Pallid Harrier reunion

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)

Pallid time

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 2^nd 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

and three Common Buzzard (musvåk) in a tree

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:

Oslo Little Stint

On Thursday I had to drop Jr Jr off at Bygdøy so afterwards decided to see if the fjord at Huk had anything to offer. I don’t normally visit there at this time of the year unless it is blowing a gale which it wasn’t but it was blowing from the south and raining so there was always the chance of something. The rocks and skerries here attract Purple Sandpipers in winter but I have seen few other waders over the years other than Oystercatchers and those I have seen have generally stopped just briefly before continuing on their journey. Yesterday was a bit different though as first a Little Sint and then a Dunlin showed themselves and seemed quite happy searching for food in exactly the same way the Purple Sands do. The stint was only my third in Oslo and is a genuine rare species here with just 6 other records this century.

I also visited Østensjøvannet for the first time in a good while and there were worryingly few birds. Even if there was a lack of quantity then it was compensated so some extent by some quality with a male Pintail coming out of eclipse, a Shoveler, a Peregrine and most surprisingly a Common Scoter. This is a surprisingly scarce species on the lake with only 6 previous records ever and these have either been on spring passage or in late October (which matches when birds turn up on Maridalsvannet). A record in mid September is therefore unusual (and I had seen none on the fjord) and the bird was an adult female which is also an unusual record with records later in the autumn being almost exclusively 1cy birds.

 

Another unusual trip for me was a walk all the way out to the tip of Årnestangen. Water levels have kept on rising and the mud flats were gone but it was a relatively good day for raptors with 9 species noted including a hunting Hen Harrier at relatively close range.

Little Stint (dvergsnipe) with Eiders (ærfugl) - they are small!

and the Dunlin (myrsnipe)

this Herring Gull (gråmåke) made short work of a starfish

Østensjøvannets male Pintail (stjertand) coming out of eclipse. Hopefully it will hag around until it has acquired its full breeding plumage. Male Pintails that have turned up in Oslo have often, for some unknown reason, lacked the long central tail feathers that give this species its name and it looks like this bird (which could well be a returning individual) will also lack them

Shoveler (skjeand) with Tufted Duck (toppand)

adult female Common Scoter (svartand) with Great Crested Grebe (toppdykker). There was a brood of 2 less than half grown grebes which still had stipy, downy plumage and one of which was sat on a parents back. This is very late and it will be interesting to see how things go especially if we have an early cold snap

Great Grey Shrike (varsler) at Årnestangen

and a Great White Egret (egretthegre)

hunting Hen Harrier (myrhauk)

with a mouse

and a Merlin (dvergfalk)

Cranes (trane) are starting to head south now

2 Shoveler and 2 Wigeon (brunnakke) at Merkja

The Beast accompanied me to Årnestangen and I finally discovered who the viewing shutters were designed for...

Geese, geese, geese

I have been drawn back to Nordre Øyeren daily now in the hope of uncovering something rare. The numbers of geese are just enormous and you can see them either feeding on stubble fields or resting on the water at Svellet. There are at least 2000 each of Barnacles and Greylags but probably a lot more as well as 400 Canadas. Finding something scarcer amongst all these has proved tough going but I have now found a single White-fronted Goose, single Bar-headed, single Pink-footed and 3 Greylag x Canada hybrids. I have only found one bird with with a collar - a Greylag ringed in Germany in 2021 and since either close to Oslo or in Germany.

I have spent too long looking at the Canadas and have got a headache at the amount on variability amongst them with some birds definitely looking «wilder» than others but all probably within the variation of size and plumage of a feral population that probably has little genetic diversity.

 

White-fronted Goose (tundragås)

Bar-headed Goose (stripegås)

neck collared Greylag (grågås) D780 and its history below

this Canada looked very interesting from afar 

but closer up I wasn't s sure

and this one while not being so dark also looked quite different

enormous numbers

Water levels have risen a lot due to heavy rain and there is no longer mud in Svellet so waders and dabbling ducks have vanished but there are now 4 Little Gulls and also 4 «commic» Terns (I remember as a child hearing the term Commic Tern and not being able to find it in my bird book. It caused me lots of confusion for a long time until I finally plucked up the courage to ask an older birder what it was and found out it was from COMMon and ArctIC and referred to unidentified birds of the species pair. I also remember very soon after calling out “Commic Tern” and it being a white dove….). I initially thought there were 2 Common and 2 Arctic but with better views have now come to the conclusion that there are at least 3 Common and the fourth bird is also most likely a Common. It has been quite a learning experience where I relied too much on jizz and behaviour to start with.

a commic tern and 2 Little Gulls (dvergmåke)

3 f the 4 Little Gulls. All were 1cy

this 1cy tern with grey secondaries must be a Common (makrellterne)

I have had 10 species of raptor which is a good showing and my first Great Grey Shrike of the autumn.

my first Great Gre Shrike (varlser) of the autumn which I saw eating a mouse

a very distant, but very smart, male Hen Harrier (myrhauk)

Peregrine (vandrefalk) and a pale Common Buzzard (musvåk)

this immature White-tailed Eagle (havørn) flew over Svellet

and a bit later I found it on a field that had previously been covered in geese with just a few crows for company

Merlin (dvergalk)

I have also had a couple of attempts to locate the Taiga Beans but have failed. I assume they are still around as it would be record early if they have already left and I remember that in previous years the GPS tagged bird(s) have shown they have often used one particular field that is very well hidden and that I have never tried to get to as I am certain it will just result in flushing the birds – they may well be using it again.

 

I have only had a couple of quick visits to Maridalen but a perched and then hunting White-tailed Eagle was a very good sighting.

the Crane (trane) family is still feeding in Maridalen

it is very unusual to find a perched White-tailed Eagle in the Dale