Bopping geese

Tomorrow I am off to Lista for their annual Bird Race. This will be only my second ever visit to what can probably be fairly described as Norway’s premier birding locality and definitely the home of Norway’s most famous bird observatory. If I am lucky I will also win the evening quiz and be crowned Norwegian Birding Champion 2025 (after being runner up on my previous visit in 2017 although most likely I will be knocked out in the early rounds... The birding should be good though and with a bit of luck a rarity or two will turn up when we are there.

Local birding has been pretty good though this week although a hoped for rush of seabirds this morning after a night of strong southerly winds revealed not one single non-local seabird and the only real unexpected sighting was a juvenile Honey Buzzard battling into the headwind to cross from Bygdøy to Nesodden.

I have been to check on the Taiga’s a couple of times and found them to be on the same stubble field that they used for the first time last autumn and then also used this spring. This is quite typical that they will change preferred field in one season and then also use it the following 1-2 seasons and I would not be surprised if next spring they choose somewhere else. When they are on a stubble field they can be surprisingly difficult to count accurately and they have also had both Canada and Greylag Geese, and a hybrid between the two, in amongst them but in the end I concluded that the flock size was still 129 meaning no additions or depletions.

Visits to Hellesjøvannet with raptors in mind turned up trumps with a Red Kite and lots of sightings of Hobbies, Marsh Harriers and especially Common Buzzards with one “kettle” containing 18 birds.

I have only had fleeting visits to Maridalen but had a real head scratching surprise today when I discovered a family of four Whooper Swans on a field and then river (they were very shy) 4km away from where I had last seen the intact family on the lake. The young were large but not fully grown and I am sure could not fly meaning they must be the Maridalen family but I don’t know how to explain the sighting of 18 August and my subsequent sightings of just an adult pair or no birds at all.

Red Kite (rødglente) at Hellesjøvannet. Only my second in Akershus (I have had more in Oslo) and the first one I have managed to photo. Clearly not a juvenile but other than that my knowledge of moult and plumage in this species doesn't allow me to say any more

I was very lucky to come across this juv Goshawk (hønsehauk) eating what looks to be a Jackdaw (kaie) right by the road at the Taiga Bean place. 

Lots more pictures lower down

male Marsh Harrier (sivhauk) at Hellesjøvannet who was regularly bringing small rodents to two juvenile that would fly to meet him and would catch the mouse mid flight

an adult Hobby (lerkefalk) catching a dragonfly whilst brave Swallows (låvesvale) try to chase it off

the wings have been removed

a bit of nictating membrane

Taiga Bean watching

V8 and kids are in the video but when they are distant and in stubble I cannot unfortunately see any legs rings

part of the Taiga Bean Goose (taigasædgås) flock

here with Canada Geese, a Greylag and a hybrid between the two

a family of Cranes (trane)

just a single Pochard (taffeland) at Hellesjøvannet and very few other birds including only 2 Great Crested Grebes suggests to me a lack of oxygen, and life, in the water. There were 3 visits from at least 2 Ospreys and they left with a fish each time on their first attempt which I reckon means there were fish at the surface gulping air

the highlight of today's seas gazing at Fornebu was these juvenile Knot (polarsnipe) that flew in from Huk and landed on the rocks in front of me

I was not expecting to see these today in Maridalen. I will try to see if the beak patterns allow me confirm that these are the regular pair

the flight feathers of the juveniles are not yet fully developed so I am quite sure they have not flown in from somewhere else

spot the shy swans

A quiet period

We are into the most exciting time of the year in the Oslo area but it can also be the most frustrating and disappointing if the weather does not play ball. Sunny days with northerly winds can feel birdless whereas southerly winds and some rain can produce great arrivals of all sorts of feathered fancies.

We are of course in a sunny, northerly wind period….

But if one is prepared to leave Maridalen and even Oslo and participate in twitching lite then there are of course good birds to be seen.

I visited Hellesjøvannet again on Wednesday and with the knowledge I had learned over the course of 5 hours the day before I felt confident that I would be able to get more than a glimpse of the Bittern. I stood in the same place as the day before and waited and waited for two whole hours without hearing a single boom. I knew that the bird had been heard earlier in the morning and after the two hours during which I had ascertained that there were 2 pairs of Marsh Harriers breeding and an additional female who seemed to be wanting to get the attention of one of the males (polygamy is fairly regular) I decided to drive to the southern end of the lake where I could see there were a couple of birders. I asked them if they had heard the bird during the previous two hours to which the answer was no and then straight away it boomed….. from where I had been standing. Returning there pronto it then proceeded to boom in total 9 times during the course of only 58 minutes! It was however a little further away than the previous day and seeing it proved to be a fruitless exercise.

I have paid a couple of visits to Nordre Øyeren with my first trip of the year out to the tip of Årnestangen and of course visits to Svellet. Water levels continued to rise quickly until 22 April with rises of over 20cm a day but since then it has fallen it has fallen by 15cm over the course of 3 days. Currently it looks absolutely bloody fantastic baby, a wader heaven but yesterday I did not see a single wader there. The reason for this is probably two fold: the weather has not been conducive to an arrival of waders and secondly the shallow water is currently (due to the previous rapid rise in water levels) covering mud that has been bone dry for months and is therefore free of any invertebrate food. Should we have a period now of warm weather and gradually falling water levels we should though end up with fantastic conditions for waders with food rich areas of mud gradually being reexposed over the next 3 weeks. I am allowed to be optimistic 😉

view over Svellet on 25 April. Lots of mud and lots of shallow water. Fingers crossed for the next 3 weeks 🤞

 

rapidly rising water levels until 22 April

and gradually falling since.

Årnestangen gave me good views of a female Lapland Bunting and a male Hen Harrier (although rather selfishly I was disappointed it wasn’t a Pallid).

Yesterday, I went to Maridalen’s eastern sister valley, Nittedal to see a Great White Egret that has been there for a few days and enjoyed good views of it perched in trees by a lake and heronry. Another trip to Årnestangen after this gave me long range views of a male Stonechat. This is, I believe the same bird that was found on 13 March and which I then saw the subsequent day. Since then there have been occasional records of a male in the area and given how good the bird has been at disappearing both times I have seen it and that it was singing yesterday I reckon we are talking about a territorial male that has perhaps wandered around a bit in his search for a mate. I have also seen Kingfisher both visits to Årnestangen and firsts for the year have been numerous with Wood Sand, Whimbrel and Yellow Wagtail noted.

Maridalen doesn’t get forgotten completely and there has clearly been ducks moving through with good numbers of Teal aswell as Common Scoter, Red-breasted Merganser, Pintail, Wigeon and Tufted Duck.

I will start though with a video of Monday's Great Grey Owl nest

male Hen Harrier (myrhauk). My first of the year and never a species I see often but I was still annoyed it wasn't a Pallid (steppehauk)

Kingfisher (isfugl) is now an annual breeder in Nordre Øyeren with probably multiple pairs although they are recorded surprisingly infrequently

female Lapland Bunting (lappspurv)

and here you can hear it calling which is how I discovered it

a (Lesser) Redpoll. It was singing so is I presume a male but completely lacks red/pink on on the chest

Marsh Harrier (sivhauk) pair

and here the male displaying which I think was for the benefit of the additional female that was in the area

Great (White) Egret (egretthegre) and Grey Heron (gråhegre). Lack of plumes means this is an immature bird but they will surely be breeding here soon

they are remarkably acrobatic in flight

and like Grey Herons are quite at home in trees

this Hooded Crow caused the egret to fly off

the Stonechat (svartstrupe) was always quite distant

but up to 7 (all male) early Whinchats (buskskvett) showed much better

and something for a later posting