Yesterday I wrote that finding a new species of dragonfly might be what I needed to reignite my interest in them - what will finding two do?
This morning I revisited the pond hoping there might be someone working the land who could let me through the fence. No luck on that score but I set about viewing from outside the fence again and quickly noticed there were a few more large dragonflies than yesterday. The Emperor was still present and I was able to get better pictures today although he was still constantly in flight. A couple of Common Hawkers (starrlibelle) were my first of the year and were repeatedly chased off by the Emperor. I also saw something else come into my view finder whilst following the Emperor and took just a single picture of it but it turned out to be good enough to identify it (a miracle in itself) as a Eurasian Baskettail Epitheca bimaculata (toflekklibelle) and a new species for me. This species whilst not a newcomer is probably even rarer than the Emperor and is categorised as Near Threatened on the Norwegian Red List with an estimated population of under 1000 reproducing individuals. So this was quite the find and very unexpected. It looks as though this pond might be quite the odonata hotspot but it really does not look that special and was only created three years ago. The area generally lacks ponds which also makes its quick colonization by a number of species interesting but I think that generally there are so few people interested in odonata in Norway that there must be loads to find out there if you visit new sites. There are a few listers but they generally vist the same couple of sites for the rare species so if you are in it then you may well win it - but to be clear I am definitely not in it when it comes to dragonflies - just lucky.
A much more satisfying picture of the Emperor (storkeiserlibelle)
And the Eurasian Baskettail (toflekklibelle). The 2 dark flecks at the base of the hind wing are not visible in this photo but everything else matches
The pond behind an imposing fence and locked gate
It was possible to get closer by going down the side of the fence which is where today’s photos are taken from
After I wrote this but before publishing I visited again and this time met the guys behind the place and got a guided tour😊 They are indeed farming ecological fruit and veg on land they cleared which was previously a spruce plantation. They have loads of wild areas, 5 ponds in total and it is a great place. Their website is https://eijos.no/
Despite being let in behind the wire I did not get much better pictures of the dragons or discover too much more but it was by then very hot. The Emperor was not on the same pond as earlier but what I presume to be the same beast was patrolling another of the ponds 500m away. Disappointingly the Baskettail was not to be seen and was perhaps a prospecting individual?
The pond which now held a (the) Emperor
And the photos of the Emperor from the second pond:
Cabin life continues and with temperatures in the high twenties it is hot by Norwegian standards but for most of the rest of Europe at the moment would be considered a nice cool, refeshing place to be.
There has been just a single nocturnal trip but it revealed singing Corncrake, Quail, Nitghtjar and Marsh Warbler as well as Tawny Owl and Woodcock so was a definite success. In the daytime I have only found Red-backed Shrikes at two sites which confirms my previous impression that 2026 is a poor year for the species.
Butterflies have been good with new species appearing on a near daily basis. Pained Ladies are very numerous this year and are in all stages of freshness with some very tatty individuals nearly devoid of colour and others looking very fresh.
My interest in dragonflies has waned a bit but a new species may be just what I need to put a bit more effort in. There is a large fenced off area which was previously woodland where is seems there is some kind of cooperatives growing of fruit and veg. There is a pond here and I decided to have a look at it after bumping into a couple of Broad-bodied Chasers (blåbredlibelle) other random places including a female seemingly laying eggs on the new cut lawn at the cabin. The view of pond was a bit distant due to the (deer) fence but there were a few Four Spotted Chasers (firflekkbredlibelle) but non with a Cambridge blue body however there was a much larger beast with a darker, but not quite Oxford, blue tail and green body that was patrolling back and forth. It was a bit of a challenge finding it in the view finder and then (manually) focusing on it but a couple of pictures were good enough to confirm my suspicion that it was an Emperor Dragonfly (storkeiserlibelle). This species was first recorded in Norway as recently as 2013 and my record looks to be the furthest north of an adult although there is a record in 2024 from a bit further north of 10 larve but rather strangely there are no photos accompanying this record so it is difficult to know what to make of it (not that I would know what to look for with a larve).
The uncropped picture of the Emperor Dragonfly (storkeiserlibelle)
A bit closer
And here the diagnostic green body and blue tail confirm the ID
This reminds me of one of the big problems with the Norwegian reporting system for insects (birds are well taken care of) is the lack of validation. I only have knowledge of butterflies and dragonflies but especially for butterflies see that there are so many mistakes for species that are photographed and god knows for all the records that are entered without photos but there are clearly many mistakes here as well. It is not only the lack of validation that is a problem it is also observers who clearly consider themselves to be so good that they don’t need to upload photos even of their more special finds - maybe their own self belief means they don’t think they need to «prove» any of their observations?
School, and university, summer holidays have begun and we are once again privileged to be allowed to use the wonderful cabin at Hulvik. A week of sun, the odd butterfly and maybe some Nightjars awaits plus late nights watching football - Norway vs Senegal at 2am tonight anyone?
Yesterday, I guided Ian from Perth (the one in Australia) in the morning and Maridalen provided a number of lifers during a very fun morning. We discovered a new (and second) Wryneck nest as well as watching feeding time at the very late Black Woodpecker nest, Red-backed Shrikes, Hawfinch, Marsh Warbler and lots more.
Here is a video from the Wrynecks which I took early this morning. Make sure to listen until the end to hear the strange noises the young make.
More successful breeding stories are the Ringed Plovers at Fornebu where both young are now so good as fully grown and still being well cared for by both parents who run distraction displays. This video from Saturday was taken with my phone from the car and may, or may not, show the youngsters.
And in Maridalen today I saw 7 basically fledged young Lapwings - they look fully grown and can fly - but still had adults watching over them. They seemed to be broods of 4,2 and 1 which tallies well with earlier observations. The fate of the two late nests and any young that hatched remains unknown with the crop so high that I cannot see any birds that may be there and I am not sure the adults would bother to fly up to chase off a passing crow either. A minimum of 7 fledged young from 5 nests is probably enough to maintain the population as long as they don’t fly to France for the winter and get shot…
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)
