Maridalen continues to surprise

I have a new hotspot in Maridalen. The best fields for migrants have always been at Nes and Kirkeby but this year, so far, it is the fields at Nedre Vaggestein and adjoining Sørbråten. These fields have been often held Cranes and last autumn Whooper Swans but I have not noted too much more there although the grass field at Sørbråten has always been a good place for thrushes and Starlings and the first White Wagtails of the year. So far this spring though it is the muddy stubble fields at Nedre Vaggestein (NV) that have attracted the birds. This is where I previously published pictures of Whooper Swans and the Rock Pipit but it all started to take off yesterday - 23 Whooper Swans, a pair of Teal, a Lapwing (it would be great if they breed here), 30 Skylarks and best of all 25 Snow Buntings were a good haul.

Today though on a visit with Jack it felt exceptional. The swans and geese were gone and Snow Buntings represented by only 2 of their kind but Skylarks were now up to over 60 (and we had over 100 in the valley as a whole), over 100 Chaffinches, 20 Linnets, 4 Twite, 21 Mistle Thrush, 50 Starling, 20 Yellowhammer, 2 Reed Buntings plus Blackbirds, Fieldfares, Brambling, Greenfinch and Goldfinch all on the fields. And best of all a Woodlark heard singing. Only my second in Oslo and Jack’s first we were also able to get a couple of other birders on to it but it only sang distantly and we never managed to see it. This is a species which I am sure will become more regular on spring passage as its Norwegian population increases and with a lot of forestry work creating suitable breeding habitat I also expect it to breed in the not too distant future. The weather today was unpleasant with low cloud and temperature of only 2C so it was a surprise the bird sang at all. Tomorrow is forecast to be fog which may mean it hangs around and sun forecast for Thursday may mean it sings again. Fingers crossed for that and also for continuing increases in the number and variety of birds on these fields.

I have always been a bit wary of birding here as had been told a tale that suggested the farmer was very suspicious of, and confrontational to, birders near his farm. I met the farmer yesterday though and he was very pleasant but most interestingly also very interested in making his land better for nature. He has planted different crops to give seeds, he manages his forest selectively and is not bothered about draining every wet corner of his fields which very unfortunately seems to be a bit of a thing amongst other farmers in the Dale. His work is definitely having a positive effect so well done him!

This video from yesterday shows the farm, the fields, Whooper Swans, Teal and the Snow Buntings.

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The Snow Buntings were particularly nice to see. They were not a species I saw in the early years of my visits to Maridalen but are now a species I expect to see annually but they can come through in a very narrow time period early in the spring so you have to be lucky and be out on the right days. They are now my 4th S in Maridalen this spring with the first Starling a few days ago in addition to the previously reported Skylark and Stock Dove

Snow Buntings (snøspurv) in a muddy field

these were particularly white birds for a bird that is always particularly white and had me wondering about subspecies

Mallard (stokkand) and Teal (krikkand) with Whooper Swans (sangsvane))

most of the 23 Whoopers on Monday

Red Kite

Yesterday was the first day with some passerine migrants flocking, if in small numbers, on the fields in Maridalen with 10 Mistle Thrushes, 6 Fieldfare, 10 Skylarks, 20 odd Chaffinch and the first Brambling all together. And this is just the start of things to come! The first Lapwings are also back with two reported on Saturday and then I had 5 birds yesterday and they were even displaying giving their evocative calls whilst Skylarks sang overhead – things cannot sound more springy than that!

Maridalen’s best bird of the year, and one which may be, although I hope won’t be, hard to beat, came on Friday when a Red Kite flew in front of the car. It was flying low and into a strong head wind but unfortunately never stopped and heard south over the lake and I was able to watch it for over 10 minutes. When it got to the southern end of the lake it then started soaring and was in sight for so long that I decided to drive down there but of course couldn’t find after the 5 minutes it took to get there. This is now my fourth sighting of the species in Maridalen and the second best views I have managed. I often proclaim that a day will be a great day for raptors and talk about Falsterbo Lite but very rarely do my predictions come true. On Friday I would definitely have proclaimed that the day was absolutely awful for raptors and we wouldn’t see any - bar maybe a local Goshawk – just shows how much I know!

Saturday had me guiding Paul and Ann from Connecticut and a very enjoyable day it was but for a bird guide it was a nightmare with, despite my utmost efforts, none of the three target species revealing themselves. I had communicated that it would not be easy to find them given the time of the year but that all three didn’t play ball was a major disappointment. We did see a lot of other birds though...

when I first spotted the Red Kite (rødglente) from the car it was close and flying at tree top height clearly looking for food but it kept flying south into the strong wind and never came closer

it looks as though it had recently eaten as the crop seems full

flying over the lake with appartment buildings under Grefsenkollen as the background

and here flying over Storøya

this years must count as an average date. Given how low cold it was in Jan and Feb then I had expected a late arrival this year but the thaw has come suddenly and without nighttime frosts the snow has melted quickly and most importantly for Lapwings the ground has thawed

once you find the eye then you also just about make out there is a Long-eared Owl (hornugle) in this picture

the video of the Long-eared Owl may be pants but I did manage to take a quite nice video of a Badger at the same place:

Mistle Thrush (duetrost)

there has been a steady passage of Whooper Swans (sangsvane) heading north

Finding my own, and many, signs of spring

Temperatures on the red side of zero if only by a small handful of degrees, no night time frosts and rain mean that spring is creeping along. There might still be lots of snow and ice but there are also now snow free areas even in Maridalen and a few birds are arriving. This morning’s dog walk revealed a singing Chaffinch which brought an uncontrolled smile to my face – maybe this world, and the bits that we humans don’t control is not so bad after all 😊

I have now seen two of the S’s in Maridalen with yesterday a number of Skylarks heading south (and a couple singing) after I think having met a wall of fog to the north and two Stock Doves doing the same. Mistle Thrushes, only the Dales’s third ever Rock Pipit, Merlin, Peregrine and migrating flocks of Whooper Swans have also suddenly announced the arrival of spring. As I write this there are strong southerly winds and more rain so I would not be surprised if a number of new birds arrive today. Maybe Maridalen will also get in on the Stonechat act? There is now a pair at Fornebu and with so many birds turning up surely we will find them breeding soon.

only Maridalen's third ever Rock Pipit (skjærpiplerke). Both other records were also in March and there is clearly a small overland passage of the species

it was on the exposed mud in the same field as the Whooper Swan (sangsvane) family were also finding food

Stonechat (svartstrupe) pair at Fornebu.

the male

and the female

the Whoopers

and an early Merlin (dvergfalk)

some sights and sounds from Maridalen yesterday:

Yesterday also saw me on a wild, and successful, goose chase. With no GPS trackers to help I can no longer use my phone to find the Taiga Beans but that didn’t matter as I tracked them down on two fields totalling 65 birds in total. I also had a number of early Pink-feet, two White-fronts and three Tundra Beans alongside Greylags, Canadas and hybrid between the two so it was actually a very goosy day.

The Taiga Beans were on stubble fields I have not found them on before although were in the same areas as previous years sightings and were also close to Whooper Swans and other geese whereas often they are alone. They were also relatively close to roads allowing themselves to be well watched and were surprisingly unskittish.

It was also noticeable that they were not together in a single flock. The first birds were 16 in total and were on a field close to where the birds regularly were in both spring and autumn last year and were spread out across a field with 140 Whooper Swans and Greylag, Canada and two White-fronts as you can see in this video.

After a while when they decided (for no apparent reason) to fly off and did so in groups of 4,4,5,2 and 1 with the last three groups eventually joining up and then turning around before flying back over the field and disappearing to the NE although these birds had returned later in the day and were again separate on the field as groups of 5,2 and 1. Amongst the group of 5 I saw bird V7 who has lost its neck collar but still has a colour leg ring.

V7 left leg probably with its family given how the group of 5 kept to themselves. This bird was ringed in Scotland in Nov 22 and I have seen it every spring since then but interestingly not in the autumns

Taiga Beans keeping separate and probably two family groups

another group of 4

The White-fronted Geese (tundragås). With such limited belly barring I wonder if they are 2nd winter birds

The second group of 49 birds was on a stubble field close to Udenes Church. The river here is where they roost but I have rarely seen birds on the fields here. A large flock of Whooper Swans has been here this week and maybe this attracts birds – it is very likely that I was watching very newly arrived birds. When I first saw them they were split into distinct flocks of 30 and 19 and there was in addition a small flock of Pink-feet which had a Tundra Bean amongst them. It was very interesting to see how these three small flocks were within 20m of each other but operated as distinct units. On a return visit 2 hours later though the geese were all mixed up. I was now able to find another leg ring Y7 but no collars.

a Taiga

more Taigas

and Y7 ringed on its right leg in Oct 2019 and seen by me every spring since and also in a couple of autumns

This video shows both the ringed birds:

So, 65 Taiga Beans in total with two leg rings but no collars. Hopefully there are more birds to come and the flocks will join up. It would make a lot of sense that the birds at Udenes were new in from Denmark that morning whereas the other 16 have been around a few days (I had 12 on 5.3 then 2 on 8.3 and 4 on 9.3 which may have been the flock of 16?).

 

The Tundra Bean Goose was educational to watch. When I found it amongst the Pink-feet it was clearly a Tundra due to being the same size as the Pink-feet and also the fact it was associating with them rather than the Taigas. On the return visit when all the geese were mixed together I did find it again BUT I doubt very much that I would have been brave or foolish enough to have called it as a Tundra if I had not seen it separately earlier. I have always been very conservative regarding reports of Tundras within flocks of Taigas and have dismissed other reports due to the individual variation amongst Taigas but of course it is possible for birds to get mixed up especially if Pink-feet (the more likely carrier species for Tundras) are mixed in. I had a pair of Tundras at another site amongst a large flock of Whoopers where there were also Pink-feet, Canadas and Greylags but no Taigas. The feature that was perhaps easiest to pick out the Tundra was that its head was paler than the heads of the Taigas which were noticeably darker than their necks. Whether this is a consistent (and previously described) feature is not something I am aware of.

These videos allows good comparison of the Tundra and Taigas:

Pink-footed Goose (kortnebbgås) and Tundra Bean - note how they are the same size

the Tundra with Taiga in the background

spot the Tundra?

these pictures could have been sharper but give an educational comparison of the two

this is probably the best with the smaller size of the Tundra apparant as well as the paler head. Bill structure is of little use but we see the shorter neck

and here with a Pink-foot

the bird on the right could very easily be mistaken for a Tundra due to short neck and stubby bill but note the darker head and I am sure it is "just" a female Taiga

and two Tundra on another field which I did not see side-by-side with other geese but look to be larger birds than the other one. Notice the pale head which is concolourous with the neck especially on the left hand

and Cranes (trane) are back although only no large flocks yet

Forced to twitch to get a feeling of spring

The progression of spring has not met my always high expectations. Lots of fog and temperatures only just over zero seem to be holding birds back with ice still on all water other than some streams and rivers, snow still covering most fields and the chance of a large spring flood seeming to be reduced.

Trips to the Glomma and Aurskog-Høland have revealed lots of Whooper Swans which are definitely on the move but there are not may other waterfowl moving yet. If the main flock of Taiga Beans have arrived then they are hiding themselves very well and I have only found four on two visits with one pair flying around calling and clearly not managing to find any kin. I have managed to twitch a Bewick’s Swan and a flock of White-fronted Geese but have not found my bird finding boots so far this year and a visit to a foggy Østensjøvannet today resulted in me twitching others finds in the terms of a male Stonechat and a nice adult Rook.

Maridalen is just white with ice, snow and fog and there is no evidence of spring migrants other than three Whooper Swans which are back. The bird I feel is most notably missing so far this spring is Mistle Thrush which was a very absentee on trips out east. I assume there is some cold weather further south that is holding them, and a number of other species, back.

Bewick's Swan (dvergsavne). This is the only bird to be seen in Norway so far this year and is a species that I think is a good candidate to become a national rarity not so much as it is difficult to identify but more because it has now become a genuinely rare species in the country. Many records now are, such as this one, of birds mixed up with spring flocks of Whooper Swans and turn up in similar areas each spring suggesting they are returning birds. This one is in the same area as a pair in 2023 and upto three birds last year. I should look at the bill markings to see if it is a bird from a previous year.

The bird was found on Friday amongst 300 Whoopers. I had been there on Thursday when there were only 130 Whoopers and despite it being top of mind did not see anything smaller amongst them.

Lapwings (vipe) have not come to Maridalen or fields by Glomma but there was a big concentration by Hellesjøvannet yesterday with 70 birds considered a very high count nowadays

a pair of Taiga Beans. There was another pair about 50m away but no big flock yet. I wonder if the 12 I had last week were part of the regular flock or perhaps from another population and were just passing through.

White-fronted Geese (tundragås) with Greylags and Canada Geese. The flapping bird has particularly impressive belly barring

there are 10 White-fronts in this shot

today's Rook (kornkråke) with a Hooded Crow (kråke) at Østensjøvannet. A number of records in the Oslo area in the last few days show that the very small spring passage of the species is occuring now

and a nice male Stonechat (svartstrupe) which was in exactly the same area as a bird 3 years ago

these large hairy caterpillars seem to be a very important part of the diet of the early returning Stonchats. That no other insect eating species seem to feed on them quite so much makes me wonder if they are a poisonous species and only Stonechats have developed the ability to eat them