Dusky Warbler in Oslo!

What a good if also frustrating day!

After dropping Jr at school I headed to nearby Østensjøvannet. At the southern end there were lots of waterfowl with 220+ Wigeon, 2 Shoveler and 2 Little Grebes the highlights. After an hour I thought I would drive to Maridalen but as I passed the northern end I could see there were a lot of birds there so decided to stop to go through them. I checked my phone before getting out of the car and saw a Pallas’s Warbler had been seen on Store Færder and I saw this as a good sign.

Upon opening the door I thought I heard Bearded Tits from the nearby reedbed but walking over there revealed none although there were clearly lots of birds around with Robins, Blackbirds, Wrens and Blue Tits all sounding like newly arrived migrants. A very small warbler flew over the reedbed and into a bush and I could swear it had a pale rump (I only saw it with my naked eye). Try as I may I could not find what I suspect was a Pallas’s and heard no warblers of any description. I then walked around to check out the waterfowl and found another Shoveler plus lots more Great Crested Grebes, Tufted Ducks and Coots but nothing else of interest. I decided to have another go at trying to find my mystery warbler and returned to where I saw it. Immediately I heard a tack, tack call like a Lesser Whitethroat coming from out in the reedbed by some bushes and my thoughts immediately went to Dusky Warbler. I pulled out my phone to check the call matched, which it did, and immediately a bird popped up in a small bush. Up with bins and yes it was a brown phyllosc Warbler so had to be a Dusky rather than some other tacking bird. It continued calling and I could see enough features to be sure of the ID, the brown colour and prominent white supercilium being very noticeable and the call eliminating Radde’s.  I then had to get my camera out of my bag (it is normally always over my shoulder) and that’s where it started going wrong as of course it then stopped calling. I tried playing the song and call but with no joy. I sent out a message and waited and waited. I started checking other areas and then about half an hour later I heard it calling from 150m away. It was calling a lot but I could not see it. I then heard it was on the move and it flew across the path in front of me and into a new area of reedbed whilst still calling. I thought I would be able to get a photo now (I had my camera ready) but it just melted away into the reeds. The first birders turned up now and the bird called 2-3 times subsequently (it called for 5-10 seconds each time but with around 30 minutes between the outbursts) and was seen in flight but did not show well and as far as I know nobody got any photos.

This is a Norwegian tick for me, and a first not just for Oslo but the wider area of south-eastern Norway. It is a long awaited species though and it is rather amazing that there have been no previous records although apart from regular tristis chiffhaffs this area is a bit of a drought zone for scarce phylloscs.

I hate not getting photos of rare birds I find as it means I have to write a detailed description rather than just writing "see photo" 😉 but unless anyone else gets lucky this afternoon or perhaps tomorrow then I have will have to get writing whilst my ageing brain still remembers what it saw.

No photos to share but here is the eBird checklist.