One day to go

My favourite birding day of the year is tomorrow and it looks like it may be the day of days (alternatively it will be a literal wash out). The May 1^st bank holiday always gives me a chance for an early start and a long day in Maridalen and this year we are forecast rain (or perhaps snow…) with a southerly wind. Could it be better? Well ideally it would be warmer and the spring more advanced such that there were more migrants already moving. This spring is late with the lake still over 90% frozen, the fields brown and hardly any leaves on trees. In terms of number of species seen my Oslo year list is now 129 species compared to 136 in 2022, 134 in 2021 and 136 in 2020.

I have hardly seen any summer migrants although did this morning add Tree Pipit and Common Sandpiper in Maridalen. It was -2C as I drove into the Dale at 6am but it was sunny and didn’t feel that cold. There was a real lack of migrants in the air on the fields though and I quickly decided to go searching for Three-toed Woodpeckers. The first places I checked came up blank but eventually I found two birds drumming close to each other and saw a male quite well

Yesterday, I paid an afternoon visit to Østensjøvannet to see two scarce local birds in the form of Smew and Slavonian Grebe. Both of these are species I would hope to see at this time on Maridalsvannet but the ice will surely mean that they won’t be seen there this year.

Maridalen this morning at 0635. If you look closely you can see there is a line of ice free water running along the right hand side of the lake but otherwise it is ice we see

pair of Buzzards (musvåk) in Maridalen

a back lit Kestrel (tårnfalk)

and 2 male Kestrels together

a surprise spring encounter with a Nutcracker (nøttekråke)

a distant encounter with a Slavonian Grebe (horndykker) at Østensjøvannet

and a slightly closer Smew (lappfiskand)

male Three-toed Woodpecker (tretåspett)

Raptors at Årnestangen

Wednesday and Thursday were characterised by blue skies and a strong northerly wind which were conditions that I did not expect to produce very much whereas today saw a dying down of the wind and it even turning to the south plus it clouding over a bit. I therefore had no real expectations of raptors on Wed and Thur but high expectations today. As usual the outcome and my expectations diverged.

Wednesday saw me at Østensjøvannet where my raptor highlight was a male Marsh Harrier low over my head. There have been a number of records here so far this spring and with the growing breeding population not that far to the south east of Oslo I would not be surprised if they do try to breed here in a few years time.

Thursday saw me at Årnestangen and I walked out to the end for the first time this year. The high water levels meant there was no mud but some of the fields were flooded and this is where there were waders. An astonishing 51 Green Sandpipers had the company of my first 2 Wood Sandpipers of the year plus Little Ringed Plover, Lapwing, Curlew and Oystercatcher and the star bird a fine Black-tailed Godwit which has been found the previous evening. A pair of Garganey topped off the list of wildfowl and on the passerine front my first House Martin and Yellow Wagtail of the year were noted. In the field I thought the Yellow Wag was a Blue-headed (flava) but my pictures were useless and I will not claim it a such.

Raptors were the real highlight though and I had 11 species which I believe is a personal record. I had Golden and White-tailed Eagle, Common and Rough-legged Buzzard, Marsh and Hen Harrier, Osprey, Sparrowhawk, Goshawk, Kestrel and Peregrine. Barring rarities (and I really did hope to find either a Red Kite or a Pallid Harrier) the only species missing was Merlin which I saw in Maridalen both the day before and day after (today). Here is my eBird checklist.

Today was surprisingly quiet in Maridalen especially as messages kept ticking in from Nittedal to the east where there was clearly quite a lot going on. I did hear my first Willow Warbler of the year singing away and that in itself was enough to make my day.

looking out to Årnestangen from Snekkervika yesterday. High water and lots of brown vegetation

Maridalsvannet today. The ice is starting to melt around the edges but an overnight frost had caused a thin layer of ice to reform. The thicker winter ice will last a few more days at least

young (3cy?) male Marsh Harrier Østensjøvannet

Osprey (fiskeørn) in Maridalen

pair of Shoveler (skjeand) at long rainge at (for me) at Østensjøvannet

but at close range for some

despite lots od work having been done to try to make conditions more suitable for Black-headed Gulls these were the only ones that seemed to be nesting and there were less than 100 birds in total present. I think previously around 2000 paris bred.

this bird was apparantly ringed in Cumbria in December 2019 and has been seen there and Østensjøvannet annually since

2 Curlew (storspove) feeding in Maridalen is a rare sight (they normally fly over) although commoner with Whimbrel which will hopefully turn up up next week

there was a large group of male Goosander (laksand) at ØStensjøvnnet and they were diving as a flock in the manner of Cormorants

both the Mute Swans (knoppsvane) in Maridalen are ringed. The female (K933) was born in 2017 at Smestaddammen in Oslo and does not appear to have bred before although she was paired to another male last year. The male was ringed in December 2019 in Oslo as a juvenile but it is not known where he was born. He does not appear to have been in a pair before and has travelled quite a bit including to Tønsberg (69km)

The Black-tailed Godwit (svarthalespove) with Osystercatcher (tjeld) and Curlew

Garganey (knekkand)

ringtail Hen Harrier (myrhauk) at Årnestangen

this wagtail at Årnestangen was not very straightforward. It has been present (and previously photographed) since early April and on the face of it looks like a straightforward female Pied Wagtail. Only problem was it was making a lot of noise that I took to be song which should make it a male and

the rump was not particularly black

which I think makes it more likely to be an intergrade between Pied and White Wagtail

Ring Ouzels (ringtrost)

Great birding in the snow

Everything turned white yesterday and it kept snowing until mid afternoon. At sea level though it was falling more as rain or sleet and this caused an enormous movement of thrushes away from the areas with snow to the fields at Bygdøy. I was at Bygdøy in the morning and had at least 2500 Fieldfare, 1000 Redwing and 300 Song Thrush. Maridalen on the other hand had less than 50 thrushes in total! There were also 300 Meadow Pipits at Bygdøy and just a handful in Maridalen but otherwise the variety of species was limited and there was clearly no new arrival of birds but rather a local movement amongst those already here. The fields at Hengsenga, Bygdøy were flooded but had not attracted any ducks or waders other than a few Snipe and Green Sandpiper (I had hoped for Garganey and Shoveler). The highlight from Bygdøy was a ringtail Hen Harrier which headed slowly north and circled above me – this is my fifth record in Oslo in the last 2 weeks of a species that I count myself lucky if I see jut once. Pallid Harriers turned up further south in Norway yesterday so I hope that harriers keep turning up in Oslo this spring.

Maridalen was completely white and almost birdless but I had a real surprise when I opened the window at Skjerven and heard the sound of a Lapland Bunting singing and I was immediately transported to Valdresflya in June. It took a little while to see it and eventually I found 6 birds – 4 males and 2 females which is a record count for the Dale. I had been looking for just this species amongst all the Meadow Pipits on Bygdøy and had not expected to find them in Maridalen when there was so little else but they are a species that is used to such harsh conditions.

the sight that met me this morning

today's Hen Harrier

male Lapland Bunting (lappspurv)

4 males and a female

the 4 males

and all 6 birds

not often I get close enough to Meadow Pipits (heipiplerke) for decent pictures

Mistle Thrush (duetrost) - foolishly I took no pictures of the hoardes of Fieldfares and Redwings

Reed Bunting (sivspurv)

Ring Ouzel (ringtrost). surprisingly I only saw 3 amongst all the other thrushes which again is an inidication that there was no new arrival of birds but rather a local redistribution

2 Twite (bergirisk) in both Maridalen and Bygdløy were perhaps newly arrived though

female Wheatear (steinskvett)

male

Grey Wagtail (vintererle)

male Kestrel (tårnfalk) - the only other raptor I saw in addition to the Hen Harrier

the Lapwings (vipe) in Maridalen were suffering

this one was by farm buildings