Do you see anything hanging on that hook?
No?
That’s because today delivered big time 😊
Today really did feel like a make or break day for (my) Oslo
bird year. If the forecast southerly winds, cloud and showers did not deliver
on 9th May then there would be no chance of this spring having a big
day especially as the forecast for the next 10 days just looks to be sun. I had
been thinking of playing away and seawatching at Brentetangen followed by
Kurefjorden and then Dotterel searching but in the end decided, with Jack, to
keep it local and stare at the fjord at Huk from sunrise. I have only done this
once before but the efforts of Per Buertange a decade or so ago proved that
there was potential in it. We got there at 0450 to see that there was a fairly
low, and heavy, cloud base and a decent southerly wind blowing into our faces.
Now we just had to sit down, keep warm and wait to find out what the bird gods
had in store for us.
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| the view at 05:27 |
For the first hour or so I was thinking that I would be
hanging my bins on that hook as apart from a large flock of Common Scoter
resting on the sea and a Bar-tailed Godwit (Oslo #157) that had been roosting
on the rocks when we arrived there was really no sign of any movement. But then
things did move. First Jack picked up a skua and a dark phase Arctic (Oslo
#158) passed at relatively close range. Then we heard a Greenshank calling
above us and in our attempts to find it (there were 13 of them) we saw a large flock
of Red-throated Divers (60) and then over the course of the next couple of
hours we had a numbers of other flocks and ended up totalling 323 birds which absolutely
blasts away any previous counts from south eastern Norway. We also had
migrating flocks of Whimbrel which totalled 53, a huge flock of 200 Golden
Plover which flew north before turning around, 70 Velvet Scoters, 3 Guillemots
and an Arctic Tern (Oslo #159). Rarest though was a flyover Red-throated Pipit (Oslo
#160) which we identified on call although our views did confirm it was a
pipit.. and a Great Northern Diver (Oslo #161) which is an Oslo tick tick for
me, #251.
One disappointing and really strange feature of the morning
was the complete lack of passerine migration with not a single Yellow Wag or
Wheatear for example.
We packed our bags after 5 hours and then headed to
Maridalen. Here it was raining and with the low cloud expectations were not low
but there was little to see although a singing Icterine Warbler (Oslo #162) and
Hobby (Oslo #163) heading north were notable and new for the year.
There were 30 or so Swallows feeding over the lake so we
thought Østensjøvannet could be a good call for hirundines and maybe terns or
Little Gulls. There were a few Swallows and House Martins but 3 Swifts (Oslo
#164) were the best we could conjure up.
So I had 8 Oslo year ticks today and I am now approaching
the number of species I feel are guaranteed so if I am to have a record year I
need a rush of scarce and rare birds.
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| Arctic Skua (tyvjo) heading towards us with Common Terns (makrellterne) behind |
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| as close as it got and despite the gloom these are I think my best pics of the species close to Oslo |
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| 60 odd Red-throated Divers (smålom) @06.59 |
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| and part of an even larger flock @08.56. The flocks were flying high and didn't seem to be sure of where to go |
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| some of the 400+ Common Scoter (svartand) that were offshore |
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| and ca.200 Golden Plover (heilo) that first flew north and then turned and went back south |
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| there were good numbers of Common Terns (makrellterne) and amongst them at least this one Arctic (rødnebbterne) |
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