Taking stock at home

Maridalsvannet on the morning of 20th May

In Oslo it seems as though migration has come to end with rain and southerly winds causing absolutely nothing exciting to turn up. Svellet also still has mud but without there being a single wader reported this morning. Even though the period of quantity of passage birds has passed we are definitely entering the highest quality time and yesterday a stonking male Black-headed Bunting was pulled out of a mist nest in the garden of a twitcher who I had no idea had a ringers licence.

Almost all breeding migrants have now turned up with the first Rosefinches, Red-backed Shrikes, Marsh Warblers and Nightjars being reported now even if I have yet to see any of them yet.

My focus has now turned to locating breeding birds both for my own benefit and also a busy period of guiding that I have coming up. Hazel Grouse has been a real nightmare this spring. A long walk on 17 May with Mrs OB and The Beast took me past 8 or 9 territories where I have previously had the species but with not a single bird being found. Today I checked 3 territories in another area including “my pair” and did finally pull a bird out of the hat which I feel confident of being able to find again. Three-toed Woodpecker has also been a headache this year so a female that gave herself away tapping on a tree was a relief but she flew off without me being able to track her to a nest.

The two pairs of Black Woodpeckers continue to entertain with the one pair still applying the finishing interior design touches to their property and the other pair working hard to fill three noisy mouths with food. In this video you can see the male using over a minute and a half to feed them individually with food he is clearly regurgitating into his bill.

the male Black Woodpecker (svartspett) that is still putting the finishing touches to his property

and two of the three young in the other nest which is at a far more expected stage

Hobby (lerkefalk) today. I have only seen a single bird and heard no calling so do not believe a pair has returned yet

Black-throated Divers (storlom)

I watched a Wood Warbler (bøksanger) with nesting material in its beak fly onto the ground here. Can you spot the nest?

here it is and is of a similar construction to Willow Warbler (løvsanger) and Chiffchaff (gransanger) nests I have previously found

On the Lapwing front there are still two birds incubating and seemingly three broods of 4,1 and 1. With the two broods of single young the siblings were lost very early on but the remaining young are now half grown and will hopefully make it. The brood of 4 is a few days younger but the parents have done very well to still have all four alive.

Back to Svellet

The Beast turns 8 in September which coincidentally means that according to all that dog/human year malarkey he and I are the same age (at least for now). I guess there have been a few thousand morning walks he has taken me on over the years and we have seen a few interesting birds in the area where we live with Pine Grosbeak probably being the best. Yesterday morning though we added a new species with a Wood Warbler singing in the local wood. Although the oak dominated wood may be suitable as a breeding locality I am sure the bird was a migrant. As such I think it is only the second time I have come across a singing spring migrant (not that I have come across any non singing ones either). And that got me thinking - why do I hear many singing migrant Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers but not Wood Warblers? Is it because Wood Warblers don’t often sing on migration or is it just because there are so many, many more Chiffs and Willies that you are so much more likely to encounter one of them?

 

Svellet was the subject of my attention yesterday and whilst water levels have only risen by 2cm since yesterday and 4cm since Monday there was a considerable reduction in the number of birds. And I was able to watch that number more than half when a young Peregrine had a go at some Wood Sandpipers which of course all flew off but also never returned.

Over the past couple of weeks I have seen the waders frequently flying around due to a raptor (most often unseen) but always landing again but what I observed today clearly shows that migration awaits and the birds clearly have an unavoidable urge to keep heading north.

We have a couple of days of rain ahead of us and also southerly winds after aperiod of cold northerly winds so we may still have some mighty experiences at Svellet but it will definitely be a question of quality rather than quantity now.

I also walked out to the end of Årnestangen which was a rather quiet affair on the bird front with not a single waders at the tip but there were two butterfly surprises with my first Swallowtail and Painted Lady of the year which were not what I expected on a quite cloudy and not that warm day.

Svellet from the east

and from west looking north 13 May 2026

and looking south

and Årnestangen

In Maridalen the Lapwings continue to surprise positively with 3 broods seen - 4 and 1 were on open ground and fully accounted for but another single youngster popped out of long grass and there could definitely, and hopefully, have been more there. Two females are also on new nests and a pair were displaying so there may be yet another nest to come. They all still have to survive more farmer activity and foxes and crows but I think we are in a surprisingly good place.

my first Painted Lady (tistelsommerfugl) of the year. A faded but otherwise undamaged individual

whereas the colours of my first Swallowtail were perfect it had clearly already been attacked by birds and had chunks missing from the back of its wings

Loads of birds!

I frequently am accused of being overly optimistic in my bird forecasts and expectations but I see that my predictions in my last post for Svellet were actually very pessimistic. The wader fest is far from over as the water levels have stopped climbing (at least for now) and there clearly is enough food available as wader numbers which fell on Wednesday rose sharply yesterday (when I did not visit) and were still high today. Viewing conditions are far from great which is par for the course there but today I was able to pick out a Temminck’s Stint although another one on nearby Merkja was much easier to view (as were two yesterday evening which I twitched at Fornebu).

Yesterday gave me a non-wader mass bird event and a quite unique one at that. Very large numbers of Willow Warblers have been seen crossing the fjord from Nesodden and they have been then concentrating at Østensjøvannet. It would appear that frost nights to the north (temperatures were under zero on Tuesday evening as we drove home form owling) are stopping the nocturnal migration of the Willow Warblers and they seem to be stopping their northward journey in the Oslo area and then continuing northwards during the day and moving whilst also searching for food. There is not an overabundance of insects yet in Oslo but Østensjøvannet clearly has good numbers. There were over 1000 Willow Warblers as I walked around the lake and every tree and bush was dripping with them. They were also feeding in long grass, on the short grass of playing fields, on a newly ploughed field, on the paths and many were sallying after insects in the manner of a flycatcher from any available perch including fence wires. It truly was an amazing experience both visually and orally as birds were also singing everywhere. There were not many other species that had clearly arrived with the WWs except for Blackcaps which were more common that normal but not in exceptional numbers. That there were lots of insects to eat though was shown by House Sparrows that were flycatching and Bramblings taking insects alongside the WWs in bushes.

This video gives some idea of how it was but does not pay the experience the justice it deserves:

Svellet 8th May as viewed from the eastern shore

and viewed from the west - still lots of mud and shallow water which clearly has more food than I expected after the water levels rose so quickly

A really heart warming sight at Østensjøvannet are the Black-headed Gulls (hettemåke) that are nesting again. There are three small colonies (including this one) and scattered single nests around the lake and the total number of nests may not be much more than 50 but this is in stark contrast to last years dire situation but also the 2000 odd pairs that used to breed here. Fingers crossed that there are lots of fledged young in a month or two. There is also a good colony at Sognsvann - it would appear that the two most visited lakes for recreational use are attractive to both humans and gulls - but I have yet to notice any nesting on the fjord so I fear that overall things are not good for the species

yesterday and today I could not see a single young Lapwing (vipe) in Maridalen but there is a new nest although as this field was only ploughed on Sunday I am not sure whether she is incubating or just in the egg laying phase

and the Mute Swans (knoppsvane) are now finished with nest building and are on the nest although I do not know whether any eggs have been layed yet

Long weekend cabin stay

 We are spending a long weekend at the cabin south of Oslo where we are kucky enough to be once or twice every year and from where I can engage in sea gazing from the terrace. The view is rather limited but I do have access to fresh coffee, a toilet and warmth and shelter should I need it😊. A stay at around the same time in 2021 was very succesful and of course I hoped for a repeat this year. I awoke at 04:30 this morning to find the sea covered in fog and duly went back to sleep. Awaking again at 06:45 revealed it had lifted and I set up the scope and gazed. There was precious all moving despite southerly winds and it wasn’t until 10:45 (by which time everyone else had woken up and we had eaten breakfast) that a decent bird flew by, in the form of 3 Scaup and then at 11 a skua turned up. It turned out to be an Arctic rather than the hoped for Pomarine but any skua in these parts is worth a letter home. Here is my eBird list from the terrace this morning.

Jr and I went for a nightime drive yesterday but couldn’t turn up any Nightjars (probably still too early) although Woodcock and a Tawny Owl flying over the road were good value.

The view from the terrace at 0822 as the boat from Kiel entere the inner Oslo fjord

The houses on the other side are a good 3km away and the Arctic Skua (tyvjo) is probably half way out

Just about identifiable

The area has a healthy population of Wood Warblers (bøksanger)

Marsh Tits (løvmeis) also occur 

A risky trip to England

 A first visit to England for nearly three years (thanks Covid!) was much needed and very enjoyable but made me a bit nervous as it would mean I was away from my beloved Dale during perhaps the most exciting period of the year. I did not seem to miss much but as Halvard was also away there was not much coverage. However, on landing on Sunday afternoon my phone pinged with a message of a Med Gull in the Dale. It took me longer than wanted to get there (a Beast had to picked up from a kennel and a drive thru McDonalds proved to be anything other than fast food) but after finally getting up into the Dale I located it in my scope together with a large flock of Common Gulls just seconds before everything in the area flew up and the gulls then proceeded to fly around very high up for the next hour and I never saw the bird again…)

Whilst hoping that the gulls would land again I had a great experience involving a Wood Pigeon and a cast of predators. I saw a small group of Wood Pigeons flying over the lake with a Goshawk in pursuit. The hawk picked out one of the birds and stooped at it. I managed to take pictures but in the process lost sight of the birds. A minute or so later the call of Hooded Crows drew my attention to the Goshawk flying low over the water quite  long way away and the Pigeon was flapping in the water. A number of Hooded Crows came to mob Goshawk who gave up on its dinner and headed over the water straight towards me. After the hawk disappeared the Wood Pigeon tried to flap its way towards land but it was a long way and then a Great Black-backed Gull showed an interest in it. They normally swallow their prey whole but that wouldn’t be the case here and it just started stabbing at the pigeon and soon there were feathers all over the water and the bird was no long flapping. I couldn’t really see how much the gull was getting to eat but then an Osprey! took an interest in what was going on and dived down possibly to see if there was a fish for it to eat but it then started mobbing the gull which turned the tables before the Osprey again chased the gull. Quite a scene!

A visit on Monday revealed a new arrival of Wood Sandpipers and Greenshank showing that wader passage is far from over (and water levels continue to fall) and my first Swift, Garden Warbler and Wood Warbler of the year also all showed. There is still a pair of Little Ringed Plovers and they were engaged in their nest scraping display whereby the male was calling and scraping a nest and the female then came to investigate it whilst he stood over her. He clearly then wanted to mate and although she resisted at first she then allowed him to approach before an overflying Sparrowhawk seemed to put them both out of the mood.

Goshawk (hønsehauk) chasing Wood Pigeon (ringdue)

This video has the full sequence of events:

And a sequence of shots showing the Little Ringed Plovers (dverglo) where the male has made a nest scrape which the female comes to inspect

The bay at Kirkeby is attracting lots of birds

There are now 5! Lapwing (vipe) nests at Skjerven and I think there is an additional pair that have not nested yet

Great Black-backed Gull (svartbak) chasing Osprey (fiskeørn)

the tables are about to turn

and have turned now

Greenshank (gluttsnipe), Wood Sandpiper (grønnstilk) and Lapwing (vipe)

male Whinchat (buskskvett)

Whinchat and female Redstart (rødstjert)

Wood Warbler (bøksanger)

there are now some more butterflies and this tiny Grizzled Skipper (bakkesmyger) was only my third in Oslo

this Comma (hvit C) was really large and I didn't work out at first what it was

Crane (trane) - it looks like the Maridalen pair has failed in its breeding attempt yet again

Greenshank (gluttsnipe)

I was surprised to find Greenfinch (grønnfink) young already out of the nest