Guess who’s back? - and not a butterfly in sight! 😊
Autumn is really upon us and the cereal fields in Maridalen
are being harvested as we speak. This always causes the first flocks of Meadow
Pipits to appear and there is also a big flock of Greylag Geese so it is nice
and birdy. A fine 1st year male Bluethroat was today’s bird of the
day but not quite as good as a Kingfisher on Wednesday and there are also good
numbers of Whinchats, Nutcrackers flying back and forth from the city where
they are collecting Hazel nuts and raptors to see including Honey Buzzards and
Hobbies.
Yesterday I needed to go to the airport to pick someone up
so made a day of it with a stop at Svellet and then a look for the Taiga Bean
Geese which have already been seen. I failed to find the geese and with no GPS
tags still functioning it has become a bit more hit and miss especially in the autumn
when they do not use the river. I did find feathers and droppings at a favoured
loafing site so can personally confirm their return
Svellet gave me my first Little Stint and Curlew Sandpiper
of the year but I am till missing three common waders for my year list – Grey Plover,
Sanderling and Great Snipe – and fear there is a real risk they remain as
absentees.
Maridalen has had a good autumn for waders and that is despite there being nearly no mud showing due to high water levels. Today 2 Ruff were on an island and over the last couple of weeks I have had flyover Curlew, Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Redshank and Greenshank aswell as Common Sandpipers along the rocky shore. The Lapwings look to have moved on sometime in July though and I saw no evidence that the two late broods produced any fledged young.
If my photos are looking even worse than usual then it is because
the bazooka has now gone into complete lock down and I cannot get any life out
of it so all pictures are with the superzoom which itself is suffering with
age.
Bluethroat (blåstrupe) in Maridalen. The colourful throat shows it to be a male
and the wing bar shows it to be a bird of the year
Whinchat (buskskvett) and Meadow Pipit (heipiplerke) very typical birds for the end of August
although this Whitethroat (tornsanger) is getting a bit late
spot the Kingfisher (isfugl)?
a bit easier here
some of the Greylag Geese (grågås) and a Whooper Swan (sangsvane)
12 Curlew (storspove) migrating over Maridalsvannet earlier in the month
and two Greenshank (gluttsnipe) that flew around looking for somewhere to land
A video of a Mink eating a Crayfish and you can see the remains of many others. Otters have recently been seen in Maridalen and if they establish themselves then they will hopefully result in a reduction in Mink numbers
1 May is a day of very high, though rarely met,
expectations. With spring this year being so early Jack and I had decided that
May 1st would be the new May 9th and positioned ourselves expectantly at Huk
from 05:15 but were to be disappointed. Despite southerly winds and some cloud
cover there was basically zero viz mig to observe. No Common Scoters and just a
single diver for example were a sure sign of lack of movement. Three female
Long-tailed Duck that suddenly dropped in were there a real surprise but when a
bank of fog rolled in we decided it was time to head to Svellet.
1 May at Svellet is guaranteed to be good right? Water
levels are still falling slowly and it looks mighty and I am hoping
for something to match my LesserYellowlegs in 2020. But the waders don’t seem to think so and it was a
major disappointment. A flyover Great White Egret would just a few years ago
been a major highlight but these days is nearly old hat😉.
Great White Egret (egretthegre) flying over Svellet. This bird is missing its inner primary on both wings which may make it possible to individually identify if it turns up at other locations. The bird I saw a week ago did not have these missing although I guess they could have been lost since then
Svellet on 29 April all mud and shallow water but hardly a wader, yet...
the water level is falling more slowly but has fallen an additional 10cm in the last two days.
Hellesjøvannet offered my first Hobby of the year, a
White-tailed Eagle and at least 6 Marsh Harriers with a surprise Slavonian
Grebe but no booming Bitteren or more exciting raptors.
A twitch provided me with my best bird of the last few days
when I drove to Moss to enjoy a very confiding 1st summer female Red-footed
Falcon. She has taken up residence on a golf course and spent most of her time
on the fairways eating worms and beetles. She would sometimes fly down from a
perch to grab something but other times would run around like a thrush seeming
to find things by hearing them. Only once did she fly around grabbing insects
in the air.
spot the falcon?
from when it was flying around. If I got a shot like this in Maridalen one day I could be over the moon
catching small flying insects
is clearly moulting its tail feathers and has some missing and also feathers of different generations
eating a worm
down the hatch
A rare trip to Kurefjorden was rather disappointing with few
very waders.
a Woodcock (rugde) nest in Maridalen that was deserted due to forestry work just metres away which amazingly enough is allowed to continue throughout the year
I had a quick visit to Maridalen yesterday in light rain and
it gave me a new species for the Dale for the year and also good views of a
scarce species.
The new species was Common Rosefinch. There used to be a few
breeding pairs but it has become very scarce in the last few years and you are
more likely to hear a Whinchat mimicking a Rosefinch than the actual bird. When
I heard a short burst of Rosefinch song from an area where a Whinchat has been
singing this week I was therefore expecting it to be mimicry but had to check
it out to be certain. To my surprise it was actually the real deal that was
singing although it was a brown, 2cy male. Whilst watching this bird I then
heard a Cuckoo cuckooing not too distantly and was able to get close enough to
see it. I cannot actually remember seeing a singing Cuckoo in the Dale so this
was a cool experience (although in the mountains over the next few days we
should see and hear many).
a male Cuckoo (gjøk) in the rain
male Common Rosefinch (rosenfink). A male because it was singing and a 2cy because it is brown (males do not become red until their 3rd year)
and a male Common Whitethroat (tornsanger) that is still unmated. This year is a good one for the species in the Dale with a number of singing males
When it is mid May and I go a whole week without posting
then I think you already understand that I am going to say it has been dire.
The hot, sunny weather continues and there just seem to be
few birds. We have just a looong weekend with Friday being Norway’s national
day and yesterday was a holiday in celebration of Pentecost (don’t ask me what
that is…). We spent 3 days at the cabin at Hulvik which I had expected to
provide loads of good birds but it didn’t for once. A nocturnal trip produced
zero Nightjars or other interesting nocturnal birds (although it was a tad early
in the spring there should have been more) and a sea gaze from before 5am in
what were not bad conditions produced a single Red-throated Diver
migrating north and that was it!!!!
I have added to my Oslo list with Reed Warbler #171,
Redstart #172 and Common Rosefinch #173.
Rain that is forecast on Thursday night and Friday morning
will if the bird gods are feeling generous produce floods of marsh terns, Little
Gulls and hirundines….
3cy+ male Common Rosefinch (rosenfink)
finally Redstart (rødstjert)
male Red-backed Shrike (tornskate) in Maridalen
he had attracted a female and was dancing for her
male Whitethroat (tornsanger)
Hobby (lerkefalk) today
a Sparrowhawk (spurvehauk) trying to chase the Hobby away
an unexpected meeting with a Beaver in the middle of the day today
and even more unexpected was getting close to a fox that was feeding on a long dead Moose carcass in a river
