Forced to twitch to get a feeling of spring

The progression of spring has not met my always high expectations. Lots of fog and temperatures only just over zero seem to be holding birds back with ice still on all water other than some streams and rivers, snow still covering most fields and the chance of a large spring flood seeming to be reduced.

Trips to the Glomma and Aurskog-Høland have revealed lots of Whooper Swans which are definitely on the move but there are not may other waterfowl moving yet. If the main flock of Taiga Beans have arrived then they are hiding themselves very well and I have only found four on two visits with one pair flying around calling and clearly not managing to find any kin. I have managed to twitch a Bewick’s Swan and a flock of White-fronted Geese but have not found my bird finding boots so far this year and a visit to a foggy Østensjøvannet today resulted in me twitching others finds in the terms of a male Stonechat and a nice adult Rook.

Maridalen is just white with ice, snow and fog and there is no evidence of spring migrants other than three Whooper Swans which are back. The bird I feel is most notably missing so far this spring is Mistle Thrush which was a very absentee on trips out east. I assume there is some cold weather further south that is holding them, and a number of other species, back.

Bewick's Swan (dvergsavne). This is the only bird to be seen in Norway so far this year and is a species that I think is a good candidate to become a national rarity not so much as it is difficult to identify but more because it has now become a genuinely rare species in the country. Many records now are, such as this one, of birds mixed up with spring flocks of Whooper Swans and turn up in similar areas each spring suggesting they are returning birds. This one is in the same area as a pair in 2023 and upto three birds last year. I should look at the bill markings to see if it is a bird from a previous year.

The bird was found on Friday amongst 300 Whoopers. I had been there on Thursday when there were only 130 Whoopers and despite it being top of mind did not see anything smaller amongst them.

Lapwings (vipe) have not come to Maridalen or fields by Glomma but there was a big concentration by Hellesjøvannet yesterday with 70 birds considered a very high count nowadays

a pair of Taiga Beans. There was another pair about 50m away but no big flock yet. I wonder if the 12 I had last week were part of the regular flock or perhaps from another population and were just passing through.

White-fronted Geese (tundragås) with Greylags and Canada Geese. The flapping bird has particularly impressive belly barring

there are 10 White-fronts in this shot

today's Rook (kornkråke) with a Hooded Crow (kråke) at Østensjøvannet. A number of records in the Oslo area in the last few days show that the very small spring passage of the species is occuring now

and a nice male Stonechat (svartstrupe) which was in exactly the same area as a bird 3 years ago

these large hairy caterpillars seem to be a very important part of the diet of the early returning Stonchats. That no other insect eating species seem to feed on them quite so much makes me wonder if they are a poisonous species and only Stonechats have developed the ability to eat them