Raptor time

The Oslo Honey Buzzard nest that I have been following this summer is now empty (as far as I can see) although if you have been following the Sussex Honey Buzzard nest webcam on YouTube then you will know that the young can potentially still visit the nest four weeks after taking their first flight so my lack of sightings is definitely not absolute proof that they are gone. I will of course have a loooong but hopefully interesting post on the nest later in the autumn.

At the same time I no longer found any HB at the nest site I was following (I also know of another successful nest in Oslo this year) I noticed multiple juvenile HB over Maridalen with some birds definitely migrating in a southerly direction (both south east and south west) and other birds seemingly just enjoying thermalling, soaring and landing in the woods where I would love to to know what they were doing. It therefore seems clear that the species has had a good, and early, breeding season in southern Norway in 2026.

All the time looking at the sky has resulted in quite a few other raptors with seven species in Maridalen and a session at Årnestangen yesterday giving ten and I have seen 12 in total this last week. Nothing too exciting yet but juvenile HB in a direct flight have a very harrier like jizz and many birds also have narrow pale rumps so I have been eft scratching my head quite a few times.

Årnestangen yesterday was apart from the raptors a very strange affair with the extensive mud/sand flats almost completely empty of waders with just two Dunlin and two Greenshank. Svellet though has been far more productive with large numbers of both waders and dabbling ducks. A Broad-billed Sandpiper here was the undoubted highlight and a species I had forgotten about completely when in my last post I moaned about the wader species I had yet to see this year.

Great White Egrets have now turned en masse at Nordre Øyeren with 12 being the highest, and a record, count. I have had to content myself with just eight including a flock of six.

a migrating juvenil Honey Buzzard (vepsevåk) which is a grab from this video

the pale Common Buzzard (musvåk) in Maridalen. It has been around a few years now but for such a distinctive bird I see it quite infrequently.

my first Great Grey Shrike (varsler) of the autumn on the early date of 31 August. a lack of a wing bar shows it to be an adult and the all black bill probably a male

six Great White Egrets (egretthegre) and some Cranes (trane) at Svellet

and two at long range at Årnestangen

a video of a male Hen Harrier (myrhauk) at Årnestangen:

and a Marsh Harrier (sivhauk) eating a young gull at Svellet:

Summer starts but spring is not quite yet over

1st June marks the start of summer in Oslo but on a rainy day with southerly winds I still had my thoughts on late spring migrants. This is the time of the year when really unexpected rarities can turn up but there are also more predictable ones such as rare terns or waders that you can hope to find at Svellet or Årnestangen. That was where I was headed today and Svellet still has some exposed mud. A good number of gulls and a few Common Terns were resting here but nothing rare or scarce and single of Red- and Greenshank were the only waders.

The walk out to Årnestangen was mostly dry (I chose the umbrella rather than rain coat option which worked out well) and mercifully free of mosquitoes although I am sure they will come soon. There were attractive looking mudflats and pools at the tip but they were all rather birdless although a heavy rain shower but an end to my scanning and I had to seek cover sitting down pushed against the wall of the hopefully inadequate but typically Norwegian viewing platform. Most counties equip nature reserves with «hides» where you can sit down and escape the rain whilst also being hidden from the birds such that you enjoy closer views and the birds are less disturbed. Norway of course has to do things differently and at Årnestangen the choice is a slightly raised open platform that offers no real shelter from the elements and definitely doesn’t hide you from the birds. Rather curiously, viewing slats have been put in the low walls which I was able to use today when on my knees and flattened against the wall with umbrella over me although I doubt that was there intended use.

 

Whilst sheltering I did hear a few waders and when the rain stopped enough for me to look properly I found three Turnstones with a small flock of Ringed Plovers. It is very rare for me to see Turnstone in summer plumage so this was a nice if distant encounter. Not a single calidris wader was a disappointment although a Red-Backed Shrike was the last of the non-nocturnal breeding migrants that I had yet to see.

 

Maridalsvannet has had a hatch of insects which in recent years attracts terns. None have turned up so far this year but a Little Gulls hawking insects with the Black-headeds today was nice. Yesterday evening a large flock of Canada Geese flew over the house and today what must be the same birds were in Maridalen. Amongst them was a hybrid Canada x Barnacle but surprisingly not the same one as in Sørkedalen last week. What is causing this sudden influx of presumed dutch birds?

 

On Friday butterfly watching in Maridalen was interrupted by news of a Little Egret at Fornebu and I quickly drove down to enjoy it. This species is still very rare around Oslo with this being only the 5th record whilst Great White has become annual and sometimes in small flocks.

the knee high viewing slats at Årnestangen allowed me some slight protection from the rain

during a pause in the rain. It was the exact weather conditions you hope for out there and in mid to late July could have resulted in hundreds of waders of many species.

Little Egret (silkehegre) at Fornebu on Friday

hybrid Canada x Barnacle Goose in Maridalen. It lacks the white forehead that last weeks bird in Sørkedalen had (see previous post) and also had a much darker breast

three young Lapwing (vipe) being looked over by mum

and here are 4 young. There was another adult closeby and the 4th young may have been from another brood. None of them was the single large young that I saw flapping its wings last week so things are still looking good. Two nests are still being incubated and have at least another week to go before we see any young.

Skjerven - the geese and Lapwing field in Maridalen

Svellet feeling cosmic even if all else is dire

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 24^th, 7 on the 26^th, 14 on the 27^th and 25 today, the 28^th – 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) 

Oslo Little Stint

On Thursday I had to drop Jr Jr off at Bygdøy so afterwards decided to see if the fjord at Huk had anything to offer. I don’t normally visit there at this time of the year unless it is blowing a gale which it wasn’t but it was blowing from the south and raining so there was always the chance of something. The rocks and skerries here attract Purple Sandpipers in winter but I have seen few other waders over the years other than Oystercatchers and those I have seen have generally stopped just briefly before continuing on their journey. Yesterday was a bit different though as first a Little Sint and then a Dunlin showed themselves and seemed quite happy searching for food in exactly the same way the Purple Sands do. The stint was only my third in Oslo and is a genuine rare species here with just 6 other records this century.

I also visited Østensjøvannet for the first time in a good while and there were worryingly few birds. Even if there was a lack of quantity then it was compensated so some extent by some quality with a male Pintail coming out of eclipse, a Shoveler, a Peregrine and most surprisingly a Common Scoter. This is a surprisingly scarce species on the lake with only 6 previous records ever and these have either been on spring passage or in late October (which matches when birds turn up on Maridalsvannet). A record in mid September is therefore unusual (and I had seen none on the fjord) and the bird was an adult female which is also an unusual record with records later in the autumn being almost exclusively 1cy birds.

 

Another unusual trip for me was a walk all the way out to the tip of Årnestangen. Water levels have kept on rising and the mud flats were gone but it was a relatively good day for raptors with 9 species noted including a hunting Hen Harrier at relatively close range.

Little Stint (dvergsnipe) with Eiders (ærfugl) - they are small!

and the Dunlin (myrsnipe)

this Herring Gull (gråmåke) made short work of a starfish

Østensjøvannets male Pintail (stjertand) coming out of eclipse. Hopefully it will hag around until it has acquired its full breeding plumage. Male Pintails that have turned up in Oslo have often, for some unknown reason, lacked the long central tail feathers that give this species its name and it looks like this bird (which could well be a returning individual) will also lack them

Shoveler (skjeand) with Tufted Duck (toppand)

adult female Common Scoter (svartand) with Great Crested Grebe (toppdykker). There was a brood of 2 less than half grown grebes which still had stipy, downy plumage and one of which was sat on a parents back. This is very late and it will be interesting to see how things go especially if we have an early cold snap

Great Grey Shrike (varsler) at Årnestangen

and a Great White Egret (egretthegre)

hunting Hen Harrier (myrhauk)

with a mouse

and a Merlin (dvergfalk)

Cranes (trane) are starting to head south now

2 Shoveler and 2 Wigeon (brunnakke) at Merkja

The Beast accompanied me to Årnestangen and I finally discovered who the viewing shutters were designed for...

Geese, geese, geese

I have been drawn back to Nordre Øyeren daily now in the hope of uncovering something rare. The numbers of geese are just enormous and you can see them either feeding on stubble fields or resting on the water at Svellet. There are at least 2000 each of Barnacles and Greylags but probably a lot more as well as 400 Canadas. Finding something scarcer amongst all these has proved tough going but I have now found a single White-fronted Goose, single Bar-headed, single Pink-footed and 3 Greylag x Canada hybrids. I have only found one bird with with a collar - a Greylag ringed in Germany in 2021 and since either close to Oslo or in Germany.

I have spent too long looking at the Canadas and have got a headache at the amount on variability amongst them with some birds definitely looking «wilder» than others but all probably within the variation of size and plumage of a feral population that probably has little genetic diversity.

 

White-fronted Goose (tundragås)

Bar-headed Goose (stripegås)

neck collared Greylag (grågås) D780 and its history below

this Canada looked very interesting from afar 

but closer up I wasn't s sure

and this one while not being so dark also looked quite different

enormous numbers

Water levels have risen a lot due to heavy rain and there is no longer mud in Svellet so waders and dabbling ducks have vanished but there are now 4 Little Gulls and also 4 «commic» Terns (I remember as a child hearing the term Commic Tern and not being able to find it in my bird book. It caused me lots of confusion for a long time until I finally plucked up the courage to ask an older birder what it was and found out it was from COMMon and ArctIC and referred to unidentified birds of the species pair. I also remember very soon after calling out “Commic Tern” and it being a white dove….). I initially thought there were 2 Common and 2 Arctic but with better views have now come to the conclusion that there are at least 3 Common and the fourth bird is also most likely a Common. It has been quite a learning experience where I relied too much on jizz and behaviour to start with.

a commic tern and 2 Little Gulls (dvergmåke)

3 f the 4 Little Gulls. All were 1cy

this 1cy tern with grey secondaries must be a Common (makrellterne)

I have had 10 species of raptor which is a good showing and my first Great Grey Shrike of the autumn.

my first Great Gre Shrike (varlser) of the autumn which I saw eating a mouse

a very distant, but very smart, male Hen Harrier (myrhauk)

Peregrine (vandrefalk) and a pale Common Buzzard (musvåk)

this immature White-tailed Eagle (havørn) flew over Svellet

and a bit later I found it on a field that had previously been covered in geese with just a few crows for company

Merlin (dvergalk)

I have also had a couple of attempts to locate the Taiga Beans but have failed. I assume they are still around as it would be record early if they have already left and I remember that in previous years the GPS tagged bird(s) have shown they have often used one particular field that is very well hidden and that I have never tried to get to as I am certain it will just result in flushing the birds – they may well be using it again.

 

I have only had a couple of quick visits to Maridalen but a perched and then hunting White-tailed Eagle was a very good sighting.

the Crane (trane) family is still feeding in Maridalen

it is very unusual to find a perched White-tailed Eagle in the Dale