Birdlife in Maridalen has really settled down with all signs of migration having come to an end. The very popular Pygmy Owl (one of at least four being seen in the valley) by the bridge and feeders continues to show most days as do the Marsh Tits. I have now ascertained beyond doubt that there are three Marsh Tits which is a Maridalen record and 🤞maybe the start of a permanent range expansion. The quiet bird is still hanging out by the horses usually in the close company of at least one Willow Tit and is now feeding in trees rather than amongst (now frozen) horse muck. Only 300 metres away there are now two noisy birds regularly coming to the feeding station where they can be seen alongside the other five tit species.
Only around 25 species is now the expected haul from a session in the Dale which really is not very exciting. A visit to the fjord at Huk gives roughly the same number of species but of a very different composition and on Thursday I had both Oystercatcher and Purple Sandpiper. There are many hundreds of Herring Gulls in the fjord feeding on a super abundance of starfish that are exposed by very low tides. This super abundance is apparently a further postive affect of a huge breeding (wrong word I know) of mussels last year which in addition to being food for seaducks are also food for the starfish.
Pygmy Owl before sunrise
In this video the owl chases off a Magpie (skjære) that landed close to it
Marsh Tit (løvmeis) with Great Tit (kjøttmeis)
Nuthatch (spettmeis)
birds need to drink and when there is ice but not yet snow to eat then theyneed to exploit any open water they can find such as this Blue Tit (blåmeis)
the view from Huk, Bygdøy on Thursday morning
Purple Sandpiper (fjæreplytt) and Oystercatcher (tjeld):
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
I’ve had a few local evening outings already this spring
hoping to find singing Long-eared Owls. This isn’t an easy task as their song does
not carry far but I have seen there are signs of good numbers of voles in areas
where I have previously found nests later in the spring. My first two attempts
drew blanks but last night I was successful with a singing male that showed
well in the head torch although with temperatures close to +10C he was
surprisingly difficult see in the thermal. His song, in typical fashion, was
very difficult to hear and even at only 20 metres range was strangely quiet.
this is the video I managed, it should've been SO much better...
I thought I had recorded some good video with both my phone
and camera but I did not at all. I had gone out of the car without my glasses
and clearly had my usual problem that I was not actually filming when I thought
I was and was unable to see that the red light was not on. This is no longer a
joke!!
Other than this good but annoying encounter I have recorded
the first Twite and Linnet in Maridalen where Lapwings are now up to three bird
but surprisingly no Chaffinch or Mistle Thrush yet.
A male Smew on the river near Lillestrøm was a nice little
semi twitch.
male Smew (lappfiskand)
the first Twite (bergirisk) of the year in Maridalen
and the first Linnet (tornirisk)
the White-fronted Geese (tundragås) are still at Bygdøy
the gander to the left has a darket bead
the gander has a very well marked belly
6 White-fronts at Årnestangen togther with Canadas
newly arrived Øystercatchers (tjeld) at Huk, Bygdøy
this colour ringed bird was ringed as a breeding bird in May 2014 on an island 6km away and has only been reported a few times since and always around Oslo
