A week in Beitostølen and the nearby mountains has been a nice family holiday but very uneventful on both the bird and butterfly front. Chilly weather with only occasional sun which was nearly always accompanied by lots of wind did it for the butterflies and the complete lack of rodents (vole and lemmings) meant no food for raptors and a single Kestrel was the only one I saw!
I made an effort to see butterflies whenever the sun shone but numbers were generally low and a few species that I would normally see such as Mountain Fritillary (fjellperlemorvinge) and Silver-spotted Skipper (kommasmyger) were absent which I believe is just a timing issue and a visit in a couple of weeks would hopefully see them flying. I did see a single male Purple-edged Copper (purpurgullvinge) though and as this is my favourite species and one I barely see annually I have to be happy with that.
I did not make an attempt to see lekking Great Snipe and 2026 with a combination of either bad weather or watching the footie on the TV being my excuses.
Male Purple-edged Copper (purpurgullvinge)
Moorland Clouded Yellow (myrgulvinge)
And my only digital bird memories and these two short videos:
Stage 2 of summer hols 2026 is as usual in Beitostølen. We have escaped the hot weather but maybe a bit too much with rain and cloud threatening to put an end to buttering before it begins.
On the first morning I awoke at 4am and decided to head for Valdresflye. Dotterel, Shore Larks and Long-tailed Ducks were a treat but it is not a lemming year and I did not see a single raptor or Lt Skua although there has been the odd sighting of some wandering skuas in the last few weeks.
Female Dotterel (boltit). A few females were flying around «singing» perhaps in the hope of finding a male that was looking to nest again after a failed first attempt
Valdresflye looking west on 1 July at 05:21. Not much snow this summer
Shore Larks (fjellerke) were the most numerous passerine. This bird was collecting food for young whilst others were singing
Heading further north to one of my favourite buttering sites I was treated to some fantastic views but my hope of enough sun to have some butterfly action were dashed but I did find a few Alpine Argus (fjellblåvinge) sleeping on flowers which was perhaps even nicer than watching them flying around. This is one of my favourite butterflies and does not get the attention I think it deserves.
Views looking east over Øvre Sjodalsvatnet at 06:10
A sleeping Alpine Argus (fjellblåvinge). It was early (06:30), chilly (10C) and cloudy so no wonder it wasn’t flying
Yellow Wagtails (gulerle) seemed to be having a good breeding season with lots of alarm calling adults and birds with beaks full of food
There was some blue sky but any sunshine only lasted a few minutes
The only other butterfly I found sleeping were a few Small Heaths (engringvinge)
Birding surprise of the day was hearing a Quail (vaktel) singing from these fields at 900m alltitude
There are always lots of Sand Martins (sandsvale) at the butterfly site. I have never worked out where they nest but think it may be amongst the rocks that form the foundations for some old farm buildings
Our summer holidays have moved on to Beitostølen and the mountains of Valdres. I have not birded that much with butterflies getting slightly more of my attention. Despite some periods with hot, sunny weather and an abundance of flowers there has not been an abundance of butterflies although there is the usual nice selection of species.
I made a second trip to Vågåmo to look for Large Grizzled Skipper (alvesmyger) after drawing a blank on 7 June probably because they were not yet on the wing then. When I arrived it was windy and cloudy but the weather forecast promised me that the sun would shine and sure enough it eventually did and I found my target relatively easily in exactly the same area where I had seen normal Grizzled Skippers on 7 June. The Larger cousins were noticeably larger and one individual that I spent most time watching was the same size as Mazarine Blues (engblåvinge) and also flew in a manner more reminiscent of a Blue than a Skipper.
I had 4 individuals a couple of which were laying eggs in a small roadside area which doesn’t look that remarkable and hopefully the species is more numerous and widespread than the only handfull of records every year suggest.
Large Grizzled Skipper (alvesmyger)
The view looking south whilst waiting for the clouds to move and reveal the sun
The sun about to break through
A Mountain Burnet (fjellbloddråpesvermer) on an Alpine Catchfly (fjelltjæreblom)
Mountain Fritillary (fjellperlemorvinge)
Silver-spotted Skipper (kommasmyger)
Alpine Blue (fjellblåvinge)
Mountain Ringlet (fjellringvinge)
Spot the Fieldfare (gråtrost) nest? At 1389moh this must be one of the highest ever found
Snow Buntings (snøspurv) seem to becoming commoner on Valdresflye
We have had another long weekend and with good weather forecast
on Saturday I decided to head to the mountains on Friday evening. Normally I
would have had a boyz weekend in the mountains around this time but
circumstances have conspired to mean that wouldn’t happen this year so I rather
spur of the moment packed a sleeping bag in the car and headed off on my own.
In the end I was out for 27 hours and had 2 hours of sleep, 30 minutes of which
was a rather necessary power nap on the way home…
I surprised myself with how much energy I had although on
the way home I was counting down the kilometres.
After 3 and a half hours driving I started the birding at my
Great Snipe lek. After a blank last year I was hoping that was just a bit of
bad luck but there were no birds again this year and I now reckon the lek has
been abandoned. Why is more difficult to answer. It is close to a path and a
ski lift but has always been so and I cannot see any changes in the immediate
area that would affect the birds. The Beitostølen area has seen lots and lots
of building of cabins but the lek is above the cabins, perhaps though the nesting
females have always used areas that are now being developed and the general
area is no longer attractive for them. Alternatively the species itself is
suffering a significant decline due to factors in winter and passage areas and
this has causes some leks to disappear as the birds concentrate in core areas.
These are my maximum counts at the lek since I discovered it in 2012 and the
downward trend is obvious:
the (former) lek site
There were very few birds around the lek otherwise and the
vegetation was still very brown. There was little snow and only lakes above
1300m had ice but I think this is from a warm period 2-3 weeks ago but since
then it has been cold and windy so vegetation has not yet started developing.
I drove a long stretch of road during the night with
frequent stops hoping to find Great Snipe other places but did not succeed.
There was a lot of other life though. Between midnight and 1am I was surprised
by how much activity there was from other waders and grouse and also a Short-eared
Owl that perched in my headlights.
I had my hour and half sleep in the car and awoke at 3:30am to
lots of noise. All manner of birds were singing and displaying and over the
next 6 hours I feasted my eyes on Dotterels, Temminck’s Stints, Shore Larks,
Lapland and Snow Buntings, Bluethroats, Long-tailed Ducks, Scaup, Common and
Velvet Scoters and more. It is clearly not a rodent year in this area and
aswell as no Long-tailed Skuas I just had a single Rough-legged Buzzard,
another Short-eared Owl, 2 Kestrels, a Golden Eagle and a White-tailed Eagle.
After this as the sun warmed things up I concentrated on
butterfliesand I took a slight detour
to visit a site of the rare Large Grizzled Skipped (alvesmyger). I did at the
time think I had found them but my pictures show I saw, or at least the ones I
managed to photograph, were ordinary Grizzled Skippers which I didn’t realise occurred
there. Their large cousins do fly later and the end of June is the time most people
see them so I will have to try again later… I did have another good species but
none were new for me so I am a bit disappointed but will I hope have a
butterfly post soon.
Dotterel (boltit)
it was only displaying females that I saw but they were very active
Golden Eagle (kongeørn) and a mountain
I heard quite a few (although not lots of) Bluethroats (blåstrupe) but saw none at close range
I only had Lapland Buntings (lappspurv) at one site but 5! males were singing and song flighting within 100m of each other
a Ptarmigan (fjellrype) at 11pm
male Shore Lark (fjellerke)
and his mate
one of the two Short-eared Owls (jordugle) I saw
Snow Buntings (snøspurv) were unusually numerous this year
male
female
03:39 at my hotel
my now favoured raptor watch point was a bit disappointing this year with just 4 birds of 4 species: Golden Eagle, White-tailed Eagle, Rough-legged Buzzard and Kestrel
