Dire, good, great

Birding’s a funny old game. You spend your whole day with the word dire going through your mind and then first one bird and then another, neither of which is even that rare, suddenly makes it a good, indeed great, day.

I am trying to check Svellet daily so as to document its greatness but today (water level has fallen by 3cm to 3.74m) saw a reduction in Greenshank numbers, it may have only been two fewer birds but there goes my exponential growth hopes. The two were replaced by a single Redshank and single Ruff so there is a quantity over quality argument. Tomorrow though….

The greatness came in Maridalen but I did have to work darn hard for it. Dry fields are now being ploughed but that doesn’t mean any new birds – not even any Wheatears yet. With a lack of migrants I found myself in the forests where a pair of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers was nice but it reminded me that otherwise it has been a very poor ‘pecker spring in the Dale. I have only heard Black drumming one, have not found 3 toes and even Great Spots don’t seem to be numerous – I only had one today! I thought I would give a final try for 3 toe though and after drawing a blank at one of the usual breeding sites I tried the other and FINALLY I would one. It was a single female and she wasn’t drumming and gave no real indication of breeding but further visits will hopefully reveal a pair although I am not too confident.

So that was one bird but how about the other? The light and some wind had made looking for waterfowl on the lake difficult but as I was driving out I gave it one last go and saw a group of 7 ducks a long way out. I had to use the scope but immediately saw that I had hit patch gold – a male Pochard with Tufties!!! This has been looooong overdue in the Dale and comes after Ring-necked Duck and a hybrid Pochard x Tufted Ducks. Now Pochard isn’t a common bird in Oslo although sightings are more of less annual at Østensjøvannet where birds can hang around and have probably bred before. Maridalsvannet is by no means a good location for the species but neither is it for Tufties but on migration birds will always stop off for a day before continuing their nocturnal migrations. That it would turn up with a flock of Tufties has always been how I assumed I would find one and it seemed to be interested in a female Tuftie so there may be more hybrids in the works

Pochard is probably the most obvious species we were missing in Maridalen and the valley list is now 228 species as reported onArtsobservasjoner and making it the premier location in Oslo. My Dale list is now 212 and I bloody chuffed with that!

 

If things continue like this then there may be daily updates to the blog!

GREAT. no prizes for the picture but I reckon you can see there is a male Pochard (taffeland) and some Tufties (toppand)

GOOD. Finally a Three-toed Woodpecker (tretåspett) at one of the normal breeding sites in Maridalen but I only found this female so I am uncertain as to whether there is breeding

a Lapwing (vipe) nest which the farmer has marked. He will be ploughing soon and there was also another nest which I am confident he will find. I counted 7 birds today with these two and their presumed mates nearby, another male who may also have an unseen nesting female and a pair who by their behaviour had me thinking they have failed in their first breeding attempt but are thinking of another go.

in addition to the pair who I filmed mating (see below) but have yet to build a nest there have also been two lone Mute Swans (knoppsvane) on the lake. This one allowed me to read its ring and P578 is the male of last years breeding pair that earlier in the spring was being territorial at Fornebu but now seems to have given up both on breeding and his mate PC79 although more likely something has happened to her (nothing is reported on either of them since 7 April)

apart from a few Meadow Pipits (heipiplerke) these two Ring Ouzels were the only passerine migrants I noted in Maridalen

A very frustrating day

This post will not make me any friends and possibly some enemies but after sleeping on it and now having, if not ice cold, then luke warm blood in my veins I still want to publish it (although have now toned it down through many iterations...).

 

Yesterday was a day of high temperatures and not just the continued barmy weather.

 

First, I got very wound up and my piss stated to boil by the blingers at Fornebu. On a number of my visits this autumn I have, upon getting out of the car, been greeted by the sounds of a Best of Eastern Vagrants mix tape being played by a net which is a whole 250m away. This goes on for at least three hours whilst the blinger(s) hope they will pull a rarity from the nets and completely disturbs all other life (both bird and human) in the nature reserve. Raising my displeasure about it hasn’t resulted in any change in actions and nor have any rarities been pulled from the nets (far more is recorded here by birders with bins than blingers with bling). Well, the tape (or in these days digital recording) was playing again yesterday and my heart dropped and blood started to boil at the thought of another ruined visit. I found an area though where I could stand which was a bit sheltered from the noise by the lay of the land and actually found some birds. All this time I was able to observe that the net was not being checked (way over half an hour) and when I did eventually spy the blingers they were engaged in an extended selfie photo shoot with a scarce bird they had caught and then proceeded to parade it around. Everything I was observing was against the rules governing ringing in Norway and is why for a lot of us ringing has such a bad reputation – for far too many blingers it is a hunt for rarities and good times hiding behind the excuse of being an important scientific activity (that is the only legal reason that people are allowed to trap birds and put them through the inherent stress and discomfort this causes them).

Just so it is clear I am a big supporter of the serious Constant Effort Scheme ringing that is carried out at two Bird Observatories in Norway plus some other Observatories that take their work monitoring birds very seriously even if they do not have the resources to run CES schemes. I also fully support specific research with a conservation goal and cheer the use of modern technology that means a single tagged bird can answer more questions than 100 years and 10,000 birds worth of old fashioned ringing ever managed. But it's all the ad-hoc "let’s find a rarity" ringing that boils my piss. And further boiling occurs because many blingers don’t see the problem – birds are just objects to be (physically) exploited for their enjoyment. I think the problem is that the ringers get so caught up in the excitement of the catch (it triggers a basic human instinct) that they forget exactly what they are doing and why they are supposed to be doing it - it is the exact same instinct that drives photographers, twitchers and birders in general to chase birds and sometimes cross boundaries but the one important distinction is that only one of these requires a specific dispensation in law to be carried out.

For anyone interested, here is a summary of the laws/rules/guidelines for ringing in Norway (all in Norwegian of course).

There are very few explicit laws that govern ringing but two things that are stated very clearly are that trapped birds shall be ringed and released immediately and traps and nets should be continually watched (“Ved bruk av fangstredskap for å ringmerke fugl og merke flaggermus, skal fangede individer straks merkes og slippes fri. Fangstredskapet skal være under kontinuerlig tilsyn når det står til fangst.”)

These rules are almost impossible for single ringer to follow so the body charged with organising ringing in Norway has in its handbook decided to define continuous as meaning at least every 30 minutes and with ringed birds has allowed for there to be a 5 minute photo shoot after the bird has been processed and ringed.

Make of that what you will and also remember that if you ever witness ringing in action. How long is it really acceptable for a bird to hang in a net on damp morning right beside a loud speaker at full volume and in an area where cats prowl and humans walk with their dogs?

 

I had a long email exchange with the two bodies responsible for ringing in Norway way back in 2014. This was as a result of a young Great Grey Owl being found with a broken leg due to a twig having got stuck between its leg and the ring and the bird would have died a long, painful death had it not been found (although I suspect that it exchanged that for being put down). I contacted the authorities-that-be to hear what the consequences of this would be as clearly the ring had either not been attached properly or perhaps a wrong ring size was used. The reply I got was literally “shit happens” and I also found out that there was no reporting on how many birds that died during the course of ringing but was assured it's not a problem even though they had zero data to back that up. There was a data field for this in the reporting software but it was not active. I expressed my shock at the cowboy like state of affairs but have since then kept my feelings on ringing mostly to myself as I feel there are few birders here who share my concerns.

It was therefore very pleasing to see in the Ringers Handbook (in the link above) published in 2025 (but seemingly written in 2021 and promised in 2017…) that ringers now have to report dead birds in the now activated data field and it actually says that anyone who deliberately neglects to do so will see the removal of their ringing licence (en bevisst neglisjering av dette [dead birds] vil medføre at merkelisensen blir inndratt eller ikke fornyet) so it looks like when I thought I was banging my head against a wall that I may have actually brought about some change for the good. Maybe I will have to recharge my attempt to make Norwegian Ringing Ethical Again.

 

The second annoyance of the day was that a Pallid Swift was found and I didn’t see it. As I arrived to look over the fjord from Fornebu a message came through that a Pallid Swift was at Nesoddtangen. I could see Nesoddtangen from where I was standing and through the scope could see the person who had sent the message at a range of 3.5km. But the persons (there were actually 3 of them) did not look like they were actually watching a swift. It transpired that the bird had been seen for half an hour and the finder had managed to inform local birders who managed to get there and see it but by the time the rest of us were informed that bird had disappeared not to be seen again. Just as well probably because I would then have had to decide whether the views would have been “tickable” or not. I did however have to answer that conundrum today after the bird was refound this morning but my decision will have to wait until my next blog post. 

 

Did I see any birds though? I had three Bearded Tits and three Chiffchaff in the reedbed at Storøykilen and one of the chiffies was a tristis with a ring on. While looking for the Pallid Swift I was informed that the long staying but not often seen King Eider was on the fjord off of Nesoddtangen and sure enough on a mirror flat sea I could make it out at a range of 3.5km and those views were just about tickable.

In Maridalen all the Whooper Swans and the Pink-footed Geese have left and Jack saw a family of 4 Whoopers and a Pink-foot flying over Sørkedalen which were surely from the Dale. A single Pygmy Owl revealed it self to me in the same place as before and has presumably found a good hunting ground although I have yet to see it catch anything.

female Bearded Tit (skjeggmeis)

pair

a ringed tristis Chiffchaff. In addition to looking right it also had the right call

this unringed bird also looks like a tristis (in fact looks pretty much identical to the ringed bird above) but did not give the right call when I was watching it although that doesn't rule it out from being a tristis

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) - one of at least 3 birds that have been discovered in Maridalen this autumn

where I was stood, where the Pallid Swift was seen and where the King Eider was swimming. Birding as it should be ;-)

Geese, geese, geese

I have been drawn back to Nordre Øyeren daily now in the hope of uncovering something rare. The numbers of geese are just enormous and you can see them either feeding on stubble fields or resting on the water at Svellet. There are at least 2000 each of Barnacles and Greylags but probably a lot more as well as 400 Canadas. Finding something scarcer amongst all these has proved tough going but I have now found a single White-fronted Goose, single Bar-headed, single Pink-footed and 3 Greylag x Canada hybrids. I have only found one bird with with a collar - a Greylag ringed in Germany in 2021 and since either close to Oslo or in Germany.

I have spent too long looking at the Canadas and have got a headache at the amount on variability amongst them with some birds definitely looking «wilder» than others but all probably within the variation of size and plumage of a feral population that probably has little genetic diversity.

 

White-fronted Goose (tundragås)

Bar-headed Goose (stripegås)

neck collared Greylag (grågås) D780 and its history below

this Canada looked very interesting from afar 

but closer up I wasn't s sure

and this one while not being so dark also looked quite different

enormous numbers

Water levels have risen a lot due to heavy rain and there is no longer mud in Svellet so waders and dabbling ducks have vanished but there are now 4 Little Gulls and also 4 «commic» Terns (I remember as a child hearing the term Commic Tern and not being able to find it in my bird book. It caused me lots of confusion for a long time until I finally plucked up the courage to ask an older birder what it was and found out it was from COMMon and ArctIC and referred to unidentified birds of the species pair. I also remember very soon after calling out “Commic Tern” and it being a white dove….). I initially thought there were 2 Common and 2 Arctic but with better views have now come to the conclusion that there are at least 3 Common and the fourth bird is also most likely a Common. It has been quite a learning experience where I relied too much on jizz and behaviour to start with.

a commic tern and 2 Little Gulls (dvergmåke)

3 f the 4 Little Gulls. All were 1cy

this 1cy tern with grey secondaries must be a Common (makrellterne)

I have had 10 species of raptor which is a good showing and my first Great Grey Shrike of the autumn.

my first Great Gre Shrike (varlser) of the autumn which I saw eating a mouse

a very distant, but very smart, male Hen Harrier (myrhauk)

Peregrine (vandrefalk) and a pale Common Buzzard (musvåk)

this immature White-tailed Eagle (havørn) flew over Svellet

and a bit later I found it on a field that had previously been covered in geese with just a few crows for company

Merlin (dvergalk)

I have also had a couple of attempts to locate the Taiga Beans but have failed. I assume they are still around as it would be record early if they have already left and I remember that in previous years the GPS tagged bird(s) have shown they have often used one particular field that is very well hidden and that I have never tried to get to as I am certain it will just result in flushing the birds – they may well be using it again.

 

I have only had a couple of quick visits to Maridalen but a perched and then hunting White-tailed Eagle was a very good sighting.

the Crane (trane) family is still feeding in Maridalen

it is very unusual to find a perched White-tailed Eagle in the Dale

Back home

During the Bird Race on Saturday we had a strange black & white duck. First seen asleep with Mallards we hoped it was a Shelduck which we needed for our list but when it eventually showed more of itself it clearly wasn’t. We dismissed it as a domestic duck type although when we saw it again on Monday I began to think that a hybrid Mallard x Common Eider was more likely and took some footage. There are not many people who share my interest in hybrid ducks and I don’t think anyone else has spent any time on it (I also suspect it has been around a while). 

A hybrid between Mallard and Common Eider sounds an unlikely combination and indeed it is with only one report of a possible female fromNorway (although I would say that bird is another hybrid combo) and just a few documented birds to find on the web although a male at Seahouses, Northumberland is well known.

Based on my photos I feel confident the bird is indeed this hybrid combo with body shape, head and bill shape matching other reported birds.

 

not a great photo but I am confident this is a male hybrid between Common Eider (ærfugl) and Mallard (stokkand). The jizz of the bird especially head shape and the rear end short wings are closer to Eider than Mallard and match photos on eBird. The bill pattern with a black nail also matches other birds as do the light grey tertials (visible in the video). Plumage varies greatly between hybrids but this birds plumage also looks good for a mix between the two species even though it does not match other birds. It would have been nice to document it in flight and also out of the water.

The Pallid Harrier we had was seen migrating past the lighthouse, first flying NE and later migrating out to the SSW. It was scope views only and wasn’t photographed but a hunting Hen Harrier was and this of course led to some confusion and suspicion…. Two Bird Theories are always good but as the Hen Harrier was seen again after the Pallid disappeared out to sea then I think it was a Two Bird Fact 😇. I managed some photos of the Hen.

 

Hen Harrier (myrhauk) -  a 1st year male if I am not mistaken

Back home I have looked for the Taiga Beans a couple of times. On Tuesday I found only 72 on a different field to previously (but again one that has been used in previous years) but on Wednesday found none so perhaps they have moved on already after only two weeks but if that is the case then it will be 2-3 weeks earlier than normal.

I counted 72 Taiga Beans but despite the field looking flat they were difficult to count and birds could disappear so there may have been more but definitely not 129

Water levels in Svellet are still low with lots of mud and shallow water and many thousands of ducks and geese. There were very few waders today but two Marsh Harriers and a White-tailed Eagle may have been responsible for that. A single juvenile Little Gull, 2 Arctic and 2 Common Terns were nice but I always feel there should be far more terns here.

this male Kingfisher (isfugl) was a nice surprise along the Glomma River

this colour ringed Common Sandpiper (strandsnipe) would appear to have been ringed in Norway as the combination of yellow flag on left leg and red ring on right is a Norwegian thing. Finding out more details though is proving hard work though... We also saw a Greenshank with the same red and yellow ring combo but were unable to read the code

we came a bit late to the lunar eclipse and missed the blood moon

part of a flock of 19 Nutcrackers (nøttekråke) that headed out to sea

some also landed in the bushes by the lighthouse. I am unsure whether they were of the slender-billed siberian subspecies or the resident thicker billed subspecies that we have around Oslo

distant Red Kite b(rødglente) being pursued by Hooded Crows (kråke)

we had a few Stonechats (svartstrupe) and the species has bred at Lista this year.