Beitostølen summer 2023 Birds

The last week was spent as is tradition in Beitostølen. This year we had the company of Sr1 and Sr2 over from Blighty and it was definitely birding lite on my part although I did use a bit of time on butterflies when the weather allowed (which will be the subject of my next post).

It was 5 weeks since I was on Valdresflya with Conor and the hot June had caused all the snow to melt. It was still a late melt though and there were few birds to find with especially passerines such as Meadow Pipit and Wheatear as good as absent from the higher areas. One bird that was absent on our visit in June was Dotterel but I found an incubating male this time right by a path. In fact it was him would found me as he was suddenly, and silently, at my feet doing a distraction display. After walking on he quickly returned to his nest. I wanted to show him to the Seniors but could not find him when I returned (I had expected him to make himself known again) but Sr1 outdid himself by locating him on the nest and he did not once move whilst we watched him. I assume when there is more than one predator close to the nest that sitting tight and hoping the camouflage works is a better tactic than trying the distraction display.

Otherwise we had close encounters with Long-tailed Ducks which were taking insects off the water alongside Tufted Ducks and Teal.

The only raptors (or owls) of the whole week were singles of Kestrel and Merlin. The Merlin was clearly breeding and as a bird specialist it will be far less affected by the lack of rodents that causes the absence of other raptors.

Pied Flycatchers seemed to be very numerous with fledged young seen and a pair was feeding young in a box by our cabin and allowed me to witness the behaviour that I had hoped to watch in the garden this year. The male would feed within 20m of the nest box and found endless quantities of insects and his presence probably was the reason we could sit outside without being bothered by mosquitoes.

I paid just a quick visit to the Great Snipe lek to assure myself it was still in use (which it was) but did not take any pictures.

male Dotterel (boltit)

spot him?

male Long-tailed Duck (havelle)

female

female Merlin (dvergfalk)

male Pied Flycatcher (svarthvit fluesnapper) with a mouthful of food

with a moth

and a male Redstart (rødstjert) with a caterpillar that it was taking to a fledged youngster

we were used to the Pied Flys giving alarm calls whenever Magpies (skjære) were around but one morning it was the Magpies that were alarm calling and the reason was an Adder!