A long weekend in England and school starting up
again have left no time for blogging until now although I have been out and about
primarily checking up on my exciting scarce breeders where the young have now
left the nest although are not yet independent (more to come soon).
Otherwise Maridalen has delivered a couple of Bluethroats
which is always a highlight of the autumn and there have been regular
Whinchats, Yellow Wagtails and the first Wheatears. I have tried a couple of
times to look for raptors and although I have recorded a few birds there has
been a complete lack of Honey Buzzards. At this time of the year Honey Buzzards
is nearly guaranteed if there has been successful breeding as the adults can be
seen flying back and forth from distant nests with wasp comb in their claws. It
is of course disappointing and a little worrying not to see them but it is all
part of the cycles that long lived species go through and hopefully next year
will be a good year. Common Buzzards have not been numerous either although a
pair in the valley looks to have had raised 2 young. I had been hoping to find
a Red-footed Falcon or two as a major invasion is occurring further south and
east but I failed to turn the Kestrels and Hobbies I saw into anything rarer.
A trip to
Nordre Øyeren gave me good views of a couple of Great White Egrets.
On the butterfly front there is a bit more variety
now and I have finally seen my first Queen of Spain Fritillary of the year.
After the Norwegian state made the expected (it is
after all Norway where there is no other solution to “troublesome” animals than
killing them) but very short sighted and uninformed decision to kill Freya the
walrus it has been exciting to see some other mammals in the Oslofjord with a
pod of around 60 Atlantic White-sided Dolphins (kvitskjeving) seeming to find
lots to eat (many people believe the Oslo fjord is devoid of fish but this is
very clearly not the case although some traditional species such as cod are
undoubtedly in trouble).
1cy male Bluethroat (blåstrupe)
1cy female
the classic Maridalen shot
Atlantic White-sided Dolphin (kvitskjeving) and homosapien
a baby
I only witnessed jumping a couple of times and at long range
The last two days have
been about allround nature watching rather than just birding. Tuesday morning I
started at Årnestangen where the rain completely failed to materialise and
therefore the hoped for wader and gullfest was a no starter. There were of course
some waders with my first juvenile Dunlins of the autumn plus a fly over Great
White Egret.
In the afternoon Mrs. OB and I enjoyed the pod of Atlantic White
sided Dolphins that have guested the Oslofjord for the last week. We had seen
them on Sunday but at 3km range in the telescope although ut was still very
exciting to see them jumping clear of the water. On Tuesday they were right by
the waterfront and we saw them well and heard them breathing but never saw a
jump although did hear one when we were looking in the wrong place….
Yesterday I took the ferry to Gressholmen hoping to see the
dolphins at much closer range but the dolphins had clearly moved to another
area. Gressholmen was quiet on the bird front but butterflies saved the day. In
the afternoon I went on my first ever dragonfly specific quest (with beast in
tow) and was rewarded with my first northern emerald myrmetallibelle. I also
succeeded with flight photography for the first time by using manual focus and
see more potential here because most dragonflies (or at least the larger ones)
never seem to land so this will be my only way to ID them.
I have a flight to catch
now so the following pictures will have to do although I have loads more plus
video (especially of the dolphins) I need to go through. That backlog isn’t getting smaller..
northern emarald (myrmetallibelle) - first time I've seen one. I searched it out on a marsh with in the forest north of Oslo which is one of just a handful of sites close to Oslo where it has ever been recorded
small heath (engringvinge) on Gressholmen
Painted Lady (tistelsommerfugl)
Queen of Spain Fritillary (sølvkåpe)
Wall Brown (sørringvinge)
adult Arctic Tern (rødnebbterne) was a surprise when we were dolphin watching
1cy Arctic Tern
another and duskier adult Arctic Tern
here a 1cy Common Tern (makrellterne) with an adult Arctic
from left: the 1cy Common, 2 adult Arctics and the 1c Arctic
Atlantic White Sided Dolphins (kvitskjeving)
here there is clearly a younger animal that seems to lying on its parents back
the Red-backed Shrikes (varsler) are still in Maridalen including the adult female who I have seen bringing food for the first time
dad does seem to be the favourite though
a mixed flock of Ringed Plover (sandlo) and Dunlin (myrsnipe) at Årnestangen
I had plans to “do” Oslo by public transport and foot today but
in the end it was a lot of foot and just a little public transport. I walked at
least 15km and felt that I deserved a good result which I did in fact get
although not a bird.
My route took me via the little park at Marienlyst which
held a Med Gull a couple of winters ago. No Med Gull but this park continues to
hold the vast majority of Oslo’s over-wintering Common Gulls (fiskemåke) with
over 100 present. There was just a single Herring Gull (gråmåke) here plus 3
B-h Gulls (hettemåke). Elsewhere in town it is nearly only Herring Gulls one
encounters but for some reason this park has monopolised Common Gulls but
excluded the Herrings. The reason the park is popular is that a string of old
ladies feed the birds here which also explains the 8 Collared Doves (tyrkerdue)
and over 100 House Sparrows (gråspurv).
In Frognerparken there were 5 wintering Teal (krikkand) plus
2 adult Grey Herons (gråhegre) feeding in the stream. I reached the fjord at
Frognerkilen and then walked the waterfront all the way to the Opera. I was
hoping for a rare gull, some auks or a diver or grebe. Well none of that
happened – it was depressingly quite. At Aker Brygge (very downtown Oslo) I
walked up to the waters edge to scan hoping for a Little Auk and nearly straightaway
heard the snort of a breathing cetacean. Looking down there was a dolphin less
than 10 metres from me!! I realised that a couple of other people standing
nearby were already watching it and it amazingly stayed in the same small area
for the next 40 minutes I was there. It would be under for around three minutes
before coming up to breathe when it would break the surface between 3 and 5
times before diving again. A couple of times it rolled onto its side but there
were no acrobatics to witness. A Bottle-nosed Dolphin (tumler) has been
reported every now again in the Inner Oslofjord since May and has been filmed
by others see here including it jumping and here from the same location on Christmas day and I was sure this had to be
the same animal but was it really a Bottle-nose I was watching? It did not
resemble the Bottle-noses I’ve seen in dolphinariums or on TV but after
studying my pictures I can see that it is and it was just very hard to see the
head properly as it never really held its head out of the water. Filming it was
also difficult as I never knew where it would come up and it was up so briefly
each time. It was also so close that it was difficult getting a wide field of
view.
My video where you can here the dolphin snorting and me sniffing. The bells are from the Oslo Town Hall at noon:
rolling on its side
the white mark on the left hand side of the dorsal fin is a good character to identify this individual. Notice also the blow hole
here it looks more like a pilot whate
but this shot shows the distinct "bottle nose"
Grey Heron in Frognerpark
another attempt at low shutter speed artiness
Great Tit in the Botanical Gardens where I ended my day
Hawfinch and Fieldfare in Botanical Gardens
some Common Gulls, like this one, have a pink hue to their underparts but it is not captured so vividly in this photo as I experienced it live
