Checking out the breeding raptors

Back in Oslo and procrastinating away I am using dog walking duties as a means of checking out on my breeding raptors. Yesterday, saw me visiting the Honey Buzzard nest and today was a final attempt to find the Hobby nest.

The Honey Buzzard young still look healthy although a very obvious difference in the development of the two birds is perhaps more than just an age difference and could suggest food shortages mean one of them (the older one) is getting more food. I looked under the nest and saw no discarded wasp comb which I take as a bad sign. Walking up to the nest area I glimpsed an adult gliding towards the nest but was unable to see if it was the male or the female although based on the last two years the female will probably have already bailed. An hour and a quarter at the nest revealed only the young doing nothing other than sitting still with no wing stretching or squabbling. On the way back to the car I saw two dark HB thermalling high over the nest site that quickly disappeared from view and then the male appeared low over the trees by the nest and also quickly thermalled out of view. I could not make out if the first two birds were a male and female but assume they were non/failed breeders moving over the area or perhaps prospecting for a future nest site.

 On the Hobby front it was a case of bad news and good news. The good news is that I located the nest and could confirm that there have been young, the bad news is that the confirmation came from the presence of a dead juvenile on the ground under the nest. The carcass was right by a path and the nest right over it and it was only seeing the carcass that allowed me to find the nest. The nest was incredibly will hidden and impossible to see from anywhere else other than under it. I had no live birds in the area so have no idea whether any other young have fledged although if they had then I would have expected to hear them. My last sighting in the nest area was 16 June and I have visited since then without joy so it was a real surprise that such a large juvenile was there which would have meant the adults would have been caring for it and bringing food for the last month. The carcass still looked fairly fresh although had been eaten at and there were droppings from a mammal on it. My theories for how it ended on the ground are either being blown out during high winds or perhaps a Goshawk attacked the nest resulting in one of the young jumping out and the others being eaten?? My failure to locate any adults (especially hearing them) on previous visits is also strange and makes me wonder if one of the adults also perished at some point such that just a single adult was bringing food but that is pure speculation.

 

Otherwise, I have had very few other raptors when in Maridalen although it is the end of the month that is usually the most productive and there is little in the way of migrants other than a few Whinchat and Red-backed Shrikes. The two baby Whooper Swans are growing and being well guarded by their parents but I have not seen the lone baby Mute Swan again.

The two Honey Buzzard (vepsevåk) young on the nest. The head of the closest bird is still covered in white downy feathers whereas the other, older, bird has lost most of them

very poor pictures of the two HB that thermalled high over the nest.

the male from the breeding birds that appeared out of the forest by the nest

the unfortunate proof that Hobbies (lerkefalk) have indeed bred in Maridalen this year

the carcass of a juvenile Hobby

fresh droppings of a mammal that I assume had been feeding on the carcass

here, I have turned over the carcass

the nest was very difficult to find but through the binoculars I could see lots of white feathers around the nest

one of four 1st year Red-backed Shrike (tornskate) that as is most recent years are finding lots to eat in a cooperative organic vegetable patch

a juvenile (male?) House Sparrow (gråspurv) was with the Tree Sparrows (pilfink) at Kirkeby and indicates repeated breeding of this once mythical species (for me at least) in Maridalen