Nocturnal singers

Well, it seems birding still has something to offer so butterflies can wait just a bit longer which is just as well given the wet and cloudy weather we are forecast to have.

 Just after I wrote my last post an evening trip to Fornebu allowed me to first hear and then see a Gropper that had been found earlier in the day. Grasshopper Warbler remains a very scarce and not even annual special around Oslo and was unsurprisingly the first record of the year. This is the second time I’ve heard one at Fornebu with the first being a bird that arrived at the end of April in 2019 and hung around for a month. An April arrival fits in with the small regular Norwegian breeding population that are mostly found on the west coast whereas an arrival at the end of May/beginning of June (that is the normal fare in south east Norway) which often occur during warm periods with southerly winds may well be a bird that has already tried its luck somewhere else in Europe and has then decided to move north looking for more joy.

Grasshopper Warbler (gresshoppesanger) Fornebu

 Last night I was about to go to bed but then looked at the weather forecast and realised that even though conditions were not perfect (it was cloudy and damp) it would be quite a few days before there were any better conditions for some night singer activity. Maridalen started very quiet with just two Woodcocks for my troubles as I got to the end of the valley. A distant Tawny Owl had me trying to drive closer to locate it as amazingly enough this was only my second record this year. Early spring nocturnal sorties had resulted in just one very distant singing Tawny Owl which must have been a sign of how little food there was. Vole numbers may be picking up though as in addition to the two Tawnies I now heard a GGO was photographed in the forest just east of Maridalen last week. Maybe Oslo will have an owly autumn and winter?

As I drove with the window open I heard a noise that I thought was from the car but after turning off the engine (an electric car would be very good on these trips) I realised I was listening to my second Gropper in two days and only my fourth ever in Maridalen - and boy did it sing! I was able to see it quite well using my head torch and whilst doing so I thought I heard a Nightjar call. A bit later it called right over me and I then got to see it really well as it hunted moths around me and even sang briefly from a fence post.

I set about trying to record this unforgettable experience…. but as usual my phone has far fewer videos than I thought I took plus a good number of videos of the ground….  I thought I was seeing a red light showing I was filming but surprise, surprise things were not as I thought. I wonder if there is a support group for people like me? I also had the superzoom with me but despite use of the head torch it really struggles in the dark. I did get some documentation though:

First a video of the Grasshopper Warbler with a bonus Sedge Warbler at the end:

Pictures of the Nightjar

Nightjar (nattravn)

here we can see the white wing patch showing it to be a male (as confirmed by it singing)

And video of the Nightjar which does have a sequence of it moth catching from a fence post and then briefly singing with the sound of the Gropper all the time in the background:

On the way out a Sedge Warbler was in full song and this was a Maridalen tick for me🥳. I had first heard it in the middle of the day but only a couple of snatches of song which were not enough to confirm the ID. The ID was later confirmed though by Jon Andrea, an up and coming teenage birder who gives me hope that birding in Oslo has a bright future and by the evening it was not holding back.

There are now two Barnacle x Canada hybrids in Maridalen and both are different to last week’s bird so we really are talking about an influx.

 

both of the Canada x Barnacle (hvitkinngås) Geese hybrids

paler bird with a white forehead and hardly any hint of a darker chest

the darker bird

this bird is I am sure the paler bird but due to its posture it is showing off a white  neck collar which doesn't show in the other photo

the darker bird really stands out

here the darker bird, a Canada with too much white on the head and a Canada x Greylag hybrid

I went looking today for a retrospectively identified (heard only) singing Red-breasted Flycatcher found last week and which is the first record in Oslo since the last bird in Maridalen in 2019. The area where I believe it was heard looked just like the areas where they have previously been found breeding in Oslo but I heard nothing which either means it has moved on, or he is mated up and breeding as in my experience they go silent as soon as that happens and only start singing again once the eggs have hatched. The area was coincidentally one I have frequently visited for butterflies especially Northern Chequered Skipper and a brief period of sunshine did wonders and in addition to the skipper I also had a couple of Wood Whites which is a species I have seen even less often than the skipper.

Wood White (skoghvitvinge)

female Northern Chequered Skipper (svartflekksmyger)

here showing the underside of the wing and with a Green-veined White (rapssommerfugl)

and here with a Brimstone (sitronsommerfugl)

At Fornebu it was also great to find a Ringed Plover family. The species only regularly breeds around Oslo only on Gressholmen and at Fornebu. A couple of pairs have tried breeding at Gressholmen this year but seem to have failed despite two attempts whilst at Fornebu the available habitat is getting smaller and smaller. Finding this adult (the female?) with two young about a week old was therefore heart warming. They were close to a road and two young have also most likely been lost (they lay 4 eggs) and the odds are against these two but fingers crossed that they make it.

here the adult is sheltering one young whilst another runs away. I was watching from the car.

this is the one that was being sheltered. Note that the legs of the young look already to be fully grown