Raptor time

The Oslo Honey Buzzard nest that I have been following this summer is now empty (as far as I can see) although if you have been following the Sussex Honey Buzzard nest webcam on YouTube then you will know that the young can potentially still visit the nest four weeks after taking their first flight so my lack of sightings is definitely not absolute proof that they are gone. I will of course have a loooong but hopefully interesting post on the nest later in the autumn.

At the same time I no longer found any HB at the nest site I was following (I also know of another successful nest in Oslo this year) I noticed multiple juvenile HB over Maridalen with some birds definitely migrating in a southerly direction (both south east and south west) and other birds seemingly just enjoying thermalling, soaring and landing in the woods where I would love to to know what they were doing. It therefore seems clear that the species has had a good, and early, breeding season in southern Norway in 2026.

All the time looking at the sky has resulted in quite a few other raptors with seven species in Maridalen and a session at Årnestangen yesterday giving ten and I have seen 12 in total this last week. Nothing too exciting yet but juvenile HB in a direct flight have a very harrier like jizz and many birds also have narrow pale rumps so I have been eft scratching my head quite a few times.

Årnestangen yesterday was apart from the raptors a very strange affair with the extensive mud/sand flats almost completely empty of waders with just two Dunlin and two Greenshank. Svellet though has been far more productive with large numbers of both waders and dabbling ducks. A Broad-billed Sandpiper here was the undoubted highlight and a species I had forgotten about completely when in my last post I moaned about the wader species I had yet to see this year.

Great White Egrets have now turned en masse at Nordre Øyeren with 12 being the highest, and a record, count. I have had to content myself with just eight including a flock of six.

a migrating juvenil Honey Buzzard (vepsevåk) which is a grab from this video

the pale Common Buzzard (musvåk) in Maridalen. It has been around a few years now but for such a distinctive bird I see it quite infrequently.

my first Great Grey Shrike (varsler) of the autumn on the early date of 31 August. a lack of a wing bar shows it to be an adult and the all black bill probably a male

six Great White Egrets (egretthegre) and some Cranes (trane) at Svellet

and two at long range at Årnestangen

a video of a male Hen Harrier (myrhauk) at Årnestangen:

and a Marsh Harrier (sivhauk) eating a young gull at Svellet:

Birds in the Dale

Guess who’s back?  - and not a butterfly in sight! 😊

Autumn is really upon us and the cereal fields in Maridalen are being harvested as we speak. This always causes the first flocks of Meadow Pipits to appear and there is also a big flock of Greylag Geese so it is nice and birdy. A fine 1^st year male Bluethroat was today’s bird of the day but not quite as good as a Kingfisher on Wednesday and there are also good numbers of Whinchats, Nutcrackers flying back and forth from the city where they are collecting Hazel nuts and raptors to see including Honey Buzzards and Hobbies.

Yesterday I needed to go to the airport to pick someone up so made a day of it with a stop at Svellet and then a look for the Taiga Bean Geese which have already been seen. I failed to find the geese and with no GPS tags still functioning it has become a bit more hit and miss especially in the autumn when they do not use the river. I did find feathers and droppings at a favoured loafing site so can personally confirm their return

Svellet gave me my first Little Stint and Curlew Sandpiper of the year but I am till missing three common waders for my year list – Grey Plover, Sanderling and Great Snipe – and fear there is a real risk they remain as absentees.

Maridalen has had a good autumn for waders and that is despite there being nearly no mud showing due to high water levels. Today 2 Ruff were on an island and over the last couple of weeks I have had flyover Curlew, Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Redshank and Greenshank aswell as Common Sandpipers along the rocky shore. The Lapwings look to have moved on sometime in July though and I saw no evidence that the two late broods produced any fledged young.

If my photos are looking even worse than usual then it is because the bazooka has now gone into complete lock down and I cannot get any life out of it so all pictures are with the superzoom which itself is suffering with age.

Bluethroat (blåstrupe) in Maridalen. The colourful throat shows it to be a male

and the wing bar shows it to be a bird of the year

Whinchat (buskskvett) and Meadow Pipit (heipiplerke) very typical birds for the end of August

although this Whitethroat (tornsanger) is getting a bit late

spot the Kingfisher (isfugl)?

a bit easier here

some of the Greylag Geese (grågås) and a Whooper Swan (sangsvane)

12 Curlew (storspove) migrating over Maridalsvannet earlier in the month

and two Greenshank (gluttsnipe) that flew around looking for somewhere to land

A video of a Mink eating a Crayfish and you can see the remains of many others. Otters have recently been seen in Maridalen and if they establish themselves then they will hopefully result in a reduction in Mink numbers

and a Grass Snake that I nearly stood on

Back again

I felt a need to post, no matter how briefly, a few days ago as a very close friend of min recently took his own life and it has been a very strange and emotional time and a reminder to me of the need to communicate. Birding has been, as it always is, a good way for me to keep myself in balance and I have not been spending time in front of the computer or editing photos.

I have this evening found a few more photos and videos from the last week in Maridalen which show a bit how things are there. Autumn migration is starting and the hope is always for something very exciting to turn up although currently I am more aware of the breeding birds disappearing.

adult Black-throated Divers (storlom) on Maridalsvannet. The single small juvenile that was on the lake earlier in the summer has disappeared but up to 11 adults have been on the lake

In this video of Red-throated Divers (smålom) which have not bred on Maridalsvannet but have now moved here from their nearby breeding ponds you can see a juvenile that is begging for food by stroking its parents throat with its bill

a visit to Svellet with Jr Jr to give her some driving practice (her driving test is coming up) looked like it would be very promising but there was no birding gold at the end of the rainbow

a caterpillar of a Pine Hawk-moth (furusvermer) Sphinx pinastri

and the caterpillar of Elephant Hawk-moth (stor snabelsvermer) Deilephila elpenor shown in the video in my last post. I found both of these wandering on roads and they are searching for places to turn into a pupa

Sign of life

Just in case anyone was worried and wondering if I am still here then yes I am 😊

This very short post doesn’t feature a single butterfly, although there is a caterpillar of an Elephant Hawk Moth (stor snabelsvermer) which is a quite fascinating creature.

This video of things that I came across the last couple of days also shows you what I have basically been spending all my available time watching and documenting since coming back to Oslo at the end of July.

Back in Oslo and one more butterfly...

This will, I think, be my last butterfly post of the year so please bear with me 😊

 

Sunday and Monday saw us driving back from Bodø to Oslo with us again taking the scenic but by no means slow route via Røros and Trysil. This allowed me to see Silvery Argus (kileblåvinge) for the second time and once again they were easy to find along a road. We also drove past great looking forest bog habitat that I will have to visit in the middle of June in one of the coming years.

First full day back in Oslo and I had to take a trip to Fornebu to see my first Brown Hairstreaks of the year with two males noted. I thought this would be my last butterfly species of the year but there was a surprise in store for me. In my post from January where I listed the species I had still to see in Norway there was one species that looked like it would be easy for me to see – Essex Skipper (timoteismyger). I had been contemplating the 40 minute drive to the Drammen area to “twitch” one but had seen some new records this year showing that the species was clearly expanding to the east and I thought why should I travel to see what is quite a small, boring species when it looked like it would come to me - although not necessarily this year, or even next, but soon.

And there it was! I was watching some Small Heaths (engringvinge) when I saw a small orange butterfly perched on a grass straw. I immediately knew what it was and just managed to take two pictures before it flew off strongly in the direction of Oslo (where it has yet to be recorded) and was gone. For such a small species it had a very strong and direct flight and it is no wonder that it is such a successful colonist.

Essex Skipper becomes my 85^th Norwegian species and my third new one this year following a successful trip to the forest bogs of Hedmark in June.

Essex Skipper (timoteismyger) - my 3rd new species this year and 85th ever in Norway

a male Brown Hairstreak (slåpetornstjertvinge)

the glacier Blåmannsisen lies above Sulitjelma and is visible from close to our cabin.

male Silvery Argus (kileblåvinge)

And here is some evidence to show that I do still look at birds. This juvenile Greenshank (gluttsnipe) was just one of a surprisingly good selection of waders at Fornebu.

One week passed and one more day of sun experienced

A whole seven days after the last day of sun we saw it again yesterday although I had to drive over an hour to experience it and its arrival was a whole three hours later than forecast - but it was all worth it in the end!

I, of course, went to Sulitjelma and hunted butterflies. I was not alone on that errand with another birder/butterer visiting all the way from Lista. Øyvind however was only having a short stop on his way even further north and only got to enjoy 5 minutes of sun before having to leave. I was able to wait it out though and when the sun did finally show for longer periods I finally, and after lots of efforts, got to see the Pale Arctic Clouded Yellow as well as is possible with nectaring individuals too close to focus on and one in the hand such that I could see the upperwing. I also got to see Northern Clouded Yellow’s upperwing so I can now «forget» about these species and concentrate my efforts on the really rare species that I am certain occur up here😊

Pale Arctic Clouded Yellow (polargulving) showing the underside of both wings

I had to take matters into my owns hands though to finally see the upperwing

This small flower rich hillside was where the previously pictured individual was flying from flower to flower.
Previously when I have seen them they have barely had time to stop

Spot it?

And here another individual. It was only 50m away and was also nectaring but was not quite as easy to follow. It was a much more heavily marked individual making me wonder if one was a male and the other a female.

A second, and more heavily marked, Pale Arctic Clouded Yellow (polargulvinge)

My usual out of focus flight shot but this is actually better than normal

Again showing both wings whereas previously the forewing has been hidden

When the light shines through the wings and the forewing is raised then you can see the upper side pattern

An almost acceptable flight (take off) shot

The upper side of a Northern Clouded Yellow (mjeltgulving)

I had to pick it up and blow on it when the sun had gone behind a cloud to get it to open its wings but it flew off strongly when the sun came out again

Clouded yellow habitat and with a much larger flying object in the background

One flying by

And here the upperwing caught as it nectared

Birding has occurred too with the Surf Scoter sighted a few times and even digitally documented. Wader passage is picking up with both adult and juvenile Spotted Redshanks now moving. A male Garganey felt like a strange species to see north if the Arctic Circle but they are observed regularly enough over the years that I am sure they breed locally from time to time. Very good numbers of Common and Arctic Terns (a couple of hundred), Lapwings and breeding Lesser Black-backed Gulls were also satisfying sightings.

Arctic Skua (tyvjo) which breed on a bog nearby

Collared Doves (tyrkerdue) also surprisingly occur this far north although are rare

Garganey (knekkand) - in flight its blue forewing showed it was a male in eclipse

Adult Spotted Redshank (sotsnipe) with Greenshank (gluttsnipe)

Bar-tailed Godwits (lappspove)

And the male Surf Scoter (brilleand) showing his white nape patch..