as a juvenile in November 2023 11km away and is so young that he wouldn't have been expected to breed before now
I have also seen Long-eared Owls (hornugle). They were a pair by an old Crow's nest but it did not appear that eggs had been laid yet
