Some pleasant surprises in Oslo and Maridalen regarding
breeding birds means I am not completely over into the butterfly world just yet.
On the lake there was suddenly a single adult Mute Swan with
5 small young! This is just like last year in that they suddenly appeared but
this year I was better prepared and had discovered the nest on 26 May. After
that discovery of the nest though I had been unable on subsequent attempts to
see any birds on it (although it was very difficult to see) and had only a
record of single adult on 1 June and then a pair flying over the lake (not near
the nest) on 9 June. I therefore assumed that the nesting attempt had failed
and the birds had moved off. To suddenly see an adult with young was therefore
a shock and it was equally surprising that I could not find the other adult
anywhere on the lake. Has the male died or moved off? And if so how did the
female managed to incubate and feed without me ever seeing her? And the pair I
saw on x June – were they visitors? Perhaps the other pair that started nesting
and then gave up? An answer to the first question is that P578 who I saw on
Maridalsvannet on 29 April, and his ring was again read on 24 May, who is the
male of the pair that bred last year and I assume the father of this years young
was seen on 16 June at Fornebu where he and his mate had spent the winter – so
it looks like he has left his mate to fend for herself! Did this happen before
the eggs hatched?
Mute Swan (knoppsvane) - presumably female PC79 who bred here last year - with 5 small young but not with her mate (P578) who has flown down to Fornebu!
The Black-throated Diver pair (one of perhaps two on the
lake) still have a single youngster and have moved quite a way from the nest
with it.
Black-throated Diver (storlom) family
The ever growing cereal crop on the Lapwing field makes seeing
the birds very difficult but yesterday I could see 3 (2 + 1) almost fully grown
young which is a great relief but the fate of the two last nests remains unknown.
a nearly fully grown Lapwing (vipe) young
And finally, I had Red-backed Shrike in the Dale this year
and it seems to be a nesting pair so fingers crossed for their success.
pair of Red-backed Shrikes (tornskate) in Maridalen
and the male on his own
A visit to Østensjøvannet today also revealed lots of young
birds. Best of all were the Black-headed Gulls which have had their first successful
breeding season (at least as a colony) for a few years with many large young on
two islands. Great Crested Grebes, Coot and Mute Swans also had young (the
later no larger than the ones I saw on Maridalsvannet) and surprisingly a
female Goldeneye had 11 quite large young with her. This raises two questions –
are they all hers? Perhaps unlikely. And how have so many survived so long? Normally
the vast majority get eaten either by gulls or pike.
Black-headed Gulls (hettemåke) have had a successful breeding season at Østensjøvannet
and a male Gadwall (snadderand) which once again seems to have chosen Østensjøvannet to moult although this year there were no records earlier in the spring
Yesterday was time to start chipping away at that list and a
trip to Hedmark was in order to search for Lapland Ringlet (emblas ringvinge)
and Bog Fritillary (ringperlemorvinge). I chose yesterday as it was forecast to
be warm but cloudy with periods of sun. I thought this would be better
than a very sunny day as the butterflies were more likely to rest when the sun
went behind a cloud and allow me to get photos rather than them just flying
around manically.
I had an early start from Oslo and arrived at my chosen bog
by 0930. I then began to doubt my strategy as there was rather a lot of cloud
in the sky and no immediate sign that the sun would shine. It was warm though
and moths were flying around. I thought that I might scare some butterflies up
if I walked around and succeeded in seeing a Northern Grizzled Skipper
(moltesmyger) which was only me second sighting ever. A couple of fritillaries
also flew past quite slowly but frustratingly did not land within sight of me.
I needed sun and eventually I could see that there would soon be a large gap in
the clouds - and that did the trick.
Suddenly there were quite a few fritillaries on the wing.
The first ones that I managed to identify were Pearl-bordered (rødflekket
perlemorvinge) but most just zipped by. I did have my butterfly net with me
although I am normally equally as (un)successful with it as I am at scratching
on tree trunks and managed to net one. And, it was the first of my targets - a
Bog. Things then became easier and I saw a number of them and got photos and it
was probably the commonest butterfly there. I also had some more skippers and
then a giant of a butterfly - a Baltic Grayling (juttas ringvinge).
Again this was only my second ever sighting and in total had probably 4
individuals which frequently landed on tree trunks.
I was still missing my second target species but after 2
hours I saw another dark butterfly but it was smaller than the graylings and it
kindly landed and allowed photos. Embla in the box - the day was working out
entirely to plan 🦋🥳.
I had good time to continue further east and check out some
flower rich road verges where I have stopped a couple of times before including
in July last year for Silvery Argus (kileblåvinge). I was a bit shocked to see
that the verges had been scraped to dig drainage ditched but did find some
untouched areas and here found a couple of Chequered Skippers (gulflekksmyger)
which again and for the third time was only my second ever sighting and they
were mint individuals. A few Violet Coppers (fiolett gullvinge) were past their
best but were probably the rarest butterfly of the day although it is a species
I have been lucky enough to see a few times before.
Yesterday takes me to 84 species of butterfly in Norway and
leaves me just 17 to get.
And birds? Well, there were some but nothing to write home,
or on this blog, about.
the first target to fall - Bog Fritillary (ringperlemorvinge). The line of white circles at end back of the underwing are diagnostic
from above it looks like a Small Pearl-bordered (brunflekket) but note how the black spots bleed into the triangular markings and this appears to be diagnostic
this one got me very excited and I was thinking a Friggs Fritillary but turned out to be an abberation of Bog. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of the upperwing but we can see some of it and it is mostly dark and on the underwing it is much darker than normal
and target #2 - Lapland Ringlet (emblas ringvinge). I only has this one individual with a bit missing from its wing
and my second ever sighting of Northern Grizzled Skipper (moltesmyger) and much better than my first
and my second ever sighting(s) of Baltic Grayling (juttas ringvinge) - a large butterfly that has a 2 year syklus
waiting for the clouds to move
the forest bog when the sun was shining - this type of habitat must be very common but rarely visited by anyone with an interest/knowledge
of butterflies so many of the species may be far more widespread than the handfull of annual records suggest
and my second ever Chequered Skipper (gulflekksmyger) which was a much more satsifying sighting than my first last year which was so late and faded that it was barely recognisable
and the rare Violet Copper (fiolett gullvinge)
a tiny orchid growing on a roadside verge - Early/Northern Coralroot (korallrot)
Only ten years ago it looked like Blyth’s Reed Warbler was
going to establish itself as a regular, if rare, breeding bird in south east
Norway. It bred in Maridalen in 2015 and in my experience a surprisingly high
number of the singing males that turned up other places around Oslo ended up
finding a mate and breeding.
But then the upward curve peaked and a decline started with
the species becoming less regular. It is a classic nocturnal singer species and
also a late arriver and is often not found until us birders go on our nocturnal
trips when there is nice warm weather in mid June.
This year though the species was looking like it was going
to be desperately scarce with only 10 birds in Norway up until June 8th but
since then there has been a solid arrival with at least a doubling of birds.
One of these was found last night in urban Oslo by who else than Stig Johan (there are not many people who would go birding in the middle of the night where he goes) and
was still singing strong when I visited at 11am in a rain shower. They really
are one of our best singers and this bird put on quite the show at point blank
range. It was along a well vegetated stream under overhead wires by a car park
for busses - perfect habitat!
The weather forecast for the coming week is conducive to
nocturnal trips so maybe there will be more Blyth’s to find and hopefully a
River Warbler or Corncrake.
Blyth's Reed Warbler (busksanger) - I took a bit too long before I tried to take any photos as before this it was singing very openly
On Thursday I guided to Great Grey Owls for what will
probably be the last time this season. The chosen bird was Miss Hissig, the unusually
vocal female who has always made her presence known by bill snapping whilst we
are more than 50m away. On Thursday she had also added a rather menacing
growling to her repertoire and this may have been due to the presence of a fairly
large young on the nest. We kept a respectable distance and didn’t place ourselves
between the female who was perched high in a pine about 25m from the nest and
the nest itself. There was also the possibility that there was a young on the
ground and should one approach such a bird too close then the chances are very
high that the female will attack (it is this instinct that ringers use to catch
the adult females with a large net). We clearly chose an acceptable spot to
stand as she soon became quiet although any noise or perhaps movement elsewhere
in the forest could attract her attention and start a series of growls and
snaps.
We hoped to see the male arriving with food but early
afternoon was never going to be the best time although at one stage the youngster
became very animated and started calling excitedly which I felt certain was
going to prelude dad flying in (mum had also looked excited) but nothing
happened. The young which had been out of sight when we arrived became more and
more active during our stay so was I assume getting hungry. It also rained
briefly which I thought would cause mum to fly to the nest to cover the young
but that did not happen either. This female really is a strange beast but it
hasn’t stopped her, or perhaps more importantly her mate who brings the food,
from raising a youngster to very close the jumping out of the nest stage in a
year where voles are clearly in short supply.
The excited calling from the nest at one stage sounded like
it was coming from two birds so the single large bird we saw may also have a smaller,
younger, sibling that was not yet large enough to peer over the edge of the nest
platform.
The video included sequences of mum bill snapping and
growling (good speakers may be necessary to hear this) and the youngster calling
excitedly.
I am very excited to see how this winter and spring of next
year will pan out. If vole numbers crash then we could see Great Grey and other
owls spreading around looking for food and then we may be lucky enough to have
an owl winter around Oslo. Should this happen though then the chances of spring
2027 being good for singing and breeding owls is low. Vole numbers may however
hold up for another season meaning next spring is similar to this, i.e owls
breeding but at low densities and with few young. Only time will tell.
It’s all a bit wet and windy at the moment and the dry spells
when they come need to be used well for as long as they last. Spells that
started dry but turned wet allowed me to hear a rare Oslo Quail found by the
nearly young but already come Jack D at Hengsenga and to get second goes at the
Rb Fly.
slightly better shot of the Rb Fly with the bazooka being deployed on a rare occasion
A Maridalen nocturnal trip last night was far too windy and
birds were very few and far between. Much more cooperative were two separate
Moose which are not a usual sight in the summer months. One showed extremely
well by the road with the Grasshopper Warbler serenading it.
