Svellet feeling cosmic even if all else is dire

Cold nights, a cold northerly wind and blue skies continue to sing a lullaby to both birders and birds and dire is a word that frequently goes through my mind but we are now getting to the time of the spring when no matter what the weather there will be new birds coming although southerly winds and rain would still be much preferred.

 

Svellet is now getting ready to be very mighty. Water levels are perfect (3.77m today) and are rising very slowly, the light in the early morning is good (meaning there is a chance of identifying what is out there) and new waders are coming. Whilst the number of Curlew is now falling with under 50 today the number of Greenshank is rising with the first 2 on the 24^th, 7 on the 26^th, 14 on the 27^th and 25 today, the 28^th – the increase is nearly exponential! No Wood Sands yet but a single Whimbrel and two Bar-tailed Godwits including a brick red male were a sign of things to come. If things stay like this then I think the next two weeks could be cosmic!

A pleasant surprise was finding Kingfisher at a breeding site. This winter has been so long and cold that I think that many birds will have perished and even though we may have far fewer pairs this year than last I think the species is now established and won’t come and go as it used to do.

Svellet 28th April. Water levels are currently perfect but it won't need to rise very much before those mudflat between me and the water disappear.

Bar-tailed Godwits (lappspove) are, despite what the local rarities committee thinks, a proper scarce bird around Oslo and especially in spring. Brick red males are even rarer

3 Greenshank (gluttsnipe) at Maridalsvannet today. An early record here and with water levels currently, and surprisingly given the weather, very high there is no mud so I am not expecting many more waders this spring

male Kingfisher (isfugl) with fish. I saw him twice with a fish which he did not eat himself but flew with it towards the bank that is here hidden by bushes and where I assume there is a nest hole

this female Sparrowhawk (spurvehauk) was in a display flight and calling today in Maridalen. She was displaying above a Goshawk teritory but it did not result in any Goshawks flying up. Note the white undertail feathers which both Sparrowhawks and Goshawks fan out when displaying

my first Whimbrel (småspove) of the year. I had previously reported a bird on 14 April which is an extreme early date. Whilst I was happy with the ID it was distant and I didn't manage to get a photo. I therefore deleted this record after a couple of days as I am a firm believer in that very early (and late) records of migrants should be documented with photos or sound recordings. This applies particularly to species which can easily be confused with a commoner species and include in addition to Whimbrel species such as Tree Pipit, Wood and Common Sandpiper, Honey Buzzard, Hobby, Garden Warbler, Yellow Wagtail and Wryneck (sound records) 

To hang em or not to hang em?

 

Do you see anything hanging on that hook?

No?

That’s because today delivered big time 😊

 

Today really did feel like a make or break day for (my) Oslo bird year. If the forecast southerly winds, cloud and showers did not deliver on 9^th May then there would be no chance of this spring having a big day especially as the forecast for the next 10 days just looks to be sun. I had been thinking of playing away and seawatching at Brentetangen followed by Kurefjorden and then Dotterel searching but in the end decided, with Jack, to keep it local and stare at the fjord at Huk from sunrise. I have only done this once before but the efforts of Per Buertange a decade or so ago proved that there was potential in it. We got there at 0450 to see that there was a fairly low, and heavy, cloud base and a decent southerly wind blowing into our faces. Now we just had to sit down, keep warm and wait to find out what the bird gods had in store for us.

the view at 05:27

For the first hour or so I was thinking that I would be hanging my bins on that hook as apart from a large flock of Common Scoter resting on the sea and a Bar-tailed Godwit (Oslo #157) that had been roosting on the rocks when we arrived there was really no sign of any movement. But then things did move. First Jack picked up a skua and a dark phase Arctic (Oslo #158) passed at relatively close range. Then we heard a Greenshank calling above us and in our attempts to find it (there were 13 of them) we saw a large flock of Red-throated Divers (60) and then over the course of the next couple of hours we had a numbers of other flocks and ended up totalling 323 birds which absolutely blasts away any previous counts from south eastern Norway. We also had migrating flocks of Whimbrel which totalled 53, a huge flock of 200 Golden Plover which flew north before turning around, 70 Velvet Scoters, 3 Guillemots and an Arctic Tern (Oslo #159). Rarest though was a flyover Red-throated Pipit (Oslo #160) which we identified on call although our views did confirm it was a pipit.. and a Great Northern Diver (Oslo #161) which is an Oslo tick tick for me, #251.

One disappointing and really strange feature of the morning was the complete lack of passerine migration with not a single Yellow Wag or Wheatear for example.

 

We packed our bags after 5 hours and then headed to Maridalen. Here it was raining and with the low cloud expectations were not low but there was little to see although a singing Icterine Warbler (Oslo #162) and Hobby (Oslo #163) heading north were notable and new for the year.

There were 30 or so Swallows feeding over the lake so we thought Østensjøvannet could be a good call for hirundines and maybe terns or Little Gulls. There were a few Swallows and House Martins but 3 Swifts (Oslo #164) were the best we could conjure up.

So I had 8 Oslo year ticks today and I am now approaching the number of species I feel are guaranteed so if I am to have a record year I need a rush of scarce and rare birds.

Arctic Skua (tyvjo) heading towards us with Common Terns (makrellterne) behind

as close as it got and despite the gloom these are I think my best pics of the species close to Oslo

60 odd Red-throated Divers (smålom) @06.59

and part of an even larger flock @08.56. The flocks were flying high and didn't seem to be sure of where to go

some of the 400+ Common Scoter (svartand) that were offshore

and ca.200 Golden Plover (heilo) that first flew north and then turned and went back south

there were good numbers of Common Terns (makrellterne) and amongst them at least this one Arctic (rødnebbterne)

some of the 70 Velvet Scoter (sjøorre) we saw

a couple of the 53 Whimbrel (småspove) we saw stopped for a rest and here this one looks tiny next to a Great Black-backed Gull (svartbak)

an early singing Icterine Warbler (gulsanger) in Maridalen

and the first Hobby (lerkefalk) of the year

Tomorrow or bust

It is dire at the moment and if things don’t change tomorrow when the weather forecast looks very good then I think I may just hang up my binoculars for the spring.

The weather the last two days has been really good to be out birding but there just hasn’t been anything on the move. It has not helped that water levels in Nordre Øyeren have risen really fast such that there are no mud banks left and therefore hardly any waders or dabbling ducks remain. Maridalen is also equally quiet although four Whimbrel feeding on a field today was a welcome sight.

In Maridalen employees of the water company were on their annual boat trip to remove eggs from geese eggs. This is a practice that is supposed to help reduce organic pollution of the drinking water but is a completely futile exercise. Today whilst it looked like they removed eggs from a handful of Greylag and Canada Geese nests there was a flock of 170 Pink-feet resting on the lake and a similar number of gulls many of whom have probably come from the recycling plant and are now washing themselves in the drinking water. Most worrying for me though was that I think they have taken the eggs from the swan nest. The swans were definitely not on the lake and I later found a (the) pair of Whoopers feeding on a field away from the lake. Edit: at 1915 the Whoopers were back on the nest..

Highlights have come in the form of Blue-headed Wagtail(s) and really good views of a stoat at Årnestangen.

a classic male Blue-headed (yellow) Wagtail ssp flava (sørlig gulerle) at Årnestangen. This was in exactly the same spot as last years bird and is, I assume, the same

same bird

a second bird. This one has a much more reduced sub ocular patch but I believe still ticks the boxes for a (near) pure flava although in southern Norway there are probably more intergrades with thunbergi than pure flava

the first bird with his mate

the dark necklace suggests this is a thunbergi. She seems to lack any yellow in her plumage which is odd for any race though

the curious stoat (røyskatt). It is a long time since I have seen one so this was a real pleasure

the dark tip to the tail which seperates it from weasel is very obvious from behind

a male I believe

a Green-veined White (rapssommerfugl)

keeping the drinking water clean (apparantly) by removing geese eggs

at the same time 170 resting Pink-feet are undoubtedly lightening the load

two of four Whimbrel (småspove) on the deck in the Dale

and here is a video of the male Three-toed Woodpecker from 30 April when he was on his own (before my last sighting on 2 May)

Maridalen - wader hotspot!

Maridalsvannet is turning into a wader paradise at the moment. The low water levels at just the right time are proving very attractive and we haven’t even had a good wader day with rain and birds dropping out of the sky although tomorrow’s weather forecast suggests we may not have to wait long.

This weekend there have been 9 species on the lake: Lapwing, Little Ringed Plover, Whimbrel, Snipe, Greenshank, Redshank and Common, Wood and Green Sandpipers. Two pairs of Little Ringed Plovers have established themselves and are excavating nest scrapes although have not laid eggs yet. Four pairs of Lapwings seem to be nesting with 3 nests saved by the farmer and a fourth new nest that he may not have noticed but either way the female seems to have made a new nest on the recently ploughed field. Snipe, Common Sandpiper and Green Sandpiper are all displaying and will breed around the lake whilst the Whimbrel, Greenshank, Redshank and Wood Sandpipers are all migrants.

Tomorrow’s rain is really getting me excited and I hope that we have more rain before the end of the month (although preferably not on 12-15 May when I am away). I hope that we will get Black-tailed Godwit, Temminck’s Stint, Spotted Redshank, Red-necked Phalarope, Great Snipe, Broad-billed Sandpiper, Little Gull and Black Tern but I think I’ll be very happy with a Dunlin.

I visited Nordre Øyeren and the not so mighty Svellet today. Despite water levels being ideal the mudflats are still bone dry and the number of birds just a small fraction of what they have been in previous years.  There were more birds than in Maridalen with Greenshank heading the list but there were only 7 species so Maridalen can definitely claim to be better for waders than Svellet right now!

4 of 5 Whimbrels (småspove) in Maridalen today

Whimbrel, Little Ringed Plover (dverglo) and Common Sandpiper (strandsnipe)

Greenshank (gluttsnipe)

the second pair of LRPs excavating a nest scrapeas past of the "scraping display" as mentioned in BWP

The 4 Lapwing (vipe) nests in Maridalen

Greenshank and Redshank (rødstilk) in Maridalen. Redshank is far scarcer here

the Redshank

Greenshank, Common Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper (grønnstilk), Common Gull (fiskemåke) and Goldeneye (kvinand)

Whimbrel

Whinchat (buskskvett) and Wheatear (steinskvett)

my first Whitethroat (tornsanger) of the year

and my second Wryneck (vendehals) and first in Maridalen

Maridalsvannet full of birds

Svellet, with large sandbanks instead of mudflats