You give me fever

An 8 year-old with a fever has kept me away from birding (and planned decorating) the past two days but when the fever disappeared this morning we were able to make a short trip to Fornebu in the afternoon where JrJr got to chase Pokemons and daddy chased a couple of birds.

A seemingly one-legged Red-backed Shrike showed well and a few waders included a long staying juvenile Knot. Also two Slav Grebes which have been around a week or so. There is some disagreement as to the age of these birds, one is definitely a youngster but the other has been reported as both adult and also youngster. I’m not sure….

I was out at Årnestangen yesterday evening and had fewer waders than on Saturday although 9 Turnstone was a good count. Today though there seems to have been an arrival of waders in the Oslo area as a lucky Rune Clausen had both Little Stint and Knot on Gressholmen which are both species missing from my Oslo list plus double figures of Dunlin (a species that graced my Oslo list for the first time last year).

 

Red-backed Shrike (tornskate)

2 Spotted Flycatchers (gråfluesnapper)

the two Slav Grebes (horndykker). The stripy head of the bird on the right shows it to moulting out of juvenile plumage, he bird on the left though is trickier

Nutcracker

Each August Nutcrackers descend on Oslo from the surrounding forests (where they are very anonymous in the breeding season) in the search of easy food and hazel nuts are much sought after. We have a few hazel trees in the garden which always attract Nutcrackers although they can be very secretive. This evening there were two birds and one allowed itself to be photographed.

note the hazel nut in the claws

and here trying to open it

a quick trip into Maridalen didn't reveal any better views of the Whooper Swan family....

Årnestangen

I had a plan for this weekend. Based on the weather forecast (never a good idea) I was going to “do” Fornebu before breakfast on Saturday and Årnestangen on Sunday. This was because Saturday morning was supposed to be dry whereas rain was forecast very early on Sunday morning. When I awoke at 6am I could see it was wet and overcast outside and a check of the weather forecast (for what it’s worth) showed rain was no longer forecast for Sunday morning. I therefore changed my plans and headed off to Årnestangen. Arriving just before 7am I was surprised to see no other cars and a 15-minute bike ride later I was alone on the observation platform with good light and no wind. AND BIRDS.
Unlike a visit a week ago when there was hardly a thing to see there was now loads and it was one of those days when you don’t know where to look because you are afraid of missing something or just when you get to grips with a wader flock a raptor puts them up and you have to start again.

Highlights were a single Broad-billed Sandpiper, 16 Curlew Sands, 35 Little Stints, 2 Knot, 2 Turnstone, 2 Little Gulls, 1 Shoveler, 51 Pochard, 4+ Marsh Harriers, 2 Peregrine and 2 White-tailed Eagles. Compared to end July/beginning of August there are far fewer waders species (although total numbers are high) and I only had 12 species with a single Wood Sandpiper the only tringa and juveniles are now dominant.

waders do not come close at Årnestangen but at one stage the Broad-billed Sandpiper (fjellmyrløper)was one of the closest birds (everything is relative) allowing a picture that just about classifies as a record shot. Here together with 2 Little Stints (dvergsnipe) and a Curlew Sandpiper (tundrasnipe)

the best crop I managed

Three Curlew Sands and a Dunlin (myrsnipe)

a calidris collection. Mountain Marsh Runner, Dunlin, Little Stint and Curlew Sand

Little Gull (dvergmåke)



I saw three juvenile Marsh Harriers (sivhauk) together but there may have been more. This one showed well from the observation platform

this is an older female Marsh Harrier (maybe a 2cy) and was being chased off by a Little Gull

a large 1cy female Peregrine (vandrefalk) being chased off by Common Terns (makrellterne)

Two Peregrines together. The large 1cy female and a noticeably smaller male. The Light was bad (as you see) and it was difficult to see plumage tones but I think it was an adult male (dad) with his daughter

Lots of Teal (krikkand) but a single Shoveler (skjeand) was the only scarce duck I could find

Yesterday on a strictly no birding trip in Maridalen with the girls I was very surprised (shocked) to see, whilst trying to get close to some horses) that the Whooper Swan pair which I hadn’t seen since 17 April and had assumed had moved off had actually bred and had 7 large young! They were in the same place as I saw them in April (and where they bred last year) but had clearly not bred on the small (and visible) pool they used last year but in the adjoining flooded woodland where they quickly disappeared. Isn’t it amazing that such a large and obvious species can hide away - what else don’t I see?

some swans amongst the trees

can just make out one of the juveniles

this is where they have been hiding since April - amazing!

this Red-backed Shrike (tornskate) didn't mind the girls getting close

a Camberwell Beauty (sørgekåpe)

 

The week that was

The blame for lack of activity on the blog can be laid firmly at the feet of Jr and JrJr. It is the last week of summer holidays and very hot weather so we are making the most of it. Of course some of the destinations we visit may quite incidentally have a bird or two on offer for Sr but it has actually been butterflies that we have spent most time watching. The hot, sunny weather obviously encourages butterflies to show themselves but it does seem like it has been a good year for butterflies. I am slowly improving my ID skills but still find that with fritillaries and blues that I need to take god pictures and then consult the books when I get home.

Here are some of the species I’ve seen the last week plus a bird or two.

 

a High Brown Fritillary (adippeperlemorvinge) in Maridalen. This species is very similar to Dark Green Fritillary (aglajaperlemorvinge) but the dots towards the back of the underside of the lower wing separate the two species

High Brown Fritillary from above. A different individual from above but both were very worn and missing large parts of their wings

this is the same individual as that in the underwing picture. On the upperinwing the the indented (and in the case small) third dot on the upperwing is a feature to separate from Dark Green

so what is this butterfly that I photographed on 30 July in the same area? Is the third dot indented or not? I never got a photo of the underwing...

this fritillary in Maridalen was a surprise. It was on its own feeding along a path whereas 100m away were loads of other (larger) butterflies feeding on thistles. This was a small fritillary and I made sure I took photos of the underside

which showed it was a Queen of Spain Fritillary (sølvkåpe). I was really surprised by its small size but apparently this is a very variable species with a size of 35-50mm given. This is the first record of this species in Oslo in the ArtsObservasjoner database but I assume this is due to lack of observers (and observers who can be bothered to report their records) rather than it being particularly rare

a far easier Fritillary is Silver-washed (keiserkåpe) here with a Peacock (dagpåfugløye) and a fly

and here with a wasp

and with a Small Tortioseshell (neslesommerfugl) in the background

Comma (hvit C)

Green-veined White (rapssommerfugl)

female Large White (stor kålsommerfugl)

this blue butterfly flew up from my feet on Gressholmen and due to its tiny size I initially though it was a moth. But through the bins I could see it was a blue butterfly. The small size leave only really one option: Small Blue (dvergblåvinge) and an individual this late in the year is according to the literature very unusual

Red Admiral

Peacocks, Comma and Silver-washed Fritillary

and some birds:

a juvenile Common Buzzard (musvåk) in Maridalen

juvenile Knot (polarsnipe) at Fornebu

Knot, Lapwing (vipe) and Ruff (brushane) in flight

the rarest sighting - a juv Moorhen (sivhøne) in Storøykilen, Fornebu. My first sighting here where Water Rails are normally to be found

Some summer memories

With a continued lack of new birding to report on (bird and weather gods have not been kind to me recently) I will keep some activity on the blog with some more pictures from the cabin in Bodø in July plus some from the long road trip back to Oslo.

Redshank (rødstilk) bred close to the cabin. Here an adult and young

Ringed Plovers (sandlo) were also breeding

This picture of Bøvasstindene was taken at 23:41 when there was a thin layer of pink sunlight across the mountains

had this Snipe (enkeltbekkasin) from the car early one morning

This Bar-tailed Godwit (lappspove) was in the bay below the cabin and I managed to row out to it with my camera

wide angle shot

raptors were scarce this summer with only White-tailed Eagles being numerous. This Peregrine (vandrefalk) was the only falcon I saw!

Arctic Terns (rødnebbterne) breed inland in the mountain of Norway and this bird was right by a road

where it had two young begging for food




Golden Plover (heilo) on Saltfjellet

there were quite a few of this flower at Saltfjellet. It is not an orchid but a Moor-king Lousewort (kongsspir)

Long-tailed Skuas (fjelljo) showed again on Saltfjellet but were not breeding

although this scrape suggested that they had thought about it

I've concluded that this butterfly on Saltfjellet is a mountain fritillary (fjellperlemorvinge)

Waxwings (sidensvans) have been bred in many areas south of their normal range this year. A drive through the forest south of Børgefjell in Nord-Trøndelag produced many