Rest, they say, is only for the wicked (as has been pointed out to me I have got that expression completely and rather embarrassingly wrong! It is of course NO rest for the wicked…😂) and this bank holiday
has seen me guiding for southern Norway’s best birds which at the moment
primarily means owls. I have spent three long, tiring, but very fun, and
rewarding days with Graham and Marcus Workman where were have seen Great Grey,
Ural and Tegnmalm’s Owls, Black Woodpecker, Wryneck, Honey Buzzard, Common Rosefinch, Icterine
and Wood Warblers, Slavonian Grebe, Moose, Capercaille and so much more.
The Great Grey and Ural were rated as their best birding
experiences ever and I couldn’t possibly disagree with that.
All the birds that I have been monitoring and checking in on
this spring were present and correct and showed impeccably well with my only
complaint to the Bird Gods being that the two singing Common Rosefinch that we
found were boring brown 2cy males instead of the bright red older males that
give them their name. It was only me complaining though☺️
I don’t have the time to write any more as I need to allow
myself a rest as I am guiding again tomorrow and most of next week. I’ll just
let the photos and video do the talking - it truly has been a great weekend!
This explains the Golden Bread reference. When Norwegian birders celebrate a lifer it is a tradition to celebrate with a Gullbrød (gold bread). This chocolate covered bar of marsipan is not to my personal liking but Graham and Marcus were keen to join the tradition. Here they are celebrating GGO which was lifer #1 but there were at least 3 more after that
my footage from the weekend pales into comparison with what these two got. Graham had a top of the range Nikon set up but Marcus was just using an iphone 11 (the same as me) with an adapter on a Kowa scope and was taking fantastic videos and stills. I hope to link to their work later once they are home and have published it. And I think I will be getting an adapter - will sure be cheaper than buying a new camera and lens that I rather desperately need and to be honest may give better results
Great Grey Owl (lappugle) - this is the "hissig" female and as usual she greeted us by bill snapping and this time growling long before we could see her. Again she was perched in a tree when we arrived but then flew onto the nesting platform so presumably has eggs but once again I can only say that her behaviour is not normal
Ural Owl (slagugle) presumed female. We glimpsed the furry tops of the heads of probably two young in the hole of the nest box and the male was also in the area
it was a joy to see this young Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle) who was looking out at dusk of his own accord (i.e no need for my poor trunk scratching to be put to the test). I reckon it was going to leave the box that same night
This sequence from the Black Woodpecker nests shows first from the nest with the three young where both parents came into feed at the same time but only after we had waited for close to an hour and a half... Our presence clearly affected the behaviour of the parents though and we had to move further back before they came in and fed the young. The sequence in the video where it almost looks like they are engaged in ritual courtship is how they were acting when they did not dare to go the nest (i.e before we moved away). Right at the end is the female in the other nest where excavation seems to be over and hopefully egg laying has begun. As they are a good month later than normal it will be interesting to see if they succesfully fledge young.
male Black Woodpecker (svartspett) and young
Slavonian Grebes (horndykker):
I also had a chance to check the second Ural Owl nest box and here the female was sat high so I reckon has newly hatched young but is around two weeks behind the other pair
It’s been a long while since my last post and it has been an
infuriating time but I’m sure I’ve written something similar many times before
at this time of the year. We have entered what a lull with sunny, dry weather
meaning no meaningful arrivals of birds and also difficult viewing conditions
especially at Årnestangen and Svellet where long distances and hear haze become
a real issue.
It is spring though and of course new birds are arriving but
it is a trickle and there is no volume of birds. Slavonian Grebes have made
their annual visit to Maridalsvannet, a visit that seems to come earlier and
earlier each year. Other species that have arrived early are Wryneck, Pied
Flycatcher, House Martin and Willow Warbler but raptor migration is still a
dream despite me trying from a variety of places – I have yet to see a Hen
Harrier let alone a Pallid..
I have just had two good days of guiding with Margie and
Greg from Wisconsin where we racked up 85 species with Wryneck, Lesser Spotted
Woodpecker, Ring Ouzel and Rough-legged Buzzard amongst them. Despite us starting
the day early it became quite hard going after around noon with the sunny
weather causing a real decline in activity. This sunny weather is forecast for
at least the next 10 days so I fear that the magical Svellet spring that I was
predicting may already be unlikely. The day we do get some rain though could
end up being one of those days though.
After guiding and drop off at the airport I continued north
for an evening in owl land. I twitched a Great White Egret on the way which I
actually managed to see from the motorway at 110km/h but did also stop to
admire a bit better.
Owls are a mixed picture. Ural Owls are giving me my best
ever joy with the species with two nest boxes that I have checked now being
occupied - this amounts to nearly 10% of the known Norwegian population!
Great Grey Owl though is a different story. I again visited
the two nests from last year and found no birds by the natural nest. By the
platform the female was still present but not on eggs. She is a strange one
though and gave herself away by bill clicking when I was still close to 50m
away and had not yet seen her. She is clearly territorial.
One person who knows a lot more about owls than me reckons
it is just still early in the season and that birds will nest and lay eggs whereas
another reckons the rodent population has collapsed. Time will tell but unless
they lay eggs in the next week or two it will be too late. In the Facebook
group Ugler i Norden there are updates from a platform that has a camera
watching over it. Here birds were first seen coming to the platform already 22
Feb and mating was observed from 7 April but the first, and so far only?, egg
was not laid until 2 months later on 21 April. This to me suggests a pair who
want to breed but are finding the food situation very borderline.
When in the forests a roadside female Capercaille was a
treat and I continue with my tree scratching whenever I see a suitable hole.
This time I did get a bird but and a Stock Dove was very unexpected given where
I was but why oh why couldn’t it have been a Tengmalm’s?
Six Slav Grebes (horndykker) on Maridalsvannet - an Oslo record count!
a single bird two days later may well have been in addition to the six
Two Ring Ouzels (ringtrost) - it always feel like a big relief when I see these in the spring as it is a species I never feel guaranteed to see in Oslo (but do)
female Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett) whilst guiding. This bird was making a lot of noise and was I reckon unpaired and getting desperate
my first Wryneck (vendehals) of the year and another good bird to see whilst guiding
a great looking old Black Woodpecker hole that I was sure would reveal a Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle) but instead and for me very surprisingly revealed a Stock Dove (skogdue). At least my tree scratching skills seem to be OK now.
roadside female Caper (storfugl)
Great White Egret (egretthegre)
Great Grey Owl (lappugle) - the same bird as in my previous owl post
Ural Owl (slagugle) - also the same bird as in my last owl post
but he she is with her mate (on the left). I have rarely encountered the male at a nest site and then they are normally much shyer than this bird seemed to be. He flew in after the female called and maybe felt he had a job to do
and Ural Owl nest #2. This box is old and the bottom starting to fall out perhaps suggesting that whoever put it up no longer checks it and I hope it survives the season
Maridalsvannet on Monday morning. Lovely weather but no many birds
a very long, straight road in Hedmark's deep forests
A pair of Ringed Plover (sandlo) is clinging on at Fornebu and here, and in the video, the male is creating nest scrapes for the females approval. The area they were doing it in was very close to paths and roads so I suspect they will struggle.
I finally managed to read the rings on the Mute Swan (knoppsvane) pair that is visiting Maridalsvannet this spring. Surprisingly they are not the same pair that bred last year which have established themselves at Fornebu now. This pair have been seen together since March 2025 when they were at Østensjøvannet but did not breed . The female P576 was ringed as an adult in 28km away in March 2017 so is a mature lady. She bred in 2022 with another mate but did not raise young whilst the male was ringed as a juvenile in November 2023 11km away and is so young that he wouldn't have been expected to breed before now
I have also seen Long-eared Owls (hornugle). They were a pair by an old Crow's nest but it did not appear that eggs had been laid yet
Yesterday saw me watching some big owls very well in Hedmark
and I will come back to them in a day or so but first an update from a good
days birding in Oslo.
Every spring the car needs its service and I use this carless
day to go out to the islands and today was that day. I only visited Gressholmen
but it was a good trip even though it is still way too early for anything that
exciting. However 3 Slavonian Grebes at close range were, as always, a treat
and they even displayed a bit. These, a Green Sandpiper and a Great Grey Shrike
which even sang a bit were all Oslo’s first records of the year..
After this a trip to Middelalderparken failed to reveal anything
rare among the few hundred gulls bathing there (although turnover is clearly
high so things can always turn up). A very pale mantled Lesser Black-back and a
yellow-legged and slightly dark mantled Herring Gull got some attention. I also
managed to fit in a trip to Østensjøvannet before the car was ready to be
picked up and thankfully didn’t need any additional work doing to it.
Slavonian Grebe (horndykker) pair
This video has lots of display and interaction between the birds
And this short extract shows some interesting display with what seems to be the unpaired bird trying its luck before being chased off. Note how it dives under water and then starts penguin displaying which gets a positive response from the other bird before its mate turns up
look at the reflection of the black head feathers
all 3 birds which were a pair and I believe a male
the pair of Smew (lappfiskand) still at Østensjøvannet
the yellow-legged Herring Gull that isn't a Yellow-legged Gull...
this pale backed Lesser-black Backed Gull (sildemåke) is ringed and its life history and other pictures suggest is an intermedius with some pigment problems (note that the primaries are not black) rather than a graellsii
Great Grey Shrike (varlser). It was intently staring at the ground in an area with lots of Water Vole holes but I did not see it catch one which would also have been a large prey item
I only discovered this Greylag Goose nest when it hissed at me as I almost stood on it
this young Herring Gull looks to have got some paint on it
there were 6 Ringed Plovers (sandlo) on Gressholmen which probably represent the entire Oslo breeding population
And a video of a drumming female Lesser Spotted Woodpecker from earlier in the week
Yesterday evening saw my fourth owling trip of the autumn
and my number of species encountered has now increased to three although the
target owl – Tengmalm’s – continues to elude me.
#3 was a Pygmy Owl which showed itself after sunset but before
it got dark as is usual for the species. It came to me and then proceeded to
hunt close to me when I also picked up a Three-toed Woodpecker which to my
surprise was active so late. A Tawny Owl made quite a lot of noise in the area
and twice I heard another noise which sounded owl like but I could not place to
species. It is still early days so I haven’t given up on pulling in a Tengmalm’s
or two in the coming couple of weeks.
A trip to Fornebu yesterday was with Yellow-browed Warbler
as a specific target. Not that one had been seen there but on Sunday there had been
a couple of inland records north of Oslo which had me hoping there were birds around.
There were good numbers of Chiffchaff including one that looked very tristisy
(but did not call) but I saw no wing bars nor heard any swiist calls.
Atempts to find more Jack Snipe have turned up blanks at
both localities I had them last week suggesting birds have been moving through
although birds should also turn up that will hang around at least until the
first cold period.
a Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) on almost the exact same branch that I have previously photographed Tengmalm's on
see it?
an autumnal Chiffchaff (gransanger)
flocks of Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgås) continue to head south of Oslo when the winds are favourable
this Slavonian Grebe (horndykker) has been at Fornebu for a long time now and is now in winter plumage after having arrived still in summer plumage
a flock of 5 Twite (bergirisk) in Maridalen were my first of the autumn and a quite good record of a species that is more more regular on spring passage
this juvenile Whooper Swan (sangsvane) at Fornebu is most likely the same bird that was first seen at Frognerkilen on 27th September. Normally young birds would still be with their parents and also still close to the nest site so for a lone juvenile to turn up away from a nest site so early is very unusual
