Butterflies...

Mountain Marsh Runners aka Broad-billed Sandpipers have started passing through South East Norway the last couple of days. There are only a handful of sites with annual records of this scarce species and one of them is Årnestangen. So, I set off on the long walk with high hopes this morning. My hopes gradually became lower and lower on the walk out when there was no sign of any migration whatsoever. Arriving at the end of the peninsula there was a particular dearth of birds and I had to work very hard to find any waders at all with just a single Dunlin and Ringed Plover being migrants. This is all part of the game but at this time of year one always hopes for a bit more.

On the walk back I did hear a brief snatch of “song” from my first Corncrake of the year plus seeing my first Swift which is a late first record. Whilst Beast walking I had a singing Icterine Warbler near the house which will deserve some more attention.

The lack of birds today is highlighted by the face that I will show pictures of butterflies instead. Three different Painted Ladies was a big surprise although there seems to have been an arrival recently. I always thought of this butterfly as a late summer migrant.

a female Orange Tip (aurorasommerfugl). From above it can be confused with the other whites but the pattern of the underside of the lower wing is distinctive

the first Painted Lady (tistelsommerfugl) I saw. This individual was very tatty and the upperparts which I didn't manage to get a picture of were pale and bleached

the second Painted Lady

which looked to be nice and fresh

and the third one 

which was also quite fresh

and a Green-veined White (rapssommerfugl)

it's been a long time since I've seen a Stoat (røyskatt). This one had something in its mouth but I didn't manage to see what it had taken

Butterflies

Yesterday morning I successfully ignored the IKEA flat pack furniture that needed un-flatting and went up into Maridalen. With no wind and sun I had high hopes of seeing soaring raptors (and finally a Honey Buzzard) and butterflies. This year has been poor for both of these groups but a day like today should be as good as any for them.

Raptors were really hard work and apart from a single hunting Sparrowhawk I had to wait 5!! hours before I finally (and a long time after I had intended to return to the un-flatting) found some soaring raptors when I had a group of three Common Buzzards. These were followed by another Common Buzzard a little later but that was to be it. I have a feeling that something has happened with the larger raptors around Maridalen this year – hopefully it is just a bad breeding season rather than something more sinister.

I fared a better with butterflies. There were not large numbers except for the whites (which I still struggle with) but I ended up with quite a lot of variety although had no blues or hairstreaks. Here are the 15 species I saw:

Queen of Spain Fritillary (solvkåpe)

Silver Washed Fritillary (keiserkåpe)

Lesser Marbled Fritillary (engperlemorvinge)

Dark Green Fritillary (aglajaperlemorvinge)

Red Admiral (admiral)

Small Tortoisehell (neslesommerfugl)

Peacock (dagpåfuglsommerfugl)

Painted Lady (tistelsommerfugl)

Comma (Hvit C)

Ringlet (gullringvinge)

Scare Copper (oransjegullvinge)

Brimstone (sitronsommerfugl)

Green veined White (rapssommerfugl)

Large White (stor kålsommerfugl)

Small White (liten kålsommerfugl)

Queen of Spain Fritillaries seem to have established themselves in Maridalen after an individual I saw last year was the very first to be reported from Oslo in ArtsObservasjoner and I had up to 4 together including mating. I find that this species can vary a lot in size and also in colour on the upperwing and I spent lots of time trying to see the underwing of fritillary butterflies only to be “disappointed” to see the silver spots of this species. I do suspect though that I had at least one other species of fritillary (medium large) in addition to the ones I have recorded.

The copper butterflies were interesting. I was sure that I had seen a couple Small Coppers (ildgullvinge) but the pictures I took show (based on the underwing) that they were actually female Scarce Coppers (oransjegullvinge) of which I also saw the very distinctive males.

I tried my luck with dragonflies and damselflies and identified 3 species of dragonfly – Black Dater (svart høstlibelle), Four-spotted Chaser (firflekklibelle) and Brown Hawker (brun øyenstikker) - and one of damselfly - Common Blue Damselfly (stor blåvannymfe) although there were other species that I never managed to photograph of dragonfly that I didn’t manage to photo (ID in front of the computer is as far as I have come with these species groups). Black Darter remains by far the commonest species with thousands of them and I only saw a handful of large dragons.

What about the non-raptor birds though? On the lake there was an adult and two juvenile Arctic Terns one of which was begging for food. I had a couple of juv Red-backed Shrikes and 2 very fresh and presumably juvenile Marsh Warblers where a male had been singing in the late spring strongly suggesting successful local breeding. The Whooper Swan family is still going strong and I found the remains of the missing youngster although couldn’t make out how it had died. I also had a pair of Cranes and I reckon this species will attempt to nest in not too many years.

More signs of migration were my first returning Meadow Pipits.

I took a ridiculous numbers of photos. Here is jut a selection.

Birds:

juvenile Red-backed Shrike (tornskate)

an adult and 2 juv Arctic Terns (rødnebbterne)

Cormorants (storskarv and an Arctic Tern)

Cranes (trane) - an unusual summer sighting in Maridalen

flyover Black Woodpecker (svartspett)

all 9 Whooper Swans (sangsvane) 

Willow Warbler (løvsanger)

juvenile Wren (gjerdesmett)

 Butterflies (please inform me of any incorrect IDs:

Comma (Hvit C)

Brimstone (sitronsommerfugl)

Dark Green Fritillary (aglajaperlemorving)

Green-veined White (rapssommerfugl)

Large White (stor kålsommerfugl) I believe

and I believe a Small White (liten kålsommerfugl)

Lesser Marbled Fritillary (engperlemorvinge)

Painted Lady (tistelsommerfugl) - one of 4 I saw

Queen of Spain Fritillary (sølvkåpe)

QoSF

3 QoSF in mating mood 

note the sexual organ? or egg laying opening? of the bird on the right

and much more visible here

female Scarce Copper (oransjegullvinge) which in the field I mistook for a male Small Copper (ildgullvinge)

Male Scarce Copper

Silver-washed Fritillary (keiserkåpe)

SwF

SwF and bumblebee sp

Small Tortoiseshell (nesle sommerfugl)

Dragonflies

Brown Hawker (brun øyenstikker)

Common Blue Damselfly (stor Blåvannnymfe) 

Four-spotted Chaser (firflekklibelle)

Amphibians:

frog sp - there are two species of frog in Norway and I haven't worked out how to tell them apart..

Today I had a shag

The potential of the islands in the inner Oslofjord just offshore Oslo city has been known for a long time. Eric Roualet in particular has regularly visited the larger islands of Gressholmen, Lindøya and Nakholmen which are accessible by busboat and has turned up quite a few scarce and the odd rare. In the last few years though Andreas Gullberg has visited the smaller islands with the use of his own boat. He has found a lot of locally exciting species and shown that a number of species are far more regular than previous records suggested.
I had a chance to go out with Andreas on Saturday but a combination of a body resistant to getting up before 6am and my daughter’s football tournament meant I had to decline. I duly missed out on a Long-tailed Skua (Akershus tick) and Turnstone (Oslo tick) amongst others. I went out to the larger islands today though hoping that there might still be something hanging around.
I had a good start with an Arctic Tern feeding with three Common Terns soon after the boat left land. Arctic Tern is rare in Oslo although annual.
On Gressholmen there were 8 Dunlin, a Ringed Plover and 3 Greenshank in the tidal bay. An offshore rock held 4 Knot which were pushed off by the rising tide. Passerines were nearly non-existent with a single Wheatear the only bird of any interest. Butterflies included my first Pained Lady of the year plus a couple of male Common Blues.
Lindøya held some resting terns. I had good views of a juv Arctic and 5 juv Common and later on from long range saw a total of commic 12 terns on the same rock. The same rock also held 13 roosting Dunlin and 4 Ringed Plovers.
Moving onto Nakholmen (the hourly boat service giving exactly an hour per island) I had 4 Knot which must be the same as on Gressholmen. A shriek made me look up and there were two Hobbies cruising around overhead. They were an adult and juv I expect these to be from the family group that has been entertaining people at Nessodtangen on the other side of the fjord
On the boat back to the city I had a chance to check Galteskjær. I saw no waders and then did something I don't normally do - I went through the 80 odd roosting Cormorants. The reason for this was that Bjørn Olav had seen a Shag at Fornebu on Saturday – a species I have never seen in either Oslo or Akershus. And boom! I had a Shag (and it's been a while 😉). This is also the first Oslo record (or at least the first published one...) giving me two Oslo firsts this year after the Short-toed Lark in Maridalen in April.
The birding ended with an adult Peregrine ripping into its lunch on top of the town hall when the boat docked.
A very fresh southerly wind blew up during the day. This wasn't forecast and I don't know how local it is but could push some interesting sea birds into the inner fjord.

It's a Shag (toppskarv)

Juv Arctic Tern (rødnebbterne) left with 3 juv Common Terns (makrellterne)

Arctic (left) with Common. Note the smaller size, black bill, dark legs and less noticeable carpal bar of the Arctic

Common (left) and Arctic in flight. Note the dark trailing edge to the secondaries on the Common but white on the Arctic

2 Knot (polarsnipe). I took loads of pictures of these and will probably come back with a separate posting

4 Knot

these 2 ringed Barnacle Geese (hvitkinngås) overwinter in Holland. They were also recorded with 3 eggs in the nest on the late date of 7 July this year. The fact they were alone suggests their breeding failed

Common Blue (tiriltungeblåvinge)

Dunlin (myrsnipe) with 2 Ringed Plover (sandlo)

Dunlin

adult and juv Hobby (lerkefalk). The adult didn't seem in the mood to share its catch

Painted Lady (tistelsommerfugl)

adult Peregrine (vandrefalk)

2 very dainty looking juv Ringed Plovers (sandlo)

small White (liten kålsommerfugl)

this Wheatear (steinskvett) found a smal caterpillar