I had a chance to go out with Andreas on Saturday but a combination of a body resistant to getting up before 6am and my daughter’s football tournament meant I had to decline. I duly missed out on a Long-tailed Skua (Akershus tick) and Turnstone (Oslo tick) amongst others. I went out to the larger islands today though hoping that there might still be something hanging around.
I had a good start with an Arctic Tern feeding with three Common Terns soon after the boat left land. Arctic Tern is rare in Oslo although annual.
On Gressholmen there were 8 Dunlin, a Ringed Plover and 3 Greenshank in the tidal bay. An offshore rock held 4 Knot which were pushed off by the rising tide. Passerines were nearly non-existent with a single Wheatear the only bird of any interest. Butterflies included my first Pained Lady of the year plus a couple of male Common Blues.
Lindøya held some resting terns. I had good views of a juv Arctic and 5 juv Common and later on from long range saw a total of commic 12 terns on the same rock. The same rock also held 13 roosting Dunlin and 4 Ringed Plovers.
Moving onto Nakholmen (the hourly boat service giving exactly an hour per island) I had 4 Knot which must be the same as on Gressholmen. A shriek made me look up and there were two Hobbies cruising around overhead. They were an adult and juv I expect these to be from the family group that has been entertaining people at Nessodtangen on the other side of the fjord
On the boat back to the city I had a chance to check Galteskjær. I saw no waders and then did something I don't normally do - I went through the 80 odd roosting Cormorants. The reason for this was that Bjørn Olav had seen a Shag at Fornebu on Saturday – a species I have never seen in either Oslo or Akershus. And boom! I had a Shag (and it's been a while 😉). This is also the first Oslo record (or at least the first published one...) giving me two Oslo firsts this year after the Short-toed Lark in Maridalen in April.
The birding ended with an adult Peregrine ripping into its lunch on top of the town hall when the boat docked.
A very fresh southerly wind blew up during the day. This wasn't forecast and I don't know how local it is but could push some interesting sea birds into the inner fjord.
It's a Shag (toppskarv) |
Juv Arctic Tern (rødnebbterne) left with 3 juv Common Terns (makrellterne) |
Arctic (left) with Common. Note the smaller size, black bill, dark legs and less noticeable carpal bar of the Arctic |
Common (left) and Arctic in flight. Note the dark trailing edge to the secondaries on the Common but white on the Arctic |
2 Knot (polarsnipe). I took loads of pictures of these and will probably come back with a separate posting |
4 Knot |
Common Blue (tiriltungeblåvinge) |
Dunlin (myrsnipe) with 2 Ringed Plover (sandlo) |
Dunlin |
adult and juv Hobby (lerkefalk). The adult didn't seem in the mood to share its catch |
Painted Lady (tistelsommerfugl) |
adult Peregrine (vandrefalk) |
2 very dainty looking juv Ringed Plovers (sandlo) |
small White (liten kålsommerfugl) |
this Wheatear (steinskvett) found a smal caterpillar |
'Today I had a Shag' indeed, I know you live in Scandinavia but I really didn't think it was that sort of blog.... .
ReplyDeleteAnd to compound matters you then go on to talk about a Pained Lady!!!! Ha ha!!
Well... I just wanted to say that it's really interesting to read your posts!
ReplyDeleteAstrid Kvendbø