Head scratching

When I make statements that spring migrations is over that is of course not correct and we are now in the period, right at the end of the season, where the most exciting birds can turn up.

I was quite sure I heard a Serin in Maridalen on Tuesday but it was too brief to be sure and it is only now that the “proper” nocturnal singer season begins as the vegetation become high enough to hide, and support, the high summer birds. There are unfortunately few signs that this year will be very productive at night with next to no records so far in SE Norway of species like Corncrake, Quail, Spotted Crake, Grasshopper, River or Blyth’s Reed Warblers. And a trip into Maridalen with Jack last night revealed just a single Marsh Warbler with no joy with the Nightjars either.

Tomorrow, I am off with Conor to the cabin in Valdres for third time and Jack will be joining us. Whilst we are enjoying mountain birds galore I am sure that Oslo will experience a rush of rares!

Yesterday I added Oslo #183 to my list with a successful twitch to see 10 Dark-bellied Brent Geese that have been in the fjord for a couple of days and I can only hope that any other attempted Oslo twitches this year will go so smoothly (as failed twitches quickly put me off the idea for a long time).

 

Dark-bellied Brent Geese (ringgås)

Birding wise, Maridalen has revealed more surprises, head scratching and joy on the Lapwing front. The two (re)nesting pairs are still safely on their nests and have survived thunderstorms and huge amounts of rain. Lots of gulls feeding in the fields and which could take the eggs are kept at a distance by the ever vigilant males so by around 20 June we should have young although by then the crop will have grown so high that it will probably not be possible to see them anymore. The real surprise though which still has me scratching my head came on the other, original field where I had seen a brood of 4 recently hatched young on 23 May. I did not see them again until 28 May when an adult was accompanied by 2 young so it looked like 2 had been lost. But yesterday, 29 May, it was all very confusing. There were 4 adults on the field, seemingly 2 pairs about 200m from each other. I also saw that there was a youngster with each “pair” and then after a long time managed to see that there were actually 2 young with each pair. All the young looked to be about a week old and that leaves me with some questions I suspect I will never get an answer to.

Is there now a fourth breeding pair that has nestedsuccessfully without me having any clue?

Or, has the original brood of 4 somehow been split in two and possibly been adopted by another pair?

The two sets of young remained separate in both the morning and afternoon so it was not just a temporary split.

Lapwing (vipe) family #1

 

young look to be about a week old

family 2

young here also look about the same age

nest 1

nest 2

The Whooper Swans are still on “their” nest but if it is the Mute Swan eggs that they (although I think it is only the female that has been on the nest) are incubating then they should be hatching any day soon as I first saw the Mutes on the nest 22 April and the incubation period is around 36 days.

The Hobbies have disappeared again although I did discover the Hooded Crows nest that had clearly attracted them to the site where they were on Monday and Tuesday. They should be laying eggs any day soon so I hope I find their chosen site.

At a Black Woodpecker nest that I have not spent much time observing this year (although I hear them a lot) I was aware that the first youngster left the nest on 24 May. It was therefore very surprising to see another youngster still in the nest yesterday, 5 days later. The male was calling constantly from a nearby tree in attempt to lure it out but without success whilst we were there. Owls and raptors usually have a wide range of ages for their young as they start incubating from the first egg but I thought woodpeckers only started incubating once the whole clutch was laid so for there to be such a difference in development of the young is unusual unless this last youngster is in some way injured and unable to leave the nest.

Black Woodpecker (svartspett) young

dad

here calling to get to get Jr out of the nest

Bugs are of course causing me to look down and I had a new and long awaited species with a Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk Moth (smalkantet humlesvermer). I found it originally in constant movement and could not see which of the two similar species it was (Broad-bordered is commoner and one I have seen before) but when a cloud covered the sun it immediately started nectaring and I was able to see it well and get photos. I have previously seen either Narrow or Broad-bordered buzzing past me in Maridalen but this is the first time I have been able to identify one to species.

Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk Moth (smalkantet humlesvermer)

a male Orange Tip (aurorasommerfugl)

and my first Heath Fritillary (marimjellerutevinge) of the year

there are a lot of cats in Maridalen and they undoubtedly take a lot of birds although this one will be viewed favourably by most people as it has "only" taken a rodent