Stonechat

The arrival of spring has not been as explosive as I dreamed and those birds with names beginning with S are only slowly appearing in my binoculars. I can add another two species to the list of four I have already mentioned in the form of Stonechat and Shelduck but am struggling to come up with a seventh to make it S Club 7. Of the six I have now seen only three though.

Shelduck was just an oversight when I listed the first migrants but Stonechat was an omission based on it being such a rarity but times are a changing. In Oslo and Bærum (which I include because of Fornebu) this weekend four!! Stonechat were present with two in Oslo and another two on Fornebu. They came in cold, snowy conditions when an insect eater should really struggle to find food but then again they are not an extremely early migrant for nothing and clearly know how to find food in these conditions. I failed to find my own chat at the weekend and also failed in attempts to twitch one after being shown very juicy photos that a photographer had taken and which he was unsure as to the identity of. But yesterday morning I caught up with a female found on Sunday at Fornebu which I had really expected to have moved on overnight as it was a clear night. It showed well as fresh snow fell and often dropped to the ground clearly having seen a food item but I did not see it actually eat anything.

The first spring record of Stonechat in Oslo and Bærum was in 1977 but it was then another 21 years before the next in 1998 and in the next 22 years there were just records in six years. From 2021 though the species has been annual and records are also occurring earlier than before. Four in a year in both 2021 and 2024 is the record so having already reached that number this year when we can get birds until the middle of April is clearly something special. Exactly where these birds are migrating to remains and what subspecies are involved remains a bit of a mystery. The small breeding population on the west coast of Norway are described as hibernans and are very early migrants whereas the subspecies that breeds further south in Europe and that is advancing north in Sweden is rubicola which migrates later. Birds this early in the spring would could be expected to be hibernans but I am not aware of any increase or change in distribution of their population to explain the explosion of records in recent years. If they are rubicola are they just birds overshooting their new breeding areas in southern Sweden? And if so why aren’t they establishing themselves as breeders in Norway and why are they arriving so early?

 

And the third S Club species I have seen in addition to Stock Dove and Stonechat? Starling, with a flock of 9 looked a bit forlorn in a treetop on Bygdøy.

female Stonechat (Svartstrupe)

proof of where it was

here it had flown down onto the snow having seen a food item

I may have found no spring migrants yet in Maridalen but I again saw two different Pygmy Owls on Sunday with this one being at a site where I also had sightings in the late autumn and being the fourth different bird I have seen the last few weeks. It also sang as can be heard in the video

Three Long-tailed Ducks at Fornebu:

And Purple Sandpipers at Huk, Bygdøy taken with the phone:

Farewell winter, good (tomorrow) morning spring

A final post before the first migrants arrive and all hell breaks lose (in my dreams).

 

If the weather forecast plays out then today marks the end of this winter’s big freeze and from tomorrow positive temperatures, some rain and southerly winds will hopefully kick start the first wave of spring migration 2026.

 Winter had a final gift in the form of a big dump of snow on Sunday night and this extra snow will, I hope, ensure we get some good spring flooding that hopefully will last many weeks. I really hope that Hengsenga on Bygdøy will have flood water until at least the beginning of April as I believe there is the potential for something very good here.

I have seen some signs of spring despite the weather not yet having changed. A Wood Pigeon heading north on the early morning dog walk on Tuesday will be the first of very many and a Greylag Goose looked a bit forlorn on the ice at Østensjøvannet but today provided another two and better species. In my last post I listed three early migrants that I hoped to find soon and all had names beginning with S. After writing it I realised I could have added another S species to the list, namely Stock Dove. When visiting Bygdøy today hoping to find the first Oystercatcher of the year I stopped off to see if any Stock Doves had returned to their usual spot and sure enough one was sat atop a usual tree which is Oslo’s first in 2026. Huk didn’t have an Oystercatcher yet but a flock of 8 Twite flying over were also Oslo’s first of the year but rather than being migrants may be birds that have wintered on islands close by taking a bit of a fly about. 17 Guillemot on a flat sea was a notably high count for the time of the year but I couldn’t find any divers or grebes which should soon appear.

 

I am really looking forward to the coming week and have high hopes for both Bygdøy and Østensjøvannet but think Maridalen may have to wait a bit longer as there is still so much snow.

a total of 4 Little Grebes (dvergdykker) at Kongshavn on Saturday. This is a joint highest count for Oslo and I would love to know where these birds breed

they acted as though they were two pairs and called a bit but are not yet in summer plumage

Østensjøvannets female Pintail (stjertand) now with bling

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) in Maridalen on Sunday

Greylag Goose (grågås) at Østensjøvannet on Monday

my first Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett) of the year. It was not drumming or "singing" but gave itself away through its weak tapping

Maridalen at its wintery finest

distant Pygmy Owl on Tuesday

and much closer

here, it had just visited the old woodpecker hole which I photographed it in in my last post and flew out with this mouse! I have assumed that this particular bird is living off its larder at the moment as when I see it in tree tops it is just looking as though it is enjoying the view rather than hunting

The first Greylags at Bygdøy Kongsgården but I bet that in a weeks time there will be triple figures here and hopefully with some smaller, scarcer cousins in their midst

Oslo's first Stock Dove (skogdue) of the year

Water Rail (vannrikse) still going strong at Østensjøvannet

and Jacky Boy is also still going strong. The upcoming thaw will be good news for them but will also, I fear, make them more difficult to find

Post guiding silver platter

As is typical after guiding, the species that were difficult to find have served themselves up on a silver plater in the following days….😂

 A male Three-toed Woodpecker has showed exceptionally well in Maridalen in a small area of flooded forest with dead trees well away from the species normal areas and the exact area we checked unsuccesfully on Saturday for Black Woodpecker (and had no other ‘peckers either). And Black ‘pecker which was our most striking miss at the weekend has of course also shown well….

 Pygmy Owls have just been waiting for me on roadside trees and two in a day was so noteworthy that it required a comment on eBird (our local reviewer is a meticulous young man😉).

 A visit to the Hazel Grouse saw me heading straight for where we had the male on Saturday and what do you know - he was in exactly the same tree and I only used 10 minutes from leaving the car to see him rather than nearly 2 hours. He was high up in an alder tree but I was able to clamber up a slope and see him nearly at eye level for a long period of time.

 Two different Marsh Tits still in Maridalen maintain the hope of the species establishing itself although they are not a pair and one of them is the (mostly) silent bird which always is hanging with Willow Tits and which best case has an identity crisis and worst case may be a hybrid. The other bird loves to call and is either on its own (although earlier there were two vocal birds together) or with Blue Tits.

 Jack and I visited Owl Road last night in glorious positions - a cloudless starry night sky, -16C, no wind and even a tiny slither of a moon. Three Tengmalm’s Owls meant a 200% increase on 9 days earlier but we had no other owls (it was the same date last year when I showed Jack his very firstGGO).

 The sun has been shining but temperatures remain a long way south of zero so early spring migrants are still to arrive but from the middle of next week we are forecast to have temperatures above zero and some rain. This will probably be all that is needed for the first geese, Snow Buntings, Skylarks or Starlings to show up if there are suddenly snow free flecks on the fields.

only three toes

the rings on this tree suggest that a Three-toed has been in this area quite a while...

Moose have also showed well but were absent at the weekend

Pygmy Owl in the snow

I attempted some flight shots and nearly succeeded in a sharp shot

my Hazel Grouse (jerpe) photos were nothing special but I am happy with the videos which have him singing and eating snow

singing

owling on Owl Road

and Pygmy Owling in Maridalen with the bird on top of the highest spruce

I then had a very nice photo shoot with him or perhaps her

and a Robin (rødstrupe) in the snow

and these little beauties are still giving of themselves