The big lull

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

Mid April and expectations are rising

It is the middle of April and the next six weeks are the most exciting of the year (in the Oslo area at least). In addition to many new birds for the year there are also new birding sites to reacquaint myself with and I have now competed my first walk to the end of Årnestangen for the year as well as my first grilling of the mighty Svellet.

Conditions today at Svellet were magical and I have a small but growing hope that this will be one of those Svellet springs that are entered into the history books, or at least get remembered on this blog. Today the water level (3.61m) was perfect and there were enormous areas of shallow water and wet mud. 2000 Teal and 234 Curlew were both good counts and the quality came in the form of a male Garganey, a Bar-tailed Godwit plus two very early Ruff and a Redshank. The weather over the coming weeks will be key to whether conditions remain perfect and we need just enough rain such that the mud doesn’t dry up but not too much rain (or sun that causes lots of melt water to flow down the river) such that water levels do not rise too quickly. I hope every birder in Oslo and Akershus is praying to the Birds Gods.

Svellet from the eastern side. Even though I describe conditions as perfect the distances are very long and a scope is essential and even then not always enough to identify all the birds out there

and some of the Teal (krikkand) and also the Garganey (knekkand). As I said they are a long way away

Årnestangen has also delivered with another very early wader in the form of a Whimbrel, an early Swallow and a good selection of raptors including a Red Kite which flew low over my head without me seeing it but that I then caught up with in the scope at about 6km range…

Taiga Bean Goose and Greylags at Årnestangen today. This is a relatively late bird as were the 4 Tundra Beans I saw yesterday

the bird was close to the Geylags in size and had a long slender neck and long thin bill with thin lower mandible.

I had a very enjoyable and successful morning guiding Barbara from Canada on Monday and we saw 60 species including Jack Snipe, Black and Red-throated Divers, Lesser Spotted and Black Woodpeckers. And if you don’t believe my description then read Barbara’s 😊

one of three Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin) at Fornebu. This bird has been regularly feeding in the open and to me looks very much like a Broad-billed Sandpiper...

and a more expected shot of a Jack

and a Common Snipe (enkeltbekkasin)

male Kestrel (tårnfalk) in Maridalen

and a Mistle Thrush (duetrost) in The Dale

Little Ringed Plover (dverglo) are back at Fornebu and will hopefully breed again this year

and Ringed Plovers (sandlo) are also back at last years nest site although they have less and less space available to them

Stock Dove (skogdue)

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

A week of two halves

I had company today and we gingerly walked over the frozen Maridalsvannet

This week has been a week of two halves and the second half has felt far more spring like than the first and that despite it being much colder now.

Up until Wednesday morning it was foggy and although temperatures were above zero there was very little avian activity. From Wednesday onwards though it has been sunny, little wind and despite temperatures being down to -8C there has been loads of activity. Great Spotted and Black Woodpeckers are now drumming and calling all over the place (I had not registered a Black this year before Wednesday and today I had three together making loads of noise). Yellowhammers, Bullfinches, Treecreepers and various tits are singing and Goshawks are displaying. Even Goldcrests were chasing each other around and making lots of noise today although were not yet singing. I have also had my first Stock Doves of the year – a species that seems to arrive earlier and earlier but my first Starling and Moorhen were probably overwintering birds.

Crossbills which have been singing for a long time are now nest building and will have young in less than a month!

The Hawk Owl survives although is still moving around a lot without being seen to catch anything.

female Common Crossbill (grankorsnebb) collecting bark for the nest

collecting moss

and collecting grass

the female does all the work whilst the male just holds watch, sings a bit and mates when when he gets the chance. This is the male and he looks very much like a female which is because he is probably not even year old yet - born in early spring 2024 and will only get the brick red plumage after his next moult

a new species for the year was this very distant Great Grey Shrike (varsler)

Stock Dove (skogdue) which return directly to their breeding sites

Black Woodpecker (svartspett) - the extensive red on the crown shows this is a male

whilst this bird visiting a nest hole used for the last couple of years is a female

Hawk Owl. Whenever it is sunny then (s)he always chooses to perch high up

a Redpoll (gråsisik) and thankfully I can leave it there and not give myself a headache working out if it is a Lesser or a Common due to their now subspecies status. Redpolls have been very scarce this winter but there has been a noticeable increase this week although just single birds or small groups