Back in Oslo and one more butterfly...

This will, I think, be my last butterfly post of the year so please bear with me 😊

 

Sunday and Monday saw us driving back from Bodø to Oslo with us again taking the scenic but by no means slow route via Røros and Trysil. This allowed me to see Silvery Argus (kileblåvinge) for the second time and once again they were easy to find along a road. We also drove past great looking forest bog habitat that I will have to visit in the middle of June in one of the coming years.

First full day back in Oslo and I had to take a trip to Fornebu to see my first Brown Hairstreaks of the year with two males noted. I thought this would be my last butterfly species of the year but there was a surprise in store for me. In my post from January where I listed the species I had still to see in Norway there was one species that looked like it would be easy for me to see – Essex Skipper (timoteismyger). I had been contemplating the 40 minute drive to the Drammen area to “twitch” one but had seen some new records this year showing that the species was clearly expanding to the east and I thought why should I travel to see what is quite a small, boring species when it looked like it would come to me - although not necessarily this year, or even next, but soon.

And there it was! I was watching some Small Heaths (engringvinge) when I saw a small orange butterfly perched on a grass straw. I immediately knew what it was and just managed to take two pictures before it flew off strongly in the direction of Oslo (where it has yet to be recorded) and was gone. For such a small species it had a very strong and direct flight and it is no wonder that it is such a successful colonist.

Essex Skipper becomes my 85^th Norwegian species and my third new one this year following a successful trip to the forest bogs of Hedmark in June.

Essex Skipper (timoteismyger) - my 3rd new species this year and 85th ever in Norway

a male Brown Hairstreak (slåpetornstjertvinge)

the glacier Blåmannsisen lies above Sulitjelma and is visible from close to our cabin.

male Silvery Argus (kileblåvinge)

And here is some evidence to show that I do still look at birds. This juvenile Greenshank (gluttsnipe) was just one of a surprisingly good selection of waders at Fornebu.

Male Red-backed Shrike

Not so much to report from the last few days with perhaps my first male Red-backed Shrike of the year the highlight. This late migrant seems to be later than normal this year or perhaps we are just going to get fewer than normal for some reason. Time will tell but Marsh Warblers that have also been scarce up until now seem to now be arriving in force.

An Arctic Tern at Maridalsvannet was a close second and a scarcer bird in a local context. Terns have become a regular feature of Maridalsvannet in recent years with both Arctic and Common exploiting good hatches of insects. I have been waiting for them to appear this year after the insects have started hatching and Black-headed Gulls, and a single brief Little Gull, have been exploiting them for a week. It was therefore satisfying to see an Arctic on Friday once a rain storm had eased enough for me to look over the lake.

The invasion of Painted Lady butterflies that has made the national press in the UK is hitting Norway as well and even though numbers are currently below those in the UK it is now turning up in all habitats, including my garden, and has already breached the Arctic Circle.

Otherwise breeding birds are hanging on. In Maridalen there are at least 3 Lapwing youngsters from 2 broods that are now large enough to resemble their paretns and the two replacement nests are still being incubated and should hatch any day soon. At Fornebu the Ringed Plovers seem faithful to their corner of a building site hemmed in by a road but they have attentive parents that still brood them when it rains or they perceive danger.

male Red-backed Shrike (tornskate) - here you see how it gets its name

and his mate

female Ringed Plover (sandlo) protecting 2 young during a rain shower. I am viewing from a car and despite being close to them they act naturally and react more to people walking along the road than any cars or lorries that pass close by. The young can also be seen in the video:

2 young Lapwing (vipe) in Maridalen. There was hopefully one or maybe two others from this brood in the long grass

this single surviving youngster from its brood is now looking quite adult like and will hopefully fledge making its parents hard work a success

Spring, summer and autumn all in the course of an hour

Even though the weather today was quite challenging with rain storms I am actually talking about the bird seasons.

I ended up at Fornebu this morning after having had to drop Jr Jr off nearby. A report earlier in the morning of a small flock of Brent Geese flying over the suburbs and the fresh southerly winds had me thinking a sea gaze may give something although this late in the spring (or summer as it officially is in Norway now) there was never going to be much but it could be a case of quality over quantity.

My first scan revealed a Brent Goose standing on an islet – very nice - and then whilst watching it in a scope a Sandwich Tern flew over – very, very nice! The tern quickly moved off and I managed no pictures but this was only my second ever Norwegian record so the day was definitely delivering. Further scans of the fjord did not reveal any skuas or large divers but I did pick up a flock of 20 Brent (which tallies with the flock seen over the suburbs) resting on the fjord, then 5 Common Scoter (late migrants) and 5 summer plumaged Guillemots that looked to be displaying to each other. The Brents were Pale-bellied hrota on their way from wintering areas in Denmark to breeding grounds on Svalbard. They are traditionally one of the very latest movers and normally fly up the west coast of Norway but a few always take a wrong turn and fly up the east coast before always and obviously getting confused when the fjord narrows and then stops in Oslo. Sometimes the birds carry on over land but other times seems to turnaround and go south again. Today’s birds were still to make a decision.

So two species – Brent Goose and Common Scoter – that were still on spring migration.

part of the flock of 20 Pale-bellied Brent Geese (ringgås). Later in the day a single Dark-bellied was found with them. I did not see this bird or am able to find it in my photos so it presumably arrived some time later

and the initial single bird. The lack of an obvious neck collar ages it s a 2cy

A visit to Storøykilen had me hoping for Broad-billed Sandpiper but instead there was a Greenshank and Green Sandpiper. The sandpiper would definitely have been a returning so therefore on autumn migration but I am unsure about the Greenshank which I think could have been on either.

And summer? Well, there are loads of breeding birds but best of all was seeing the Ringed Plover family again. I was able to watch them closely from the car and the male was sheltering and guarding the two young whilst the female was nearby and calling and running in the opposite direction trying to distract me. I don’t know how usual it is that the male takes responsibility for the young in this way but see from my photos the other day that it was also the male caring for them.

In Maridalen there was only one hybrid Canada x Barnacle Goose today, the dark one but another small goose looked like a pure Canada or Cackling but I am unsure and it is almost certainly a backcross hybrid and perhaps a mixture of three different species. Whatever it is it will certainly have a feral origin, probably in Holland.

the dark breasted hybrid Canada x Barnacle Goose and a new bird which would also seem to be a hybrid but one without a white forehead or a dark breast

here the chest looks pale

in this shot there is maybe a shadow of a dark chest

the obvious hybrid has (in this picture at least) a very stubby bill and steep forehead suggesting Cackling rather than Canada Goose genes

A hunting 1^st summer male Marsh Harrier and possible a new and second singing Sedge Warbler were also notable in The Dale.

1st summer Marsh Harrier (sivhauk) - note the new grey feathers in the wing and tail

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 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

Summer starts but spring is not quite yet over

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

Wrote too soon

1^st May was it turns out not as bad as I thought. In the afternoon a Great White Egret was reported from Fornebu. A good species but not one to make me rush out of the door. However, in the evening  I had to drop Jr Jr off at a party which my phone informed me was only a further 7 minutes drive from said Egret. I had little belief that it would still be present given it was a Bank Holiday and Fornebu has become more park that nature reserve but when I turned up I immediately saw it. Nice and a Fornebu tick for yours truly 😊

It was an immature due to its yellow bill and was colour ringed although this I only discovered from my photos and cannot make out any code. I am also unsure of the colour of the ring so cannot find what scheme it is from – it looks black but the only scheme listed on cr-birding.org states it rings on the right leg whereas this is on the left.

The Egret can only count as Good as I was twitching but there was a hint of Greatness from two other birds. Three Bar-tailed Godwits had also been reported and I could see two waders sleeping in the bay. I naturally assumed these to be Barwits and paid them no further attention until I was about to go home by which time the evening sun had sunk so much that all birds in the bay were in shade. Their bills were under their wings but never-the-less something didn’t look right for Barwit and I was quite sure they were Blackwits. And indeed they were! They were very brick red and small and were clearly Icelandic birds and I wondered if there had been a mistake with the earlier reports but the two bird theory does apply here. Blackwits are not annual in Oslo and Akershus in spring and most previous birds look to be limosa but in the autumn when the species is far commoner it is definitely islandica that dominates.

Godwits of the Black rather than Bar-tailed variety

the Great (White) Egret was actively fishing and seemed to find a lot of prey

here the rings are visible. A metal ring on the right leg and a dark colour ring on the left leg but what colour is it?