Birds, cabin and golf

This weekend was spent with non birding friends at a cabin in the mountains. Saturday was spent watching them play 18 holes of golf which for me, a non golfer, became a 10km, 6 hour birding walk. I recorded 64 species which for an inland location in the first half of May was far more than I expected. The list can be seen here but a very distant Hen Harrier and three much closer Ospreys were probably the highlights. They were also the only raptors I saw and this must mean there are no rodents in the area which does not bode well for future trips to Valdresflye.

Valdres Golf is by a lake which makes for some exciting holes and also allows one to watch Black-throated Divers as can be seen in this video.

Getting home mid afternoon allowed me a chance to combine giving Jr Jr driving practice and a mini twitch for a Dotterel which eventually showed very well although took a long time to find as it had left the company of the Golden Plover flock it had originally been with and was alone on a large undulating field.

a pristine female Dotterel (boltit)

Loads of birds!

I frequently am accused of being overly optimistic in my bird forecasts and expectations but I see that my predictions in my last post for Svellet were actually very pessimistic. The wader fest is far from over as the water levels have stopped climbing (at least for now) and there clearly is enough food available as wader numbers which fell on Wednesday rose sharply yesterday (when I did not visit) and were still high today. Viewing conditions are far from great which is par for the course there but today I was able to pick out a Temminck’s Stint although another one on nearby Merkja was much easier to view (as were two yesterday evening which I twitched at Fornebu).

Yesterday gave me a non-wader mass bird event and a quite unique one at that. Very large numbers of Willow Warblers have been seen crossing the fjord from Nesodden and they have been then concentrating at Østensjøvannet. It would appear that frost nights to the north (temperatures were under zero on Tuesday evening as we drove home form owling) are stopping the nocturnal migration of the Willow Warblers and they seem to be stopping their northward journey in the Oslo area and then continuing northwards during the day and moving whilst also searching for food. There is not an overabundance of insects yet in Oslo but Østensjøvannet clearly has good numbers. There were over 1000 Willow Warblers as I walked around the lake and every tree and bush was dripping with them. They were also feeding in long grass, on the short grass of playing fields, on a newly ploughed field, on the paths and many were sallying after insects in the manner of a flycatcher from any available perch including fence wires. It truly was an amazing experience both visually and orally as birds were also singing everywhere. There were not many other species that had clearly arrived with the WWs except for Blackcaps which were more common that normal but not in exceptional numbers. That there were lots of insects to eat though was shown by House Sparrows that were flycatching and Bramblings taking insects alongside the WWs in bushes.

This video gives some idea of how it was but does not pay the experience the justice it deserves:

Svellet 8th May as viewed from the eastern shore

and viewed from the west - still lots of mud and shallow water which clearly has more food than I expected after the water levels rose so quickly

A really heart warming sight at Østensjøvannet are the Black-headed Gulls (hettemåke) that are nesting again. There are three small colonies (including this one) and scattered single nests around the lake and the total number of nests may not be much more than 50 but this is in stark contrast to last years dire situation but also the 2000 odd pairs that used to breed here. Fingers crossed that there are lots of fledged young in a month or two. There is also a good colony at Sognsvann - it would appear that the two most visited lakes for recreational use are attractive to both humans and gulls - but I have yet to notice any nesting on the fjord so I fear that overall things are not good for the species

yesterday and today I could not see a single young Lapwing (vipe) in Maridalen but there is a new nest although as this field was only ploughed on Sunday I am not sure whether she is incubating or just in the egg laying phase

and the Mute Swans (knoppsvane) are now finished with nest building and are on the nest although I do not know whether any eggs have been layed yet

Sorry David

Regular readers of this blog will be aware of my exceptional ability to fail to take exceptionally good videos. I am not talking about my videos being shaky and out of focus as that at least means I took the video, no I’m talking about all the videos I fail to take because of my continued inability to press the record button.

 

Yesterday evening saw yet another monumental f**k up and quite possibly the all-time best video that I never took when I had a Great Grey Owl at about 15m range with a large vole in its bill. The vole was still alive and its feet twitching when the owl delivered the killer bite to the head, ate the head and then swallowed the body all whilst looking at me. The light was good, it was in sharp focus and I was holding the superzoom steady but had I pressed record? I thought I had, I even thought I had checked the red circle was showing in the top right corner of the view finder. But no, of course, I hadn’t and I am still kicking myself.

We are talking about a video (that wasn’t) so incredibly good that David Attenborough would have paid me for the honour of narrating it.

 

This video which was taken immediately after has me expressing my utter contempt for myself whilst the owl looks on….

Great Grey Owl (lappugle) just after it swallowed a big vole but you'll just have to take my word for that as I FAILED to film it

This happening arose as Jack accompanied me on a trip to deepest Hedmark to try to get to the bottom of the GGO situation anno 2026. We checked 4 platforms and 2 old Buzzard nests without finding any incubating GGs. At the platform that I have visited twice before in April the pair were present and the female was very aggressive with bill clicking beginning when we were 50m away and had yet to see her. She also adopted a threat posture and looked like she might fly at us at any moment. Her bill clicking also brought the male in who sat a bit less open but also clicked at us. This aggression from GGO when they do not have young to protect is most unusual (perhaps unprecedented) as is the fact that the pair clearly remains in breeding modus but have not yet laid eggs and it is surely too late now.

the female in threat posture

the male

the males

the pair with the female on the left

The hunting bird we saw was an encouraging sign but the fact it ate the vole rather than flying off with it to feed a mate leaves me not knowing whether or not it was a breeding bird. I do know of an occupied nest but have yet to visit that site as it has been important that I find my own birds but I may have to give up on that hope for this year.

We ruined our finger nails scratching on trunks under every woodpecker hole we saw with only a Great Spotted pecker ever flying out but at a nestbox we did finally find breeding Tengmalm’s although it was Jack who scratched so I still do not know if I have a technique that works.

Other birds seen were a couple of Capers but again females, Black Grouse, Wryneck and Woodcock but it was a cold day with temperatures falling below zero as soon as it got dark and that probably caused less activity than we could have hoped for.

 

we had two roadside sightings of Moose

 

Back in Oslo this morning I was faced with the realisation that springs undoubted highlight - the wader migration at Svellet - is pretty much over. Water levels rose another 20cm yesterday to 4.03m and whilst there is still mud and shallow water there are clearly few remaining areas where there is food in the mud and wader numbers were nearly halved from yesterday and many were just roosting rather than feeding. It is a travesty that such an internationally important staging post for shorebirds cannot be managed better but that pretty much sums up «conservation» in the world’s richest and «best» country.

Svellet 6th May. There is still (dry) mud but water levels have risen a lot

In Maridalen it looks like the 3^rd Lapwing nest has now hatched with there being four young near it and no bird still incubating and yesterday’s brood of three is actually four but I never saw these two broods simultaneously so there remains a very small chance that one single brood of four 1-2 day old young was able to cross a ditch.

a brood of day old Lapwing (vipe)

rarity of the day was this all black corvid on the Lapwing field. I concluded with it being a 2cy Rook (kornkråke) rather than a Carrion Crow (svartkråke) but it ain't always straightforward especially at distance in heat haze. Interestingly the Lapwings which always tried to chase away any intruding Hooded Crows left this bird alone

Rising too quickly

Wader numbers continue to increase at Svellet but today the water levels also rose by a whole 18cm. If this continues then things will soon change from mighty to morbid. The first calidris, a Dunlin, has now turned up and we can only cross as many fingers and toes as possible and hope we have at least another week of fun.

In other news there seemed to be a small fall of Redstarts, Whinchats and Wheatears today which allowed me to come up with the hilarious line “it’s starting to get chatty”… I’ll get my coat.

Svellet today 5th May

and the scenes yesterday:

At nearby Merkja a pair (one of two present) showed well today

And in Maridalen it was a red letter day with the first Lapwing young noted. Two broods were seen with a minimum of 3 and 1 young and another birds was still on the nest having been saved by the farmer when he ploughed a couple of days ago. There were 10 adults in total with another two females just wandering around on their own so there is still a chance for further, late, breeding.

A change

We’ve finally had a positive (for birders) change in the weather but it really hasn’t been enough to make the difference we all hope for. Yesterday evening there were a few local showers (but they were a lot less than had initially been forecast) and today was cloudy (but the winds were northerly). It is important to remain optimistic though and remember that you have to be in it to win it.

Svellet continues to receive daily visits and today tringas were in triple digits for the first time (220 Wood Sandpipers and 110 Greenshank) although if that was due the change in weather or just the passing of time is open for discussion. The water level is now almost too low and the mud flats risk getting bone dry such that when water levels do rise that they will be covering lifeless mud and therefore be of little use for waders. Ideally we will see daily increases of a couple of centimetres over the next two weeks but what we risk is little change until suddenly around the middle of the month levels are risen by 25cm a day.

Twelve Ruff today included only 4 males but they were lekking a little bit and one of them was a very striking white bird which I would have loved to see at a place where photos were possible.. Yesterday also saw the first Little Gull and Yellow Wagtails of the year so we can now look forward to Black Tern and Citrine Wagtail (as I said it is important to be optimistic).

Maridalen has not hit the same highs offered by the Pochard which was a one day wonder but a little twitch was required today to see a Shore Lark. Only the fourth ever record and in exactly the same spot as the previous three records which have occurred in the time period 26 April to 4 May it is clear when and where to look if you want to find one in Oslo which does make it a little galling that I had indeed looked at the exact same field only 2 hours prior with the said species in mind and had failed to spot it.

Shore Lark (fjelllerke) in the Dale. Only the fourth record following those in 2013,2016 and 2021. There are surprisingly few records of migrating birds in southern Norway but when they are on a field like this (and there are MANY of them) then they are not easy to find.

an slightly aberrant female White Wagtail (linerle). There is an excess of black on the throat and breast and grey instead of white cheeks but I cannot make it into another rarer subspecies. It looked to be paired up and in breeding modus

Wrote too soon

1^st May was it turns out not as bad as I thought. In the afternoon a Great White Egret was reported from Fornebu. A good species but not one to make me rush out of the door. However, in the evening  I had to drop Jr Jr off at a party which my phone informed me was only a further 7 minutes drive from said Egret. I had little belief that it would still be present given it was a Bank Holiday and Fornebu has become more park that nature reserve but when I turned up I immediately saw it. Nice and a Fornebu tick for yours truly 😊

It was an immature due to its yellow bill and was colour ringed although this I only discovered from my photos and cannot make out any code. I am also unsure of the colour of the ring so cannot find what scheme it is from – it looks black but the only scheme listed on cr-birding.org states it rings on the right leg whereas this is on the left.

The Egret can only count as Good as I was twitching but there was a hint of Greatness from two other birds. Three Bar-tailed Godwits had also been reported and I could see two waders sleeping in the bay. I naturally assumed these to be Barwits and paid them no further attention until I was about to go home by which time the evening sun had sunk so much that all birds in the bay were in shade. Their bills were under their wings but never-the-less something didn’t look right for Barwit and I was quite sure they were Blackwits. And indeed they were! They were very brick red and small and were clearly Icelandic birds and I wondered if there had been a mistake with the earlier reports but the two bird theory does apply here. Blackwits are not annual in Oslo and Akershus in spring and most previous birds look to be limosa but in the autumn when the species is far commoner it is definitely islandica that dominates.

Godwits of the Black rather than Bar-tailed variety

the Great (White) Egret was actively fishing and seemed to find a lot of prey

here the rings are visible. A metal ring on the right leg and a dark colour ring on the left leg but what colour is it?

Back to dire

The lack of daily updates is of course because things didn’t continue as hoped…

Despite being at the start of prime time Oslo birding there is still only a trickle of new birds. Greenshank numbers fell again yesterday at Svellet to a dire 15 although the first (3) Wood Sandpipers hinted, hopefully, at things to come. Today though was a tad better, as of course it should be as it is 1^st May and what should by rights be THE best day of the year if only because it is a national holiday and every self-respecting birder has no excuse but to be out finding something. Well either most birders lack self-respect or there was nothing to find..

But, back to Svellet and today. Jack and I had agreed to have our now annual early doors visit to Huk, Bygdøy to record the awesome spring migration that we proved can occur on our 9^th May visit in 2024. 1^st May is too early though and we know it but we have to give it a go…. Fog put a real dampner on things although we could see perhaps 500m. There was however nothing happening either to be seen or perhaps most importantly given the condition to hear with just two Meadow Pipits flying in giving any impression of active migration although a Reed Bunting clearly felt the same as us and was heading south to escape these DIRE conditions. Five Purple Sandpipers were still “wintering” on the rocks although are now in breeding plumage and we did hear a migrant wader when a Little Ringed Plover flew unseen past us.

Huk this morning where a bloody big cruise boat is just visible in the fog

We gave it an hour and then headed to Svellet where even though we arrived before 8am there was already heat haze to contend with. There were however waders with now 43 Greenshank and 24 Wood Sandpiper and 6 male Ruff and 2 Golden Plover provided some variety. Curlew numbers however had fallen to just 13 so total wader numbers did not reach three figures let alone the four figures I am hoping for. Rain tomorrow afternoon may make, and I really pray for, a difference. Water levels are still falling slightly – today down 3.62m - so we can’t ask for much more on that score.

one of the trickle of new birds - my first Whinchat (buskskvett) of the year arrived in Maridalen on the last day of April

a Wryneck (vendehals) in the Dale

a trip to Hellesjøvannet yesterday gave precious little on the exciting bird front but this Brown Hare (sørhare) was only my second sighting of this recent colonist whose numbers took off around 2015 and it is steadily hopping north from Sweden. It was introduced to southern Sweden in the early 1800 so is considered an invasive introduced species in Norway and is an undesirable as it out competes the native Mountain Hares.

Dire, good, great

Birding’s a funny old game. You spend your whole day with the word dire going through your mind and then first one bird and then another, neither of which is even that rare, suddenly makes it a good, indeed great, day.

I am trying to check Svellet daily so as to document its greatness but today (water level has fallen by 3cm to 3.74m) saw a reduction in Greenshank numbers, it may have only been two fewer birds but there goes my exponential growth hopes. The two were replaced by a single Redshank and single Ruff so there is a quantity over quality argument. Tomorrow though….

The greatness came in Maridalen but I did have to work darn hard for it. Dry fields are now being ploughed but that doesn’t mean any new birds – not even any Wheatears yet. With a lack of migrants I found myself in the forests where a pair of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers was nice but it reminded me that otherwise it has been a very poor ‘pecker spring in the Dale. I have only heard Black drumming one, have not found 3 toes and even Great Spots don’t seem to be numerous – I only had one today! I thought I would give a final try for 3 toe though and after drawing a blank at one of the usual breeding sites I tried the other and FINALLY I would one. It was a single female and she wasn’t drumming and gave no real indication of breeding but further visits will hopefully reveal a pair although I am not too confident.

So that was one bird but how about the other? The light and some wind had made looking for waterfowl on the lake difficult but as I was driving out I gave it one last go and saw a group of 7 ducks a long way out. I had to use the scope but immediately saw that I had hit patch gold – a male Pochard with Tufties!!! This has been looooong overdue in the Dale and comes after Ring-necked Duck and a hybrid Pochard x Tufted Ducks. Now Pochard isn’t a common bird in Oslo although sightings are more of less annual at Østensjøvannet where birds can hang around and have probably bred before. Maridalsvannet is by no means a good location for the species but neither is it for Tufties but on migration birds will always stop off for a day before continuing their nocturnal migrations. That it would turn up with a flock of Tufties has always been how I assumed I would find one and it seemed to be interested in a female Tuftie so there may be more hybrids in the works

Pochard is probably the most obvious species we were missing in Maridalen and the valley list is now 228 species as reported onArtsobservasjoner and making it the premier location in Oslo. My Dale list is now 212 and I bloody chuffed with that!

 

If things continue like this then there may be daily updates to the blog!

GREAT. no prizes for the picture but I reckon you can see there is a male Pochard (taffeland) and some Tufties (toppand)

GOOD. Finally a Three-toed Woodpecker (tretåspett) at one of the normal breeding sites in Maridalen but I only found this female so I am uncertain as to whether there is breeding

a Lapwing (vipe) nest which the farmer has marked. He will be ploughing soon and there was also another nest which I am confident he will find. I counted 7 birds today with these two and their presumed mates nearby, another male who may also have an unseen nesting female and a pair who by their behaviour had me thinking they have failed in their first breeding attempt but are thinking of another go.

in addition to the pair who I filmed mating (see below) but have yet to build a nest there have also been two lone Mute Swans (knoppsvane) on the lake. This one allowed me to read its ring and P578 is the male of last years breeding pair that earlier in the spring was being territorial at Fornebu but now seems to have given up both on breeding and his mate PC79 although more likely something has happened to her (nothing is reported on either of them since 7 April)

apart from a few Meadow Pipits (heipiplerke) these two Ring Ouzels were the only passerine migrants I noted in Maridalen