Whilst at the cabin I received reports of both Pomarine and Long-tailed Skuas that should have been heading my way but without me managing to see them although I did find another Arctic Skua and a Black Guillemot (both rare in these parts).
On Sunday morning a male Surf Scoter was reported from further south and was heading north towards me. I had a hope of seeing it but no real expectation of actually succeeding. When a few hours later I found a flock of scoter resting on the sea I of course had to grill them. It was long range and terrible light and the birds were sleeping but then a porpoise surfaced right by them and they all stuck their heads up nervously and voila - one had big white areas on its head😊. This is a real blocker on the Akershus county list with just one prior single observor (but photographed) record which has now been supplemented by my single observor and NOT photographed record.
Butterflies are always a focus when we are staying here and I thought I had added Wood White to the area list but have retracted that observation as I didn’t get a photo and subsequently had some confusing small Green-veined Whites. Dingy and Grizzled Skipper and Green-underside Blue were the undoubted highlights with only 2 other species noted - Brimstone and Orange Tip.
I added Icterine Warbler to my year list and a Red-backed Shrike singing in a neighbouring garden was a true surprise as I failed to see any on the usual clearings (probably still too early).
A Spotted Flycatcher (gråfluesnapper) in the garden
An Arctic Skua (tyvjo) harrying a Common Gull (fiskemåke)
Red-backed Shrike (tornskate) singing in a neighbouring garden
We had many sightings of Porpoises (nise)
A Grizzled Skipper ( bakkesmyger)
A Dingy Skipper (tiriltungesmyger)
A couple of Slow Worms (stålorm) mating under a bush in the garden
This picture was supposed to document the Surf Scoter (brilleand)..
I eventually found up
to 9 breeding pairs of Red-backed Shrikes (5 pairs plus single birds at 4
sites) plus Wrynecks at 2 sites so these two species may well have an OK year
after all. One of the pairs of Wrynecks had 3 young already out of the nest and
I heard their begging call for the first time – a call which can be confused
with the song of Firecrest! One of the pairs of Red-backed Shrikes also had
young which had just flown out of the nest and which were much shyer than their
parents and kept in the depth of bushes most of the time. Raptors were very
scarce with just local breeding Common Buzzard and Sparrowhawk – I had expected
to find Honey Buzzards.
Butterflies continued to be my main focus. I
added eight new species:
22.Grayling / kystringvinge
23.Holly Blue / vårblåvinge – a very rare second generation adult
24.Small White / liten kålsommerfugl
25.Common Blue / tiriltungeblåvinge
26.Small Copper / ildgullvinge
27.Comma / hivt C
28.Heath Fritillary /marimjellerutevinge
29.Swallowtail/svalestjert – Sara found a caterpillar which we
looked after for a few days
I also managed my first ever picture of the
Pearly Heath and managed to see from a picture the spine on the front leg of
the male Silver-studded Blue which confirmed my suspicion that the smaller blue
butterflies I were seeing were this species and not Idas Blue although as these
two species can fly together I could well have seen both.
Dark Green Fritillary /aglajperlemorvinge
Dark Green Fritillary /aglajperlemorvinge
Heath Fritillary /marimjellerutevinge
Heath Fritillary /marimjellerutevinge
Queen of Spain Fritillary / sølvkåpe
Silver washed fritillary / keiserkåpe
Silver washed fritillary / keiserkåpe
High Brown Fritillary /adippeperlemorvinge
High Brown Fritillary /adippeperlemorvinge
High Brown Fritillary /adippeperlemorvinge
Silver-studded Blue/argusblåvinge This shows, I believe the spur on the front leg
same butterfly and the spur can be seen!
another assumed Silver-studded Blue/argusblåvinge
same individual. Here a forward pointing spur can be seen on the middle leg but this is apparantly also seen in Idas
same individual
Common Blue / tiriltungeblåvinge
Holly Blue / vårblåvinge – a very rare second generation adult
Brimstone
Grayling / kystringvinge
Swallowtail caterpillar
it sticks this out as a defense mechanism and it emits a foul smell (although we didn't detect the smell)
Common Buzzard (musvåk)
a very unexpected mid summer Pink-footed Goose (kortneggbås)
a very well marked old female Red-backed Shrike (tornskate)
a more normally marked female
another more normally marked female
and another boldly marked old female who I also saw with a bird in her beak
who was mother to this youngster
and paired with this male
Wryneck (vendehals) with a beak full of ant larvae which it was taking to fledged youngsters
Slow worm (stålorm)
this year seems to have been very god for breeding Swallows and there are many youngsters on the wing
Continued bad weather in northern Norway caused us to
postpone (cancel?) our summer holiday in Bodø for a second time and we instead
enjoyed temperatures in the high twenties at the cabin in Hulvik last week.
We added to our reptile list with an adder this time meaning
that I have now seen all three Norwegian snake species here (Grass, Smooth and
Adder) plus Slow Worm so I just need Common Lizzard to have seen all the Norwegian
reptiles here.
I was a little more active on the birding front this time
with a couple of trips to Kurefjorden. There was no significant wader passage
as I had hoped and certainly nothing rare but raptors showed well with seven
different species on show including a young Peregrine (vandrefalk) that was
honing its hunting skills on Lapwings (vipe). Chances for decent pictures have
been very few and far between but Osprey (fiskeørn ) and a Goshawk gave some
closish fly-bys.
A quick trip to Maridalen today produced two fishing Ospreys
and some muddy edges which still look promising for waders even though a Common
Sandpiper was the only wader on show.
