Fru Gressholmen has clearly chosen the treat them mean, keep them keen strategy but now I have chosen to follow the absence makes the heart grow fonder strategy and see if she will show me some kindness when I next give her some loving.
We have 4 days of sun now so I feel can ignore her and shift my focus away from waders and #Oslo2024 to butterflies and breeding raptors, but only until Monday…when I will undoubtedly be rejected and wet but stronger for it😇
The Honey Buzzards continue to incubate and will not be finished for about another 10 days. At the same time Goshawk young have already left the nest - why would a species that migrates to equatorial Africa nest so late whilst one that is a resident species breed so early? I have also finally found the Hobby nest which had at least one large although still downy young and also found a Sparrowhawk nest (my first ever!).
Butterflies have been dominated by hairstreaks with all three of the Norwegian autumn species showing very well nectaring which for Purple is the first time I have seen this. I had 3 Purple and 4 Brown at Fornebu today.
White-letter Hairstreak (almestjertvinge) - my second nectaring individual
my first Brown Hairstreak (slåpetornstjertvinge) of the year and my earliest ver by 10 days. Even though it can only be a day or two old it has already survived a bird attack
another freah individual
and another
a Purple Hairstreak (eikestjertvinge) - the first time I have seen one nectaring. Unfortunately none of the ones I saw opened their wings
this individual has been attacked by a bird and lost its tails
Swallowtail (svalestjert)
Brimstone (sitronsomerfugl)
Comma (hvit-C)
not often Ringlets (gullringvinge) show their upperside
my firt, and a very early, Brambling (bjørkefink) of the year
and this juvenile Wood Sandpiper (grønnstilk) is the first migrating juvenile wader I have noted
So, I know I set my expectations (or should that be
ambitions) for 1st May very high but even with low ambitions the
early start in Maridalen could not be considered a success. I was there by 05:40
which was later than I had planned but there was just nothing moving in the air
or anything new on the lake except for a small increase in the number of Tufted
Ducks and a new pair of Mute Swans. There was a very weak wind from the north
but it was relatively warm (7C when I drove in and reaching over 20C by the
late afternoon). It was almost impossible to understand why there was so little
to see. After an hour I was ready to move on, either to Svellet or even perhaps
just go home and have breakfast.
But then..
Bjørn Olav had found a singing! Hoopoe at Fornebu. I was
down there in a flash and actually proved to be the twitchiest person out there
only to find out that Bjørn hadn’t seen it for 20 minutes. I went looking
though and 5 minutes later refound it and most importantly heard it. It
is years (decades?) since I have heard one sing and what struck me most is how
similar it is to the song of Tengmalm’s Owl. If I had just heard it early in
the morning then I think I would have started out looking for a small owl rather
than an exotic guest. One can wonder if it was the same bird seen here last
year. It is also lacking a tail which may mean it is more likely to hang
around.
I foolishly decided to leave Fornebu after an hour believing
that Maridalen would have now warmed up only to find out that I missed a Great
White Egret… But if Fornebu could attract such good bird surely there was something
to be found in Maridalen. Unfortunately not, and you may say unbelievably so,
although Wood Sandpiper was new, Oslo #149, following a Common Tern, #148, that
I got after leaving Fornebu.
The video has it singing and note how it throws its head forward
Time now for the first instalment of my 24 hour birding
and butterflying trip to the mountains and forests north of Oslo last week. The
spur of the moment trip was spurred by the seemingly easy chance of seeing
displaying Broad-billed Sandpipers accompanied by warm, sunny weather. I have
seen quite a few BBS on passage and have seen them twice on their breeding
grounds including once very closely but I have never seen or heard them displaying
and it was almost bucket list desire. They normally breed on quite large and inaccessible
bogs but evidence I had been sent to my phone suggested that the birds Per
Christian had seen was anything but inaccessible. The location was a marsh at
over 1100m and consequently way above the treeline which was not how I have
pictured the preferred habitat for this species. The area is known to hold a
number of other birds including Red-necked Phalaropes and my plan was to spend
the night and experience lots of activity very early in the morning. I arrived
in the early evening though and with it never getting truly dark I was able to
bird straight away and to be honest hit the jackpot before bedtime.
The BBS did not quite live up to my expectations but
I had it in its display flight on a number of occasions including low over my
head but I never got to see it properly on the ground. Every time it finished a
display flight it would plummet down into the marsh only about 20m from where I
stood but then it would just vanish. Only once did I glimpse it on the ground
and I think it was living up to its Norwegian name of Mountain Marsh Runner (fjellmyrløper).
This video has a bit of its display flight including song.
Broad-billed Sandpiper (fjellmyrløper) in display flight
flight shots aren't getting any easier
Red-necked Phalaropes showed a lot better although
it took me a long time to see them closely although they then performed very
well. Although I think some birds had settled down to nest there was a group of
females flying around, calling and seemingly looking for unpaired males.
female Red-necked Phalaropes (svømmesnipe)
at sunrise
do you see it?
Lapland Buntings were also present and 4 singing
males makes this one of the best localities in southern Norway of a species that
is declining fast. A lack of rodents meant that a single Kestrel was the ONLY
raptor or owl I saw.
male Lapland Bunting (lappspurv)
male Willow Grouse (lirype) in a place where the white feathers really help it blend in
Wood Sandpiper (grønnstilk)
male Grey-headed (Yellow) Wagtail
even this bird has a hint of a white supercilium
trying to be arty
on a lake on the tree line at 965m a pair of Slavonian Grebes showed well
