Raptor time

The Oslo Honey Buzzard nest that I have been following this summer is now empty (as far as I can see) although if you have been following the Sussex Honey Buzzard nest webcam on YouTube then you will know that the young can potentially still visit the nest four weeks after taking their first flight so my lack of sightings is definitely not absolute proof that they are gone. I will of course have a loooong but hopefully interesting post on the nest later in the autumn.

At the same time I no longer found any HB at the nest site I was following (I also know of another successful nest in Oslo this year) I noticed multiple juvenile HB over Maridalen with some birds definitely migrating in a southerly direction (both south east and south west) and other birds seemingly just enjoying thermalling, soaring and landing in the woods where I would love to to know what they were doing. It therefore seems clear that the species has had a good, and early, breeding season in southern Norway in 2026.

All the time looking at the sky has resulted in quite a few other raptors with seven species in Maridalen and a session at Årnestangen yesterday giving ten and I have seen 12 in total this last week. Nothing too exciting yet but juvenile HB in a direct flight have a very harrier like jizz and many birds also have narrow pale rumps so I have been eft scratching my head quite a few times.

Årnestangen yesterday was apart from the raptors a very strange affair with the extensive mud/sand flats almost completely empty of waders with just two Dunlin and two Greenshank. Svellet though has been far more productive with large numbers of both waders and dabbling ducks. A Broad-billed Sandpiper here was the undoubted highlight and a species I had forgotten about completely when in my last post I moaned about the wader species I had yet to see this year.

Great White Egrets have now turned en masse at Nordre Øyeren with 12 being the highest, and a record, count. I have had to content myself with just eight including a flock of six.

a migrating juvenil Honey Buzzard (vepsevåk) which is a grab from this video

the pale Common Buzzard (musvåk) in Maridalen. It has been around a few years now but for such a distinctive bird I see it quite infrequently.

my first Great Grey Shrike (varsler) of the autumn on the early date of 31 August. a lack of a wing bar shows it to be an adult and the all black bill probably a male

six Great White Egrets (egretthegre) and some Cranes (trane) at Svellet

and two at long range at Årnestangen

a video of a male Hen Harrier (myrhauk) at Årnestangen:

and a Marsh Harrier (sivhauk) eating a young gull at Svellet: