If you think I am enjoying too many meetings with old
acquaintances at the moment then I apologise and give prior warning that also
my next post will be of the reunion kind.
A trip to Årnestangen yesterday was of the successful type
as can be seen by my eBird checklist not least because for the second time this
year I got to have prolonged and repeated views of a juvenile Pallid Harrier.
During the course of my visit I saw it (assuming it was the same bird) on six
occasions and it came close and some awesome photos could have been taken had I the skill and equipment for the job but as I was
reliant on the superzoom to create my own digital memories I concentrated on
catching video but the bird flies too quickly so the results are not that satisfactory
and do not do the bird justice.
Long video of juvenile Pallid Harrier (steppehauk)
and a juvenile Hen Harrier (myrhauk)
the best photo I took of the Pallid which at least leaves little doubt to both species and age of said species
In between visits from the Pallid I spent a lot of time
peering through my scope at a distant wader. It was slightly smaller than the
Dunlins it was mixing with and appeared to have a clean white belly and a well
delineated streaky chest. I really tried hard to turn it into a Baird’s
Sandpiper (gulbrystsnipe) but in the end came, under a bit of duress, to the
conclusion that it was just an odd Dunlin. There was nothing in its jizz or
movements to distinguish it from the accompanying Dunlins and I think there was
some faint streaking on the belly. This video accurately conveys the distant viewing
conditions and perhaps helps to explain why I found it so difficult to make an
ID.
Ruff (brushane) on the right and a wader that I spent far too long looking at on the left
A Great Snipe that flew up in front of me and showed well in
flight means I have finally seen the species this year but it is hardly the
same as watching them on their lek site. Just need to see Sanderling now..
only my second sighting of Grey Plover (tundralo) this year but they at least showed very well. In the video there is also a Bar-tailed Godwit (lappspove)
I have had a couple of very enjoyable and of course successful
guiding trips recently. Both were morning outings with the delights of
Maridalen featuring in the first trip and the second which entailed a pick up
in Lillestrøm worked well to put the spotlight on Årnestangen and Nordre
Øyeren. For the Årnestangen trip I was booked as a birthday present from a clearly
very loving and thoughtful wife in Panama for her husband who was in Norway on
business!
We were at Årnestangen on Sunday morning and there were far
more birders there than usual with a Pectoral Sandpiper seen the previous day probably
being the draw. The Pec was not refound but it turned out to be a good raptor
day. Ryan and I had Hen Harrier, Peregrine, Merlin and White-tailed Eagle among
others but after we had left a juvenile Pallid Harrier was seen.
Pallid Harrier is a species I cannot get enough of. When I
was a teenager it did not even feature in the bird books I had but has in the
last couple of decades clearly expanded westwards. The reasons are not clear
but changes in farming practices in the former Soviet republics are a possible
cause with birds having to look for new breeding sites as old ones become
unsuitable.
I have been lucky enough to find three birds myself but none
have been exactly good views. I have twitched a couple of males that spent thesummer one year near Valdresflya and that was a great though damp and grey experience.
For a long time I was missing a good, prolonged and close meeting with a
juvenile bird though but that came to fruition in 2022 with another twitch but
only half an hour from home.
Every autumn I visit places such as Nordre Øyeren with the
plan of finding a Pallid Harrier but am always disappointed. Yesterday when I
decided on another trip to Årnestangen I had the same hope but nevertheless
expected to be disappointed. It was a damp start to the day and definitely not classic
raptor conditions but there were raptors. First a Marsh Harrier then a Hobby,
then the Marsh Harrier again and as I tried to get the scope on it another
raptor appeared and it was a juv Pallid Harrier! I assumed it was the same bird
as two days previously but later experiences make it clear to me that it could
very well have been a new bird (and there seems to be quite a few birds moving
through southern Norway in these days). With only the superzoom my digital
memories of this fairly close encounter are of course not that great but hey I
enjoyed it!
juvenile Pallid Harrier (stepphauk)
just as striking from above
The raptors were far from over in their generous giving
though. As I retreated in my steps to try to refind the harrier which had
disappeared behind some bushes I looked up and saw an immature White-tailed
Eagle chasing a Peregrine. The falcon, an adult, had a wader, probably a Ruff,
in its talons and was trying to gain height and fly away from the eagle but the
eagle kept catching up and following the falcons every move. The falcon then
dropped its prey and the eagle stooped down and caught it mid-air!! I was
certain that the Peregrine could out manoeuvre the eagle but maybe the prey was
just too large and heavy for it. Impressive flying by the eagle though and
something I wish I could have recorded digitally although I was so
enthralled watching it that I didn’t even consider lifting the camera. When
this was over I then saw that the Pallid Harrier was flying over where I had first
seen it and I then hurried back there and out to the end of the peninsula. I
chose to watch from the old tower as I thought the elevated position might prove
advantageous and it did. I picked up a female Hen Harrier working her way
towards me and then she put up the Pallid which must have been resting unseen
in the grass! The two flew together for a bit and then disappeared from view. I
waited a god while hoping they would reappear but in vain. I then hurried out
to the end of the peninsula and as I did so the Pallid flew quickly past and
then in true Top Gun style did a fly-by of the tower where I had just been
standing!!!
3 of 5 White-tailed Eagles (havørn)
female Hen Harrier (myrhauk)
I then spent around three hours on the platform at the tip
and have to say I was pretty happy with my time there. There were quite a few waders
including my first Grey Plover of the year I twice heard a call that matched the
recording of Pec Sand that I had on my phone but never saw the bird that gave
it although there were clearly many waders that were very hidden as a couple of
Lapwing only gave themselves away after I had been there a couple of hours when
a Kestrel caused them to call and then briefly fly up from behind a long line
of willow bushes. Many of the waders present match what was seen on Saturday to
it wouldn’t be a complete surprise if the Pec Sand was also present but well
hidden.
Bird, if not sighting, of the day was a 2nd
winter Mediterranean Gull which I picked up resting with Herring and LBb Gulls
before it quickly flew off. This was a species that up until a few years ago
was becoming almost expected but has since become rare again.
There were also a couple of Great White Egret, a migrating
juvenile Honey Buzzard (I have never seen so many as this year which must be
proof of a great breeding season) and then another sighting of a juvenile Pallid
Harrier. It was suddenly in the air with a Hooded Crow harassing it and then
landed for a few minutes and giving good scope views before then flying off
south-west over the water and then thermalling over the “mainland” before
disappearing. This bird had a different jizz and did not appear to be quite so long
and thin winged as the earlier bird making me sure I had seen two different
birds.
this is the second Pallid when it briefly rested before crossing the water to the SW
and this video has the first Pallid, the female Hen Harrier, both harriers flying together and then the second Pallid together with a Hooded Crow both in flight and on the ground
Here is my eBird checklist for the day, a day I reckon will
be hard to beat this autumn, or at least until I go to Værøy in three weeks 😊
this Black Woodpecker (svartspett) was in a the final bunch of trees at the end of the peninsula and on three occasion flew out heading south (and otherefore over the water) before each time returning. If 3km of water is too far then it is no surprise they have never been seen in GB
a latish Red-backed Shrike (tornskate)
and another
here we see one of them is carrying a ring
and a picture from Maridalen of a migrating juvenile Honey Buzzard (vepsevåk). I know the bird is completely unidentifiable in this picture but you can at least see it is in Maridalen
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:
1st June marks the start of summer in Oslo but on a rainy
day with southerly winds I still had my thoughts on late spring migrants. This
is the time of the year when really unexpected rarities can turn up but there
are also more predictable ones such as rare terns or waders that you can hope
to find at Svellet or Årnestangen. That was where I was headed today and
Svellet still has some exposed mud. A good number of gulls and a few Common
Terns were resting here but nothing rare or scarce and single of Red- and
Greenshank were the only waders.
The walk out to Årnestangen was mostly dry (I chose the
umbrella rather than rain coat option which worked out well) and mercifully
free of mosquitoes although I am sure they will come soon. There were attractive
looking mudflats and pools at the tip but they were all rather birdless
although a heavy rain shower but an end to my scanning and I had to seek cover
sitting down pushed against the wall of the hopefully inadequate but typically
Norwegian viewing platform. Most counties equip nature reserves with «hides»
where you can sit down and escape the rain whilst also being hidden from the
birds such that you enjoy closer views and the birds are less disturbed. Norway
of course has to do things differently and at Årnestangen the choice is a
slightly raised open platform that offers no real shelter from the elements and
definitely doesn’t hide you from the birds. Rather curiously, viewing slats
have been put in the low walls which I was able to use today when on my knees
and flattened against the wall with umbrella over me although I doubt that was
there intended use.
Whilst sheltering I did hear a few waders and when the rain
stopped enough for me to look properly I found three Turnstones with a small
flock of Ringed Plovers. It is very rare for me to see Turnstone in summer
plumage so this was a nice if distant encounter. Not a single calidris
wader was a disappointment although a Red-Backed Shrike was the last of the non-nocturnal
breeding migrants that I had yet to see.
Maridalsvannet has had a hatch of insects which in recent
years attracts terns. None have turned up so far this year but a Little Gulls
hawking insects with the Black-headeds today was nice. Yesterday evening a
large flock of Canada Geese flew over the house and today what must be the same
birds were in Maridalen. Amongst them was a hybrid Canada x Barnacle but
surprisingly not the same one as in Sørkedalen last week. What is causing this
sudden influx of presumed dutch birds?
On Friday butterfly watching in Maridalen was interrupted by
news of a Little Egret at Fornebu and I quickly drove down to enjoy it. This
species is still very rare around Oslo with this being only the 5th record
whilst Great White has become annual and sometimes in small flocks.
the knee high viewing slats at Årnestangen allowed me some slight protection from the rain
during a pause in the rain. It was the exact weather conditions you hope for out there and in mid to late July could have resulted in hundreds of waders of many species.
Little Egret (silkehegre) at Fornebu on Friday
hybrid Canada x Barnacle Goose in Maridalen. It lacks the white forehead that last weeks bird in Sørkedalen had (see previous post) and also had a much darker breast
three young Lapwing (vipe) being looked over by mum
and here are 4 young. There was another adult closeby and the 4th young may have been from another brood. None of them was the single large young that I saw flapping its wings last week so things are still looking good. Two nests are still being incubated and have at least another week to go before we see any young.
Skjerven - the geese and Lapwing field in Maridalen
The Beast turns 8 in September which coincidentally means
that according to all that dog/human year malarkey he and I are the same age
(at least for now). I guess there have been a few thousand morning walks he has
taken me on over the years and we have seen a few interesting birds in the area
where we live with Pine Grosbeak probably being the best. Yesterday morning
though we added a new species with a Wood Warbler singing in the local wood.
Although the oak dominated wood may be suitable as a breeding locality I am
sure the bird was a migrant. As such I think it is only the second time I have
come across a singing spring migrant (not that I have come across any non
singing ones either). And that got me thinking - why do I hear many singing
migrant Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers but not Wood Warblers? Is it because
Wood Warblers don’t often sing on migration or is it just because there are so
many, many more Chiffs and Willies that you are so much more likely to
encounter one of them?
Svellet was the subject of my attention yesterday and whilst
water levels have only risen by 2cm since yesterday and 4cm since Monday there
was a considerable reduction in the number of birds. And I was able to watch
that number more than half when a young Peregrine had a go at some Wood
Sandpipers which of course all flew off but also never returned.
Over the past couple of weeks I have seen the waders
frequently flying around due to a raptor (most often unseen) but always landing
again but what I observed today clearly shows that migration awaits and the
birds clearly have an unavoidable urge to keep heading north.
We have a couple of days of rain ahead of us and also
southerly winds after aperiod of cold northerly winds so we may still have some
mighty experiences at Svellet but it will definitely be a question of quality
rather than quantity now.
I also walked out to the end of Årnestangen which was a
rather quiet affair on the bird front with not a single waders at the tip but
there were two butterfly surprises with my first Swallowtail and Painted Lady
of the year which were not what I expected on a quite cloudy and not that warm
day.
Svellet from the east
and from west looking north 13 May 2026
and looking south
and Årnestangen
In Maridalen the Lapwings continue to surprise positively with 3 broods seen - 4 and 1 were on open ground and fully accounted for but another single youngster popped out of long grass and there could definitely, and hopefully, have been more there. Two females are also on new nests and a pair were displaying so there may be yet another nest to come. They all still have to survive more farmer activity and foxes and crows but I think we are in a surprisingly good place.
my first Painted Lady (tistelsommerfugl) of the year. A faded but otherwise undamaged individual
whereas the colours of my first Swallowtail were perfect it had clearly already been attacked by birds and had chunks missing from the back of its wings
It is the middle of April and the next six weeks are the
most exciting of the year (in the Oslo area at least). In addition to many new
birds for the year there are also new birding sites to reacquaint myself with
and I have now competed my first walk to the end of Årnestangen for the year as
well as my first grilling of the mighty Svellet.
Conditions today at Svellet were magical and I have a small
but growing hope that this will be one of those Svellet springs that are
entered into the history books, or at least get remembered on this blog. Today
the water level (3.61m) was perfect and there were enormous areas of shallow
water and wet mud. 2000 Teal and 234 Curlew were both good counts and the quality
came in the form of a male Garganey, a Bar-tailed Godwit plus two very early
Ruff and a Redshank. The weather over the coming weeks will be key to whether
conditions remain perfect and we need just enough rain such that the mud doesn’t
dry up but not too much rain (or sun that causes lots of melt water to flow down
the river) such that water levels do not rise too quickly. I hope every birder
in Oslo and Akershus is praying to the Birds Gods.
Svellet from the eastern side. Even though I describe conditions as perfect the distances are very long and a scope is essential and even then not always enough to identify all the birds out there
and some of the Teal (krikkand) and also the Garganey (knekkand). As I said they are a long way away
Årnestangen has also delivered with another very early wader
in the form of a Whimbrel, an early Swallow and a good selection of raptors
including a Red Kite which flew low over my head without me seeing it but that
I then caught up with in the scope at about 6km range…
Taiga Bean Goose and Greylags at Årnestangen today. This is a relatively late bird as were the 4 Tundra Beans I saw yesterday
the bird was close to the Geylags in size and had a long slender neck and long thin bill with thin lower mandible.
I had a very enjoyable and successful morning guiding
Barbara from Canada on Monday and we saw 60 species including Jack Snipe, Black
and Red-throated Divers, Lesser Spotted and Black Woodpeckers. And if you don’t
believe my description then read Barbara’s 😊
one of three Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin) at Fornebu. This bird has been regularly feeding in the open and to me looks very much like a Broad-billed Sandpiper...
and a more expected shot of a Jack
and a Common Snipe (enkeltbekkasin)
male Kestrel (tårnfalk) in Maridalen
and a Mistle Thrush (duetrost) in The Dale
Little Ringed Plover (dverglo) are back at Fornebu and will hopefully breed again this year
and Ringed Plovers (sandlo) are also back at last years nest site although they have less and less space available to them
