Østensjøvannet

Today I showed Jen and Lyn from Perth, Australia around Østensjøvannet which has to be the best locality in Oslo for seeing a good selection of typical scandinavian birds. We had a good selection of commoner Norwegian birds with many families of fledged young especially Coots, White Wagtails, Blue and Great Tits. 

Coot family

A total of 7 singing Marsh Warblers around the lake outnumbered the 3 Reed Warblers I heard and is easily the largest number I have had at a single site.
Three pairs of Mute Swans had young (I am sure that in previous years there has just been a single pair here) and one of the males was very aggressive towards the other swans especially a pair with only a single small youngster (I wonder if the other youngsters had been killed by the aggressive male?).

Mute Swan - one of three pairs with young

Great Crested Grebes and Moorhens also showed wel and I took some nice pictures of this Great Crested Grebe

Great Crested Grebe

Long-tailed Ducks

Last night I couldn’t stop myself from another nocturnal visit to Maridalen even though sleep would have been the best option. I will have to wait a bit before finding Blyth’s Reed (busksanger) on the patch and had to make do with the Grasshopper Warbler (gresshoppersanger) and Marsh Warbler (myrsanger) which has now moved to Skjerven Gård and was singing right by the farm buildings. I also heard begging baby Tawny Owls so they have survived and are just well hidden in the wood.

Today I got on my bike as my body has been feeling a bit neglected recently. Very little to hear in the woods with only 2 Tree Pipits (trepiplerke), 2 Wrens (gjerdesmett) and 2 Wood Warblers (bøksanger) of any note. Last year the forests were heaving with Tree Pipits and Spotted Flycatchers (gråfluesnapper) so I fear that there may have been a population crash. A male Black Grouse (orrfugl) flying over the track in front of me was as always a nice sight.

The water levels are falling at Maridalsvannet and a feeding Wood Sandpiper (grønnstilk) may have been an early returning bird or possibly a local breeder (there are a few scattered pairs in the forests around Oslo).

With some fresh southerly winds yesterday and a bit of rain I thought I would check the fjord from Fornebu hoping for a Little Gull (dvergmåke). Nothing that exciting but a fine pair of Long-tailed Ducks (havelle) feeding close to the shore was good compensation. Initially sitting a couple of hundred metres offshore a boat caused them to fly and they joined a group of mother and young Eiders right in front of me. The male lacks a long tail and is I assume a 1^st summer.

pair of Long-tailed Ducks

They were actively feeding and often came up with something in their bill

Wryneck again

The rubbish dump turned up a singing Savi’s Warbler (sumpsanger) yesterday evening which was twitched by a few lucky birders although I think was only to be heard at distance. Øra has had a really good run of rare birds this spring with seemingly a new rare being discovered each time people come to twitch the previously found one. Just goes to show how important good coverage is. There are so few serious birders in Norway that there must be countless birds that go unreported – on the other hand it does increase your chances of being the one who finds a rarity even at popular sites.

My birding today was limited to taking the smallest around Maridalen. A Wryneck was sitting at its hole and later went inside although I have been told that there was a Great Spotted Woodpecker in the nest last week which isn’t a good sign. Maybe they have had to lay eggs for a second time due to predation which would explain why I have not seen any indication of young being fed. The male Red-backed Shrike was on show and the Canada Goose pair had four young so they have not been predated as I feared when I saw a pair without young last week.

Another picture of a Wryneck ;-)

 Now I'm going to see if the Dutch football team know where the goal is......

Rubbish

The choice today was between two rubbish dumps. Either Øra where there is an American Wigeon (amerikablesand) or Taranrød, near Tønsberg where there is a Black Kite (svartglente) both of which would be new Norwegian birds for me. I chose Øra because the chance of finding something else would be much higher here especially as it is at the mouth of the Glomma River which runs through Nordre Øyeren and would therefore be a likely place for the rare terns to have moved to.

On the way down a Peregrine (vandrefalk) flew over the road. When I got to Øra it was overcast and slightly chilly which had caused hundreds of Swifts (tårnseiler) and hirundines to hunt insects low over the water and it is in these conditions that marsh terns can often turn up – well on other days at least! The American Wigeon was on show with ten normal Wigeon (brunnakke) when I arrived but as usual at Øra was quite some way off. Here is the only picture I managed which could possibly come under the category atrocious documentation photo.

American Wigeon - believe it or not

39 Teal (krikkand) did not hide anything rarer in their midst and there were no waders of any interest. Three singing Marsh Warblers (myrsanger) made quite a noise around the bird hide and a male and a female Marsh Harrier (sivhauk) floated over the reedbed.

Driving to Kurefjorden I had a female Marsh Harrier hunting by the road and a singing Marsh Warbler singing from a roadside marsh. It was high tide at Kurefjorden which concentrated the birds but there was (as expected) little to see. A male Gadwall (snadderand), 13 Ringed Plover (sandlo), a Wood Sandpiper (grønnstilk), a Greenshank (gluttsnipe) and a singing Marsh Warbler were the pick of the bunch. This time of the year really is one of the quietest times for birds but it is also when some exceptional rarities can turn up so there is always a motivation to keep looking!

Last night I embarked on another nocturnal wander this time around Ski. My main target was Quail (vaktel) but I failed to hear any in an area that had held five only two night previously... I did hear a probable Blyth’s Reed Warbler (busksanger) at 10pm but it only sang very briefly on two occasions and not long enough for me to nail it. Having already had two this spring I left after half an hour of waiting in vain for it to sing again. I did hear two Marsh Warblers singing in duet only 15metres from each other and had a Short-eared Owl (jordugle) float over my head which was a surprise as I would far more have expected Long-eared Owl (hornugle) at this location and time of year.

Driving past Østensjøvannet in Ås I heard the River Warbler that has been present from a couple of weeks from the moving car and coming back to Oslo just aftret midnight I heard one of the two Blyth’s Reed Warblers that were discovered on Sunday at Frognerkilen (by Bygdøy). My final destination was Maridalen where I felt confident I would get a rare warbler for my troubles. On entering Maridalen there was indeed a Marsh Warbler singing (finally) but nothing else new. The Grasshopper Warbler is still reeling away but the Corncrake and River Warbler were both quiet or absent.

No terns today

I went to Nordre Øyeren today to see if either of the rare terns were hanging around. I started at Svindal which gives a good view over the delta but without luck. I was joined by Erling Hobøl who was one of the finders of the Little Tern (dvergterne) on Saturday and he invited me to join him on the Nordre Øyeren Fuglestasjons small boat for a trip out to Årnestangen. And a very enjoyable trip it was too! No rare terns to see although we did have a 1^st summer Little Gull (dvergmåke), 30 odd Common Terns (Makrellterne) which are not yet breeding but looked like they might soon start, and a few waders with 6 Redshank (rødstilk), 2 Greenshank (gluttsnipe) and a single Spotted Redshank (sotsnipe) flying around although it was not possible to make out if they were late northerly migrants or early southerly ones. Also a distant singing Sedge Warbler (sivsanger) and a female Yellow Wagtail (gulerle) that was possibly a hybrid between the thunbergi race and the flava race.

Female Yellow Wagtail but I'm uncertain of which race

 This Roe Deer (rådyr) also swan across 150m of water ahead of the boat.

Buck Roe Deer

The view from the boat heading south to the tip of Årnestangen

Plastic fantastic

The girls wanted to ride around Fornebu today and see the pretty goose so it gave us a chance to put all our field skills to the test. We applied camouflage make-up and belly crawled our way through hundreds of metres of marsh to manage this just about acceptable documentation photo.

a good mystery bird photo

The bird seemed to appreciate the efforts we went through to admire it though and soon gave us the nod and posed for portrait photos and family pictures .......

A nice bird but I would rate the chances of it being accepted as anything other than an escape as the same as the chances of Norway winning this year’s European Football Championships ;-)

It is a pretty smart bird though! Red Breased Goose (Rødhalsgås) with Barnacle Goose (hvitkinngås)

Årnestangen seemed to be the place to be again today with a Caspian Tern(rovterne) as reward for those looking (unsuccessfully) for yesterdays Little Tern (dvergterne).  Down at Øra there is now a male American Wigeon (amerikablesand). Hopefully these will hang around for a bit.

I guess this Black-headed Gull (hettemåke) proves that just because a bird is tame it can still be wild.....

Nocturnal excursion anno 2012

Last night Rune and I went for a nocturnal wander in Aurskog-Høland with a little diversion in Østfold. We were well rewarded for our time (out from 1930 until 0330) but a weather induced delayed growth of cereal crops meant that there was hardly any cover for species such as Quail (vaktel) and Corncrake (åkerrikse) so we were rewarded with only a single Corncrake for our troubles and I have still to see/hear Quail this year (this time last year there were very good numbers of both species because there was a lot of suitable habitat available for them). For our troubles we had a single (self found) Blyth’s Reed Warbler (busksanger), 1 River Warbler (elvesanger), 2 Grasshopper Warblers (gresshoppesanger) , 7 Marsh Warblers (myrsanger), 1 Sedge Warbler (sivsanger), Reed Warbler (rørsanger), 1 Thrush Nightingale (nattergal), 1 hunting Long-eared Owl (hornugle), 2 churring Nightjars (nattravn), 1 calling Water Rail (vannrikse) and 1 singing Corncrake.

At Ydersbotn at the southern end of Hemnessjøen we had a singing Grasshopper Warbler, 2 singing Marsh Warblers and a distant churring Nightjar as well as barking Roe Deer (rådyr) along with the music from a party in a farmhouse to give a quite unique aural experience. At Kragtorpvika we had a chorus of calling in Red-throated Divers (smålom) and a singing warbler. It took a bit of listening to before the bricks fell into place - a self found Blyth’s Reed Warbler. The song was very different to the bird at Snekkervika and the characteristic whistle was only uttered once but it had the distinctive repetition of 4-5 phrases, which were usually mimics of another bird, which gives Blyth’s the distinctive structure to its song.

Driving alongside Hemnesjøen we had the company of a hunting Long-eared Owl in our headlights for about 30 seconds which was our only record for the night (this time last year I had heard 3 different sets of begging young but this year we heard none). At Hellesjøvannet the hoped for Bittern (rørdrum) or Spotted Crake (myrriske) failed to materialise but we were able to listen to singing Sedge, Reed and Marsh Warbler with a distant churring Nightjar and calling Water Rail adding to the noise.

In the valley north of Bjørkelangen the lack of cover meant we had just a single Corncrake in  a normally productive area but things were made difficult for us for the explosion in Skylark (sanglerke) song from 0210. There was still not a hint of the sun in the sky (although it was by no means dark) and the dawn chorus was starting! The Fieldfares (gråtrost) had started making a noise at 0200 after finally having shut up shortly after 2330 which gives only a short window in which it is only the exciting nocturnal singers that can be heard and not drowned out by the rest of the avian world. The night finished just after 3am with a quick trip into Maridalen where we had the singing River and Grasshopper Warblers but nothing else of note.

Elsewhere in Oslo and Akershus a plastic Red-breasted Goose (rødhalsgås) assorting with Barnacle Geese on an ornamental pond at Fornebu seems to have attracted rather too much interest but a Little Tern at Årnestangen is a real rarity of note and will hopefully hang around and warrant the walk and mosquito menace.

I have recorded some of the noises of the night and will put together a video clip soon. In the mean time here is another bad Marsh Warbler picture to add to the collection.

Marsh Warbler

Here is the video, unfortunately the sound is quite poor so you have to listen closely. The background chorus to the Blyth's Reed is Red-throated Divers I think.