The day that kept on giving

4^th August, was a particularly good Oslo birding day. After my successful shift of romantic allegiances to Fru. Galteskjær gave me a Little Stint I did not expect to have any more birding of note. When the rain stopped in the early afternoon though I decided to have a quick trip to Maridalen primarily to follow the progress of the breeding Hobbies but also of course to see if anything had turned up on the lake. Heavy rain in early autumn is the type of weather that may produce an interesting tern or gull and with water levels now having fallen enough to expose a tiny bit of mud in places maybe a wader.

First stop was as always at Hammeren and as I got out of the car my Band app plinged telling me a scarce bird had been sighted somewhere (I am a member of many county groups so it was not necessarily a local bird). I did not immediately check the message but instead scanned the lake without seeing much. It was only then that I checked the message and there was a Black Tern at Kirkeby!!! The finder was of course Knut Waagen who found the previous one here and has a solid track record of rares and scarces.

I made my way there quickly and there it was - a juvenile Black Tern and only my second ever in both Oslo and Maridalen and #oslo2024 species number 192!! This makes this year my best ever and only eight away from the 200 that I have always previously considered a flying pig type of goal.

 

An attentive reader of this blog will have noticed that I went from #oslo2024 189 (Turnstone) to 191 (Little Stint) without mentioning #190. Well that was no less than a Golden Eagle with an adult seen distantly from Maridalen thermalling over Lillomarka on Friday. Histrorically this would be a very strange record but with a pair now established in Nordmarka it must be expected that there will be occasional sightings of adults at any time of the year close to the city.

a nice fresh juvenile Black Tern (svartterne). The closest breeders are in Sweden but it may have come from further afield

2 images of same bird. It's appearance changed a lot dependent on the light and at a distance in the bright sunlight it looked almost white

Halvard sent me this image that he took from his balcony at a range of nearly 4km!! I am wearing the red T shirt. Although Halvard was able to twitch me I think the tern proved just a bit too small

The last week and an Oslo and Maridalen tick!

It has gone a whole week since my last post and even though we are at home summer holiday vibes are still running strong in the family. I have been fitting in some birding and butterflying, often in combination with Beast walking. My main focus has been on monitoring a scarce and late breeding bird that I have found and there will be a separate post on this exciting find later but for now here is the rest of the last week’s action.

The week has to be described as VERY GOOD for the mere fact that it included an Oslo and Maridalen tick! On Thursday I was waiting to pick up Jr Jr from Tusenfryd, an amusement park close to Oslo when a message came through from Knut Waagan that he had found a Black Tern at Maridalsvannet (yet another fantastic find from Knut). Of course I began to panic a bit and sent frantic messages to daughter that really she should hurry up (a bit difficult for her to understand as this contradicted the message I had sent just minutes earlier….). Well, all good things come to those who wait and upon my eventual arrival at Maridalsvannet the bird showed immediately. It was feeding over a flat lake under very threatening rain clouds and must have arrived during a rainstorm earlier in the day. If I had just stayed and waited patiently in one place then I would have seen it really well but instead I pent my time chasing it in the car from one place to another hoping I would get to see it really well but being outsmarted by the bird which changed direction whilst I was driving and returning to where I had just been…. Anyways, it was a good bird 😊. I also heard a Kingfisher and with luck this will turn out to be a regular feature again this autumn.

Passerine migration is stepping up with Whinchats, Yellow Wagtail and Red-backed Shrike appearing on the fields and raptors have become a bit more obvious with especially Ospreys showing (up to 3 often vocal birds). A Spotted Crake has been seen at Fornebu and I spent a long time looking for this one afternoon which resulted in a three second glimpse as it came briefly out of the reeded that is it temporary home – goodness knows how many birds we never see.

The weather has been a bit variable and I haven’t seen too many butterflies but yesterday a dog walking trip to Fornebu gave me a fine Swallowtail and 4 different Brown Hairstreaks.

1cy Black Tern (svartterne) - my first in Oslo

young Red-backed Shrike (tornskate)

the classic Maridalen photo

a Whitethroat (tornsanger) that clearly had young nearby

Yellow Wagtail (gulerle) and Whinchats (buskskvett) in Maridalen

Osprey (fiskeørn)

a different Osprey (see tail feathers)

this male Roe Deer was so focused on spreading his scent that he did not notice me

juvenile Common Sandpiper (strandsnipe) still with some downy feathers on its nape. It is fascinating how the breeding waders clear out as soon as they can and there are just a handful left now

a Cormorant (storkarv) displaying with a twig - will they breed in Oslo soon?

young Goshawk (hønsehauk) although the feathers being moulted on the back suggest this is a 2cy and it is probably the young male that successfully (and surprisingly) bred in Maridalen this year

the young Ruff (brushane) stayed 3 days in Maridalen

4 species of wader at Fornebu whilst waiting for the Spotted Crake

Common Snipe (enkeltbekkasin), Greenshank (gluttsnipe) and Green Sandpiper (skogsnipe)

female Brown Hairstreak (slåpetornstjertvinge)

Swallowtail (svalestjert)

Brimstone (sitronsommerfugl) that tries to look like a leaf

mating Common Blues (tiriltungeblåvinge)

Ross's Gull

On 21 May an adult Ross’s Gull was found at Horten just over an hours drive from Oslo. It has been hanging out in a Common Tern colony and has settled in but has always seemed to be very distant (judging by the photos I have seen) so despite it being a lifer for me I have resisted any urges to travel there. Many others have been though (apparently they can be described as the who’s who of Norwegian Birders… isn’t that right Jack 😉 ) and this has resulted in a number of other decent birds being seen including Sandwich Tern (still missing from my Norwegian list), Little Gulls, Caspian Tern and Black Tern.

On Sunday we were visiting the brother-in-law in Tønsberg and I felt that the dog needed to stretch his feet on the way and it is not that much of a detour to Horten. There were other birders present and I was told the gull was behind a rock This was a bit infuriating as I really couldn’t stay there long without straining family harmonics too much. The Black Tern and Little Gulls showed and then all the Common Terns flew up and someone shouted they had sight of the Ross’s Gull. I took a while to see it but then it showed reasonably well in the scope flying about offshore including at one point with the Black Tern. If I had more time and spent less of it trying to take photos then it would have been a rather enjoyable twitch of what is a fantastic bird but I had to leave much sooner than I would have liked. Anyhows, it’s not that often I see a lifer!

On Friday I had a very enjoyable guiding session with a grandfather and grandson and we experienced Maridalen's hidden gems.

adult Ross's Gull (rosnemåke)

and together with a Black Tern (svartterne) - I cannot believe these 2 species have been seen together very often, if ever, before

the Black Tern on its own

a brood of 12 Mallard (stokkand) ducklings and do you spot the other bird in the picture?

my first female Red-backed Shrike (tornskate) of the year in Maridalen

feeding time with the Black Woodpeckers (svartspett)

a Garden Warbler (hagesanger) with nest material

a Redwing (rødvingetrost) with food for young

this Starling (stær) is nesting in the same hole that Wrynecks (vendehals) used last year and the mud shows that Nuthatches (spettmeis) have also used it

Black Tern!

Friday was Norway’s national day and a public holiday with lots of parades and dressing up in national costume. For me highlights were my first ever house Canada Geese flying over plus an also flyover Common Sandpiper.

Yesterday the promise of rain had me (and others) out early in Maridalen but the reality was just getting wet and seeing nothing interesting. Later in the day though I heard a Red-throated Pipit flying over the house whilst taking the Beast out for some airing.

Today though was the big day. More rain was forecast early in the morning and I thought that Årnestangen deserved my attentions. Goal for the day was a mountain marsh runner but at this time of the year anything can turn up. I parked the car at 6am and had a 45 minute walk in constant rain that was only enlivened by a mixed flock of waders heading north. I only managed to identify the large birds which were ca.20 Ruff but this was both a good and a bad sign. Good that there were waders but bad that they were flying off in the rain (made me think they had been scared off from the mudbank at the tip of the peninsula). When I got to the end I could initially not see a single wader which I thought confirmed my suspicions of everything having been scared off. I did see three Little Gulls though (an adult, a 2^nd summer and a 1^st summer) and 6 Arctic Terns as well as the Common Terns that breed here and when I eventually got my eye in (the rain and light were not making things easy) I realised there were waders: Whimbrel, Redshank, Ruff, Ringed Plover, Dunlin and Temminck’s Stint! I heard a Red-throated Pipit flyover and after an hour or so hit the jackpot when I suddenly saw an adult Black Tern. The first in Norway this year and only my second ever in the country. I put the news out and Anders quickly called as he was already on his way out. I lost sight of the tern but by the time Anders had walked out over half an hour later the tern was back on show. Our attention was taken by the Red-throated Pipit which flew over again with a Meadow Pipit chasing it and with a bit of enticement it landed not far away and allowed itself to be admired in fine breeding plumage!

summer plumaged Black Tern (svartterne)

there seem to be 2 generations of primary feathers  - which may allow the bird to be aged?

summer plumaged Red-throated Pipit (lappiplerke). Although the species breeds in the far north of Norway it is a very scarce migrant in the south

Two Arctic Terns (rødnebbterne) 

three Little Gulls (dvergmåke) resting with 2 Arctic Terns

the adult Little Gull

and the 1st summer and 2nd summer

the first Lapwings (vipe) have hatched in Maridalen. This female had three young

male Whinchat (buskskvett)