The last two days have involved a bit of birding, a bit of butterflying and a bit of dragon/damselflying and even looking at some plants in warm but rather too windy conditions. The wind has been from the south and encouraged me to sea gaze this morning but with no seabirds to be seen other than a Black Guillemot which is my first from Fornebu and probably a bird that has been seen (very) on and off in the inner Oslo Fjord for a couple of years.
In Maridalen I had a great time with a dragonfly hunting Hobby yesterday although am not happy with my photos with no money shot of the dragon being caught. There are male Red-backed Shrikes at two sites in Maridalen. One is at a site where I had been expecting (hoping) them to breed but had given up hope. By the behaviour of the male and his complete uninterest in playback I assume he has a female on eggs nearby. The other male though responded vigorously to playback and is therefore unpaired and is also I believe the same bird I had on Friday although at a new location.
Hobby (lerkefalk)
here it was using the wind to almost hover and look for dragonflies
and here eating something
the very long wings give a distinctive silhouette
here it is holding a dragonfly (see nest picture) although looks much bigger here
if this had been in focus and taken 1 second earlier then it would have been the money shot I was hoping for!
with dragon
male Red-backed Shrike (tornskate)
the Marsh Warbler (myrsanger) that was singing high up in a tree and gave me a bit of a headache. It was also ringed
and a Marsh Warbler singing in a more expected place
Three Ringed Plovers (sandlo) and a Little Ringed Plover (dverglo) at Fornebu
this is I believe a straigtforward SmallPearl-bordered Fritillary (brunflekket perlemorvinge) boloria selene
while this one is I believe a Pearl-bordered Fritillary (rødflekket perlemorvinge) boloria euphrosyne
same as above
and same again- there is a real carpet of flowers in Maridalen now
Being the sensible boy that I am I went to bird
early last night and awoke this morning to see that a far less sensible Per
Christian had found a singing River Warbler last night in, of course,
Maridalen.
I visited just before 9am and first heard a singing
Marsh Warbler and then the River Warbler and I was lucky enough to see him J This is now the third record in
Maridalen and with this warm weather set to continue could just be the start of
a run of good birds. The rest of Maridalen was also on form with finally a male
Red-backed Shrike who was acting as though a female may be on the nest, Common
Rosefinch and a second Marsh Warbler.
Butterflies and dragonflies are also appearing in
good numbers and are putting my ID skills to the test.
don't think I've ever seen a River Warbler (elvesanger) this well before
an old male Common Rosefinch (rosenfink)
male Red-backed Shrike (tornskate) only my third sighting this year
I have identified this as a male Norfolk Damselfly (armert blåvannmfye) which would appear to be very good Oslo record
Four Spotted Chaser (firflekkbredlibelle)
a male Northern White-faced Darter (østklig torvlibelle)
same individual
Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary (brunflekker perlemorvinge)
I wasn’t guiding yesterday and was hoping to enjoy and get better
pictures of some of yesterday’s exciting birds.
There was only a single Hobby present today and whilst I was
present it spent most of its time perched and I did not have the opportunity to
take the flight photos of it hunting dragonflies that I had hoped for.
Quite surprisingly and rather embarrassingly I saw that the
Whooper Swan pair has 8 young and not the 7 that I have previously reported. I
checked all the previous pictures I have taken and see only 7 but I did take a
short video previously and here I saw there are 8! Well 7 is the largest clutch
size mentioned in BWP so these birds are rewriting the history books! I also need to apologise to Dan who yesterday
was quite sure there were 8 young but didn’t push it when I said there could
only be 7..
Butterflies were in abundance in Maridalen with
two new species for me in the form of Heath Fritillary (marimfjellerutevinge)
and Large Wall Brown (klipperingvinge). There were also lots of white
butterflies flying around and I really need to start identifying these rather
than just thinking “white”.
Hobby (lerkefalk) I suspect that this bird may be a 2cy due to very pale red trousers
Whooper Swans (sangsvane) with 8 young (not, repeat, not 7)
female Teal (krikkand) also with 8 young
this Jay (nøtteskrike) was finding some very large green bugs to eat
with the bug
A small pearl bordered fritillary (brunflekket perlemorvinge)
a Heath Fritillary (marimjellrutevinge)
both the above species together which at first confused me as I thought they were maybe male and female of the same species
this Ringlet (gullringvinge) is completely lacking in spots on the upperwing and had me really confused at first
this was a bit tricky as there are two similar species: Northern Wall Brown (nergringvinge) and Large Wall Brown (klipperingvinge). I have concluded that it is the later due to an absence of 3 bars on the forewing
I thought this was going to be a type of skipper butterfly but it is a lattice heath moth (rutemåler)
