After my first sighting of Pine Grosbeak on Wednesday, I found none yesterday but today had ten in total including my first adult males and my first in Maridalen. It is not quite invasion tendencies yet but I reckon we will have a good, if gradual, arrival. The birds I saw today were in spruce but they will turn up in an urban car park soon.
Maridalsvannet was completely calm today and revealed a total of 12 Common Scoters and the juv Black-throated Diver which is still present and may well not leave until the lake freezes which the way things are going may not be until well into 2027.
It is so mild that dragons are still flying and I also had a butterfly today which flew too quickly but was probably a Comma (hvit C).
a very late Black-throated Diver (storlom) in Maridalsvannet
Common Scoter (svartand) and a Wigeon also on Maridalsvannet today
Crested Tit (toppmeis) are quite easy to find at the moment
2 Pine Grosbeaks (konglebit)
and another two which were part of a flock of eight that were all in this tree top and included two adult males but it was only when they flew that I realsied how many there were
the Grozzas were at Grefsenkollen which has a great view over the city and fjord
these two ferries (one coming from Denmark and the other Germany I believe) offer mini cruises and always seem to race each other into Oslo in the morning
one of two Marsh Tits (løvmeis) at the feeders in Maridalen today
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...
We have had another long weekend and with good weather forecast
on Saturday I decided to head to the mountains on Friday evening. Normally I
would have had a boyz weekend in the mountains around this time but
circumstances have conspired to mean that wouldn’t happen this year so I rather
spur of the moment packed a sleeping bag in the car and headed off on my own.
In the end I was out for 27 hours and had 2 hours of sleep, 30 minutes of which
was a rather necessary power nap on the way home…
I surprised myself with how much energy I had although on
the way home I was counting down the kilometres.
After 3 and a half hours driving I started the birding at my
Great Snipe lek. After a blank last year I was hoping that was just a bit of
bad luck but there were no birds again this year and I now reckon the lek has
been abandoned. Why is more difficult to answer. It is close to a path and a
ski lift but has always been so and I cannot see any changes in the immediate
area that would affect the birds. The Beitostølen area has seen lots and lots
of building of cabins but the lek is above the cabins, perhaps though the nesting
females have always used areas that are now being developed and the general
area is no longer attractive for them. Alternatively the species itself is
suffering a significant decline due to factors in winter and passage areas and
this has causes some leks to disappear as the birds concentrate in core areas.
These are my maximum counts at the lek since I discovered it in 2012 and the
downward trend is obvious:
the (former) lek site
There were very few birds around the lek otherwise and the
vegetation was still very brown. There was little snow and only lakes above
1300m had ice but I think this is from a warm period 2-3 weeks ago but since
then it has been cold and windy so vegetation has not yet started developing.
I drove a long stretch of road during the night with
frequent stops hoping to find Great Snipe other places but did not succeed.
There was a lot of other life though. Between midnight and 1am I was surprised
by how much activity there was from other waders and grouse and also a Short-eared
Owl that perched in my headlights.
I had my hour and half sleep in the car and awoke at 3:30am to
lots of noise. All manner of birds were singing and displaying and over the
next 6 hours I feasted my eyes on Dotterels, Temminck’s Stints, Shore Larks,
Lapland and Snow Buntings, Bluethroats, Long-tailed Ducks, Scaup, Common and
Velvet Scoters and more. It is clearly not a rodent year in this area and
aswell as no Long-tailed Skuas I just had a single Rough-legged Buzzard,
another Short-eared Owl, 2 Kestrels, a Golden Eagle and a White-tailed Eagle.
After this as the sun warmed things up I concentrated on
butterfliesand I took a slight detour
to visit a site of the rare Large Grizzled Skipped (alvesmyger). I did at the
time think I had found them but my pictures show I saw, or at least the ones I
managed to photograph, were ordinary Grizzled Skippers which I didn’t realise occurred
there. Their large cousins do fly later and the end of June is the time most people
see them so I will have to try again later… I did have another good species but
none were new for me so I am a bit disappointed but will I hope have a
butterfly post soon.
Dotterel (boltit)
it was only displaying females that I saw but they were very active
Golden Eagle (kongeørn) and a mountain
I heard quite a few (although not lots of) Bluethroats (blåstrupe) but saw none at close range
I only had Lapland Buntings (lappspurv) at one site but 5! males were singing and song flighting within 100m of each other
a Ptarmigan (fjellrype) at 11pm
male Shore Lark (fjellerke)
and his mate
one of the two Short-eared Owls (jordugle) I saw
Snow Buntings (snøspurv) were unusually numerous this year
male
female
03:39 at my hotel
my now favoured raptor watch point was a bit disappointing this year with just 4 birds of 4 species: Golden Eagle, White-tailed Eagle, Rough-legged Buzzard and Kestrel
