I felt a need to post, no matter how briefly, a few days ago as a very close friend of min recently took his own life and it has been a very strange and emotional time and a reminder to me of the need to communicate. Birding has been, as it always is, a good way for me to keep myself in balance and I have not been spending time in front of the computer or editing photos.
I have this evening found a few more photos and videos from the last week in Maridalen which show a bit how things are there. Autumn migration is starting and the hope is always for something very exciting to turn up although currently I am more aware of the breeding birds disappearing.
adult Black-throated Divers (storlom) on Maridalsvannet. The single small juvenile that was on the lake earlier in the summer has disappeared but up to 11 adults have been on the lake
In this video of Red-throated Divers (smålom) which have not bred on Maridalsvannet but have now moved here from their nearby breeding ponds you can see a juvenile that is begging for food by stroking its parents throat with its bill
a visit to Svellet with Jr Jr to give her some driving practice (her driving test is coming up) looked like it would be very promising but there was no birding gold at the end of the rainbow
a caterpillar of a Pine Hawk-moth (furusvermer) Sphinx pinastri
and the caterpillar of Elephant Hawk-moth (stor snabelsvermer) Deilephila elpenor shown in the video in my last post. I found both of these wandering on roads and they are searching for places to turn into a pupa
I have often written that Easter is my favourite time of the
year for birding in Maridalen and indeed it still is even if that doesn’t necessarily
mean it is always as productive. The timing of Easter of course varies from
year to year and a late Easter will always be better so this year’s relatively
early Easter which has coincided with lots of fresh snow has unsurprisingly not been one for the birding memory books. I have been out early every morning
but there have hardly been any new birds of signs of viz mig.
The absolute
highlight on that score being three Red-throated Divers flying in high up and
then circling the lake calling before landing and displaying on the lake. This
is one of the earliest ever records in the Dale but in most years the lake
would still be frozen until at least the middle of April so the conditions aren’t
normally conducive to any water birds this early. In addition RtDs have only
recently established themselves as local breeders so we didn’t previously have
birds using Maridalsvannet for more than a day or two whilst on migration (and birds heading further inland will not come through for a few weeks) whereas now they are an expected sight through the whole breeding season.
Tomorrow’s weather forecast does actually look quite
promising so I may have written this downbeat post a day too early.
In the absence of any interesting bird photos I will chart
the changing weather conditions.
me scoping the lake on Wednesday 1st April when it was till sunny
lots of snow at 8am on Friday 3rd
the fields at Kirkeby on 4th April at 07:18
and the fields at Nedre Vaggestein also on the 4th which unsurprisingly held hardly any birds
Kirkeby again on the 4th but now at 0852 when at least the sun had come out but stil no birds
and Kirkeby at 0822 today the 5th. Not a pleasant morning
and looking over the lake from Nes at 0829. There may have been lots of grounded waterfowl out there but the fog meant their presence or not will remain one of earths great unanswered questions
And a video of a drumming Lesser Spotted Woodpecker from before I went to England. A pair is now well established and with luck I will find their nest hole.
We have now had a few nights of frost and with very little
wind and daytime temperatures also staying cold I visited Østensjøvannet expecting
it to be mostly covered in ice. In fact the lake was ice free with just some
ice on the edges although the wrongly named Wader Pond (just Pond would
suffice) was frozen. I was a bit surprised that the first bird I saw was a
Scaup as the bird I found on 3 Nov has not been reported since the 8th.
This bird looked to be a 1cy male (a grey feather on the back and hint of green
on the head) whereas the previous bird whilst being a 1cy had nothing in its
plumage to suggest it was a male but upon looking at pictures I believe it is
the same bird but that just come further in its post juvenile moult over the
course of a week.
I had been hoping for ice as I hoped this would have
concentrated what ever birds were left (and also any new arrivals) but that should
come some time next week as temperatures are still forecast to get colder. This
will hopefully also push out some snipe which I was unable to find today.
Yesterday I enjoyed close views of Red-throated Diver and a
feeding Eider at Fornebu. The diver was showing unusually well and was in the
same area on Sunday. Rather than being ill I think it is exploiting a food source.
The Eider had caught a crab and I was able to watch it remove the legs by
holding one leg at a time and shaking the crab until the leg was detached and
the body fell into the water. This was done with each leg until there was just the
body left which was swallowed after some careful manoeuvring to allow it to
slide down. It impressive to think of the stomach acids it must have that will
allow it process the crab.
the female Eider (ærfugl) preparing a crab for lunch
the video shows it removing the remaining legs and then eventually swallowing the body
a confiding 1st winter juvenile/1st winter Red-throated Diver (smålom)
a Razorbill (alke) getting ready to dive
and the RtD with a Guillemot (lomvi) when the diver looks surprisingly small
a young Scaup (bergand). The dark green colours coming through on the head plus a grey feather on the mantle show it to be a male
And a video of the Treecreeper in Maridalen that likes searching for food on/in spruce cones
and a comparison of the Maridalen Marsh Tit (løvmeis) and a Willow Tit (granmeis) in sunlight. Notice how the Marsh Tit seems to have a very pale wing panel... a feature that is commonly said to mean Willow
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
