All you need is some rain and then the wind to change to southerly and boom.
Fridat started naturally in Maridalen where 19 Temminck’s are yet another record but stubbornly refuse to attract any other calidris to join them. On Thursday though I finally had Greenshank there and 4 Golden Plovers so this springs wader list is very respectable and on Saturday 4 Redshank also dropped in. A short visit to Østensjøvannet gave lots of feeding hirundines in the cold northerly wind which was nice to see after a couple of years where an insect absence has meant there has hardly been any there. House Martins were the scarcest and I am worried about this species. Black-headed Gulls continue to suffer and I could see just 2 nests still occupied. Highlight was a pair of Garganey found by Jack the day before and excitingly their behaviour suggested to me they will try to nest.
After this I announced to anyone who wanted to listen that I was off to Nordre Øyeren to find a Broad-billed Sandpiper and that turned out to be a good prediction😊. I stopped first at Merkja where the american Green-winged Teal is back and a good selection of waders included 18 Temminck’s (still beaten by Maridalen). Svellet again had absolutely no waders but it was Årnestangen where the excitment was. A Bar-headed Goose on the walk out was a tickable piece of category C plastic after the Norwegian records committee has recently «upgraded» it from pure plastic category E.
The real action was to be had at the end though where an initial sweep of the dry mud flats revealed nothing… but a second sweep showed a wader walking around the corner from an unviewable bit of shoreline. Eventually a few others joined and they turned out to be 4 species with a Broad-billed headlining, 11 Sanderling being a very high spring count and 2 each of Dunlin and Ringed Plover being more expected.
But that was only the beginning of the day! In the evening I was guiding to GG Owls. This allowed me to take in a Caspian Tern at Hamar and then the owls completely outdid themselves with the male bringing 3 voles in the course of just an hour which mum fed to three hungry chicks. Happy days!!
So, after such a long day I could be forgiven a little lie in yesterday morning on what had all the hallmarks of being THE day this spring with rain and strong southerly winds forecast. I decided to allow others the joy of walking out to Årnestangen and instead went first to Maridalen where 19 Temminck’s were still present and now even displaying and 3 Greenshank and 4 Redshank were new. I reckoned it was sea gazing that was the best option today and positioned myself at Halden Brygge, Fornebu from 10:30 where a kiosk provides great shelter when it blows from the south. A flock of 30 Oystercatcher heading north as I got out of the car was a promising sign and then a minute later the sight of a flock of 21 Kittiwake was a sure sign that birds were moving. This flock headed north over the city and then a bit later a new flock of 23 came from the south and eventually landed on the water. Red-throated Divers were moving high up with 141 in total and I grilled every tern I saw with all being local Common Terns until suddenly the closest tern of the day turned out to be a Sandwich. This was big - finally after 24 years by far my biggest bogey bird in Norway had fallen😊 and I even got photos. It was heading south and as I watched it a large flock of Brent Geese came into view heading north!! It was all a bit too much. These were pale-bellied birds which usually fly up the west coast of Norway on their way to Svalbard but occasionally take a wrong turn and head up the east coast. They were obviously very confused and eventually turned around and headed south again. After this there were some smaller flocks including one which did head north and I last saw it heading over Maridalen.
Today has been a wet day but I have of course been out. In Maridalen rising water levels and a night with no rain had caused all but 3 of the Temminck’s to move. The fjord didn’t seem to have any interesting birds with the wind having turned easterly and rain making visibility bad. So Nordre Øyeren beckoned. I chose not to walk out to Årnestangen after Svellet only had 8 Temmincks to offer but Merkja had the goods with 2 Mountain Marsh Runners having already been found and feeding alongside Dunlin and Temmincks with the Green-winged Teal also still present and showing well😊
Here are videos and pictures of everything bar the GGO which I will have to come back to.
finally - Sandwich Tern (splitterne)!! and I found it myself :-)
sea gazing from Halden Brygge
confused Brent Geese (ringgås) over Oslo
here we see they are the Pale-bellied subspecies
I have not counted but reckon they are around 300
Kittiwakes (krykkje)
female Garganey (knekkand) giving unusually good views
male
Caspian Tern (rovterne)
these are probably my best views in Norway much better than the Svellet experience
Bar-headed Goose (stripegås) with Canada Geese and a Canada x Greylag hybrid
a Dunline (myrsnipe) and Broad-billed Sandpiper (fjellmyrløper) - trust me!
Sanderlings (sandløper)
Green-wnged Teal (amerikakrikkand) with normal Teal
quite a collection of birds at Merkja
a male Ruff (brushane) with 4 other wader species
Temminck's Stints
the Broad-billed Sandpipers at Merkja were much close than at Årnestangen but I still failed to get good photos
The end of May is probably the ultimate time to be birding in Oslo although there is never a bad time. The last spring breeding migrants are returning, migrants heading further north or for the mountains are coming through in peak numbers (although without rain they are likely to just fly over at great height) and the chance of rare birds is as high as it gets. The sunny weather we are having is not conducive to unusual birds but some rain is now forecast from Thursday evening onwards so one can hope.
The hot weather is causing the water level in Maridalsvannet to keep on falling and it is visibly lower each day. My belief that it was too little too late for waders has thankfully proven to be wrong. Even if I am still to see Greenshank and Whimbrel (which others report) I have seaw (or at least heard) 10 species yesterday which in these parts is defined as a wader bonanza. Temminck’s continue to be seen each day with Sunday’s five rising to six yesterday and falling to three today. Single Little Ringed and Ringed Plovers and Great Snipe were also migrants as were a few Wood Sandpipers but Lapwing, Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Woodcock and Snipe are breeders.
The Great Snipe was a displaying bird that I heard on my first nocturnal singer trip of the year. It was a warm, windless night but it is still very early in the season. I did have Great Snipe in mind but the birds I thought were most likely were Nightjar and the begging calls of Tawny and possibly Long-eared Owl. It was marvelous to hear the Great Snipe and also the bleating of a displaying Common Snipe but I’ll have to wait for another trip to hear Nightjars. The only owl I had was a singing Tawny which was the same unmated bird that sang all through the spring. After hearing no begging juvenile owls it was therefore a huge surprise today when in the heat of the afternoon I heard and then saw 3 large young in a nestbox that I would never have expected to be used by Tawnies and in an area where I have frequently stopped but not heard them earlier this year. I will write a post on these a later stage.
The muddy edges to the lake will hopefully be good news for the breeding Lapwings in Maridalen which continue to surprise me. Yesterday I saw there two broods of young – one of 4 newly hatched on the field and three larger ones (from the first nest?) on the mud. There were still three birds sitting so I am at a loss as to where the brood of 4 came from and t was an additional pair displaying and which today looked like they may have started egg laying. So six pairs when I originally thought there were only three and that these had all failed due to the plough.
My first Icterine Warbler and Rosefinch of the year mean that Marsh Warbler and Red-backed Shrike are the only regular breeders I am waiting for.
Temminck's Stint
Ringed Plover (sandlo) with the orange legs behind a Little Ringed Plover (dverglo)
Lapwings (vipe) in Oslo. 3 young on the left and a single on the right with 3 adults. At the time I assumed it was one brood and another adult that was getting involved for some reason. Another possibility is that there are two separate broods of 3 and 1 but then we would be up to 6 confirmed nests plus another pair which does not seem possible
here we the three adults having some sort of argument and the single youngster
male Common Rosefinch (rosenfink)
singing Icterine Warbler (gulsanger)
if a Common Sandpiper (strandsnipe) flies up in front of you when you away from water it may mean there is a nest as was the case today
3 eggs
I saw a Great Tit (kjøttmeis) disappear into a crack in this stump
and found a nest with young that were at ground level
The days are sunny and hot with temperatures over 20C but a constant northerly wind is not conducive to very much at all. Water levels have fallen a few centimetres at Svellet which should improve conditions as there are still lots of dry mud and the falling water levels should reveal more food rich areas. A visit this morning revealed just 3 Oystercatcher though…
The falling water levels in Maridalen have paid dividends though with a flock of 5 Temminck’s Stints. This is the classic time to find them on migration in Oslo but they are far from annual. Can I hope for a Broad-billed Sand? The muddy edges are also good for the Lapwings as they provide much better feeding opportunities than the bone dry fields. They have also created new nesting opportunities and the male of the pair that has been at Kirkeby was performing his nest scraping display this morning with the female watching on. The other three pairs are still sitting (and the fifth pair still may or may not have young). Nest #2 has been occupied since at least 10 April and with an incubation period of around 28 days the young should have hatched over a week ago. I initially thought the nest was abandoned after the ploughing but saw a bird sitting again after a couple of days and then thought that for a couple of days I had just been unlucky to be checking on them at times when the parents were away from the nest. Maybe though the nest was ruined and they relaid very quickly in the same place whereas the other pair chose a new site and waited over a week.
As usual time will tell.
Temminck's Stint
all 5. At the end of the video you also see them with a Greenfinch which shows just how small they are
this Hen Harrier (myrhauk) at Årnestangen could have been something even rarer but was an exciting sight. An adult female I believe
The last week hasn’t just been about big owls and rare waders. I have continued visiting Svellet and Nordre Øyeren but despite continued low water levels there have been surprisingly few waders with now zero Wood Sandpipers!!! Water levels are now rising about 10cm a day so the mud at the edges probably just has no food in it. Also with spring having come early and no rain to force birds down many birds are probably also flying directly to their breeding sites. The first Temminck’s Stint and Dunlins have turned up though and Redshank have become the commonest wader.
Yesterday, I had my first visit of the year to the islands and a 2nd summer Little Gull on Gressholmen was a real highlight and gave much better views than the birds in Svellet last week.
when I first saw this gull with an extensive black hood, red legs, a pink wash on the breast and black in the wing tips I thought I had found an adult Bonaparte's Gull. A check in the scope though showed it was "just" a 2nd summer Little Gull.
and comparison the views that I managed at Svellet last week where I must admit to being quite chuffed that I actually got a photo which shows both an adult and a 1st summer. This video gives an idea of the viewing conditions at Svellet:
A Redshank (rødstilk) at Gressholmen was the only migrant wader and for me this has been an awful spring for waders in Oslo with me still not having seen Greenshank or Whimbrel. Water levels are finally falling at Maridalsvannet revealing some muddy edges but I fear it is too little too late
Thrush Nightingale (nattergal) on Gressholmen in exactly the same place as they bred last year so presumably the same male
there were quite a few young birds to be seen on the islands including the first Black-headed Gulls (hettemåke) with three young visible top left
this must be one of the larger BhG colonies left in the Oslo area
at Østensjøvannet which used to hold many hundreds if not thousands of pairs of nesting Black-headed Gulls I could only find 7 occupied nests today with five in this tree. The especially maintained islands that they used to use are now empty
this colour ringed BhG at Østensjøvannet received its bling at Bowness-on-Windermere in the UK in December 2019 and has subsequently been resighted there every winter and in Oslo in the summers
Eiders (ærfugl) have had young very early this year. Normally the adult males would have moved off but here they were displaying to the females
A Dunlin (myrsnipe) and Redshank (rødstilk) at Årnestangen in the same place where I found the dowitcher
and my first Temminck's Stint of the year also at Årnestangen
it is not easy being a breeding Ringed Plover (sandlo) in the Oslo area. This bird at Fornebu had chosen a fenced off area away from human disturbance and has hopefully been succesful. This picture was taken just a few days before the young should have hatched and a visit a week later revealed no birds at all which hopefully means they have led the young somewhere even safter
when on the islands a Ringed Plover flew up in front of me and I saw that it had flown up from a nest which contained 3 eggs
hopefully they will be successfull
in Maridalen there is now a third Lapwing nest. This is one of the pairs that lost their nest to the plough relaying. I still think that the other pair that seemed to lose their nest may actually have young in the long grass although I have yet to see them. A fourth pair is now hanging out at Kirkeby and will hopefully nest there
the Long-tailed Tit (stjertmeis) nest that I found had an adult in it on 8 May and I assumed it was incubating. However subsequent sightings mean she was most likely brooding..
as on 13 May the young were being fed by both parents at the opening to the nest. This must be very early
water levels at Svellet are rising by 10cm every day and the party is ending
this is how it looked on Tuesday 13 May when I last visited and as can be seen on the graph water levels have risen more than 20cm since then which probably means most of the mud is now under water
