Tengmalm's Owls and northern lights

Last Wednesday Per Christian and I took one more (final?) trip to Owl Road with the hope of connecting with the two big owls that I had had the week before. This was not to be but it was a good night for Tengmalm’s Owls which were again singing at sites where I had heard them in mid February but not since. This suggests that there was indeed a crash in rodent numbers when the snow melted very quickly but that numbers are now on there way up giving the owls hope that they will be able to breed successfully. At the site where I filmed the hooting Tengmalm’s a couple of weeks previously he was again singing loudly and regularly when we arrived.  What was even better though was that he was visiting and singing from a nest hole and there were two birds. I got some footage I am very happy with and even caught on film how the males song changed when the female called which is described in the Sound Approach as engagement hooting.

We also had some pretty spectacular northern lights.

There are two videos. The first one is my Director's Cut and has long sequences of singing just to give the idea of how constant it was. The second is a shorter version. In both though you hear the regular song then the calls of the female from behind me and then the immediate change of the males hooting to a quicker, quieter and almost continuous series.

male Tengmalms's Owl (perleugle) who was singing from his chosen nest hole

Liberation Day

It is very dry at the moment and gets warm in the afternoons but at night in Maridalen there is still a frost. The ice on the lake is visibly thinning and the ice free area at Hammeren is expanding during the day but come the next morning much has frozen over again.

These are not great conditions for attracting birds onto the fields though and there is VERY little to see with the flocks of Mistle Thrushes and Bramblings having moved on with the thrushes having moved to their local breeding sites in the forest and the Bramblings to breeding sites further north.

I am determined to find a Red Kite this spring and with Maridalen not playing ball I decided to drive to the south east yesterday but this didn’t result in anything other than a few Common Buzzards. Sky gazing in Maridalen today gave quite a few Pink-footed and Greylag Geese with Greylag now migrating in larger flocks than earlier. A few Cranes also went north as did a single Sparrowhawk (I also had some local Sparrowhawks, Goshawks and Common Buzzard) but the raptor of the day was a Marsh Harrier heading south west of all directions.

A male Pintail has joined an increasing number of Mallards and is clearly in love with a female Mallard who he is noisily displaying to.

A trip to the Mighty Svellet yesterday revealed an early group of 24 Curlew and the conditions currently look fantastic but what they will be like in a months time when the real fun starts is anyones guess.

I write this on April 2^nd 2025 the day that the Great Orange Clown has named “Liberation Day”. Let us hope that following this day the Red Kites feel liberated enough to show themselves to me rather than there being erected barriers to migration 😉

a very fine male Pintail (stjertand)

no rings. There have in previous years been Pintails in the Oslo area with pastic rings and which have therefore jumped the fence but this one has no obvious sings of plasticity

female Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett). The birds in Maridalen have suddenly gone quiet suggesting they are paired up as was this bird.

and the male

today's rarest bird was an early Marsh Harrier (sivhauk)

one of the local Common Buzzards (musvåk). I am unsure if it has nesting material in its talons or has picked up some grass at the same time it tok prey. It was calling over its presumed nest area

migrating Cranes (trane)

a singing Dunnock (jernspurv)

I am now up to 3 butterfly species this year. Here a Brimstone (sitronsommerfugl)

and a Camberwell Beauty (sørgekåpe). Small Tortoiseshell (neslesommerfugl) is the other species I have seen

Q1

The first quarter of the year is now complete and an ice free Østensjøvannet is sure sign that spring is here as was the sound of singing Chiffchaff today. The ice has gone very quickly at Østensjøvannet – on Wednesday when I saw the Smew there was just a small ice free area where all the birds were concentrated but by Saturday all the ice was gone. The period when there is just a small ice free area is a good time to be at Østensjøvannet because it is possible to get good views of many species so it is a shame that it was so short this year. The Saturday visit was to see a Pochard that had been found and another visit today revealed both the Pochard and Smew to still be present. There must be a lot of small fish as there are good numbers of Goosander but there are few dabbling ducks and unfortunately the Black-headed Gulls look like they have already decided they are not nesting here for yet another year. The lake has previously had up to 2000 breeding pairs and lots of work has been done to ensure there are suitable nesting sites but something else, which I believe is a lack of food, has put the gulls off the lake.

In Maridalen the first Meadow Pipits have arrived and Twite remain in very good numbers but there is little else and definitely no raptor passage which I hope to see each day with sun….

female Pochard (taffeland) at Østensjøvannet

and a male Tufted Duck (toppand)

I scanned all the gulls for something rare but reading colour rings was the most exciting thing in the end. Here three different types of colour ring on Black-headed Gulls. The white and green are Norwegian and the red is from the UK (I have yet to receive details on it)

J88E was the oldest bird and was ringed as an adult female at Østensjøvannet 31st May 2015. It has been seen many time since but only in the Oslo area and it wintering grounds are unknown

J0280 is the bird that has travelled most. Ringed in Oslo 9 June 2022 it has been seen in Milton Keynes, England in January of both 2023 and 2025

Whooper Swans (sangsvane) are still moving through and this group was in Maridalen yesterday

Adders can be found sunning themselves in the same places each (sunny) day and it is still only males that are out

Black Woodpeckers (svartspett) are excavating a new hole after using the same one for the last 3 years

Goosander (laksand)

Great Crested Grebes (toppdykker)

spot the Meadow Pipit (heipiplerke)

and an easier to see Skylark (sanglerke)

Migrants and lingering Hawk Owl

We have now had two nights without frost and along with southerly winds I have been expecting a flood of migrants. Of course, that has not been the case and viz mig has been a particular disappointment with just a few flocks of Pink-footed Geese, 2 Cranes and a Kestrel. I had a real hope for a few raptors but it is clearly still too early still (and I have this “surprise” every year at this time….).

 

Despite the lack of viz mig there has been an arrival of new birds. Dunnocks and Redwings are suddenly back and singing from woodland, White and Grey Wagtail are suddenly wagging away and there are considerably more Lapwing, Mistle Thrushes, Chaffinches, Bramblings and a large Twite flock in Maridalen. Surprisingly though there are no Robins back yet but that must happen soon.

The Hawk Owl has been showing very well as it exploits a rich source of Bank Voles (klatremus) and I was very happy to be able to film it dismembering and then eating one.

 

A trip to Østensjøvannet was very birdy with lots of noisy gulls and various wildfowl with a pair of Smew being the absolute highlight.

The video I have long wanted to capture showing the beheading, entrails removing and swallowing of a vole

Hawkie on a wire

and on its way down for what ended up being an unsuccessful vole hunt

this video has a few sequences with it giving its call that I also heard frequently when it first turned up in November

male Smew (lappfiskand)

pair

and with a Grey Heron (gråhegre)

3 male Teal (krikkand)

and a close of up another bird

the Heron was not at all popular with the Black-headed Gulls (hettemåke)

Goosander (laksand) are also back

3 species of returning gulls on the ice and 2 male Goosander

Grey Wagtail (vintererle) is back in the Dale

as is Dunnock (jernspurv)

and Redwing (rødvingetrost)

and a large flock of Twite (bergirisk) is having a stop off on its migration

and the first White Wagtail (linerle) of the year

not in Maridalen and not a good picture but I cannot remember capturing Parrot (furukorsnebb) and Common Crossbill (grankorsnebb) together before

Canada and Greylag Geese in Maridalen suddenly became very alert when this fox appeared