My expectations are, of course, sky high but even if they
were lower then I would have been disappointed the last few days. I keep
expecting that rush of raptors, ducks or to be honest anything feathered but it
just ain’t happening. I have visited the (once) mighty Svellet a couple of
occasions to witness slowly rising water levels covering bone dry mud and if
this continues then we can kiss goodbye to the springs greatest bird experience
in these parts. Conversely if water levels gradually fall in the next couple of
weeks then we could be lucky enough to experience something special. Time will
tell but the first Greenshank of the year today were at least enough to keep me
optimistic.
The Ring-necked Duck was refound on Thursday. Some of Oslo’s
finest had looked for it the day after I
saw it without it being discovered and after that it seemed to be forgotten
about until a sharp pair of eyes refound it 3 days later. I saw it yesterday
when it was getting involved with the displaying Tufted Ducks which had me thinking
it would stay around for a good while. I could not find it today though so
either it has gone or I was observant as the finest a few days ago…
a pair of Ringed Plovers (sandlo) are breeding at Fornebu despite there being less and less suitable habitat. Here the male was incubating what seemed to be just 2 eggs
and the first Little Ringed Plover (dverglo) of the year at Fornebu which may also try to breed
Yesterday morning in Maridalen was very quiet and this
morning started the same. Despite some slight overnight rain there were still
very few birds to see with over 100 Fieldfares on the fields the only obvious
arrival until around 8am when suddenly lots happened. First a Wryneck started
singing, then two Swallows flew over, then a Willow Warbler sang, a Marsh
Harrier flew over and a Slavonian Grebe appeared on the lake!! The Wryneck and
WW are my earliest EVER in Norway, both by 4 days, and can definitely be described
as exceptional records.
Here is my total eBird checklist and a short video with as
far as I can hear the sound of 10 species: Wryneck (vendehals), Chaffinch
(bokfink), Willow Warbler (løvsanger), Greylag Goose (grågås), Blue Tit
(blåmeis), Chiffchaff (gransanger), Great Tit (kjøttmeis), Song Thrush
(måltrost), Curlew (storspove) and Green Sandpiper (skogsnipe).
a very early Wryneck (vendehals)
and an equally early Willow Warbler (løvsanger) - if you think this picture doesn't show why it isn't a Chiffchaff (gransanger) then you can hear it singing in the video
my first Swallow (låvesanger) of the year
and already my third Marsh Harrier (sivhauk) of the year in Maridalen. Surely some other half decent raptors should turn up soon
We seem to be in another of those dead spells which I’m sure
occur in the middle of April every year when I expect wave after wave of
migrants to appear but they don’t even if the conditions are “perfect”.
We had some light rain on Sunday evening but even that hasn’t helped. The farmers have started ploughing and even sowing some of the fields in Maridalen but apart from geese, including a flock of 190 Pink-feet, there is hardly a bird to be seen. Meadow Pipits are noticeable only be their near total absence. A couple of Wheatears and my first Ring Ouzel have been the only birds worth a mention. Raptors have, of course, also been just a dream.
Some fortune did come my way though yesterday evening. On the way out at 1915 to pick up Jr Jr from Lørenskog I checked my phone and saw I had an email titled «ring necked duck». It was Tomas Mazak, a Slovenian birder living in Oslo who I have yet to meet but he was kind enough to inform me he had found a male Ring-necked Duck at Lillestrøm. This was only 10 minutes further drive from Jr Jr so would hardly even count as a twitch😉 A call to Jr Jr to see if she preferred to see the bird or be picked up a bit late was answered as expected so I got to see the bird without continually being asked «are you finished» but it did mean I couldn’t spend that long with it. This was an Akershus tick for me although could well be the same bird that stopped off at Maridalsvannet (Oslo) a few years ago.
adult male Ring-necked Duck (ringand)
here with a Tufted Duck (toppand) in the foreground
my first Ring Ouzel (ringtrost) of the year. In Maridalen of course
a Starling (stær) and a bee
Maridalen's first Wheatear (steinskvett) of the year
the quest to find a Red Kite continues but the odd Marsh Harrier (sivhauk) turns up such as this old male at Kallaksjøen
Now that Redpolls have been lumped into one species I think
it is time to do the same with Crossbills. Are Common Crossbill, Scottish
Crossbill and Parrot Crossbill really different species or are they just
different forms along a clinal range where dominant food source is the determining
factor? My memory of reading what the Sound Approach wrote is that Common
Crossbill contains so many distinct populations with different calls and bill
sizes that they could just as easily be considered different species. Scottish
Crossbill has always been a farce (don’t they go “missing” in some years and
then turn up again with a slightly different call?) that I think was driven by
Britain’s desire to have an endemic species but now that Red Grouse has been
split from Willow Grouse then Britain has its symbolic endemic so Scottish Crossbill
can be allowed to fade away. Parrot Crossbill at the extreme end does look and
sounds very different from the opposite extreme of Common Crossbill but there
are many, many birds that are somewhere in between and you (I) really struggle
to put a label on them other than “crossbill”.
This last week I have seen a nice variety of crossbills that
brought back my dislike of the species group. At the weekend we had some
crossbills in nice mature pine (as opposed to spruce) forest. This would
normally mean that they are Parrots and in Norway Parrots are called furukorsnebb
(mean Pine Crossbill) whereas Common are grankorsnebb (meaning Spruce Crossbill).
Looking at them in the binoculars it was not immediate what they were and
neither were their calls particularly helpful one way or the other. Zooming in
on photos I identified them as Parrots but definitely not the largest billed of
their kind. Maybe they are a far better fit for Scottish? Is it not the case
that crossbills develop bills to suit the food they are specialising in so a (sub)population
that has good access to pine grows a larger bill than one that has access to
spruce or larch?
Then on Monday I had classic Parrot and Common together
(both in bill size and call) plus a bird that was somewhere in between.
male Parrot Crossbill (furukorsnebb) from Ringebu at the weekend
the bill does look huge on this one
the female looks classic Parrot but the male not quite
here they are looking good
but at this angle not so
And pictures from Monday closer to home:
this male is definitely not a Parrot although in the field that was my original conclusion
this pair with their smaller bills without parallel upper and lower mandibles are clearly Common Crossbills
the male of the same pair
a pair of Parrots Crossbills - large billed, bull necked classic birds
the male of the pair
this should be the same pair but the male is now looking quite different
this should be the same male who again looks different depending on angle
the female is the Parrots but the male is one of the Common Crossbills (possibly the first bird I have pictures and not from the pair)
here it is easier to see that the male is not a Parrot
the differences are perhaps easier to see here
This video has the two pairs and also the calls. The deeper call we hear most often is the Parrot and the higher pitched call is from the Common
here a still warm road kill juvenile Common Crossbill from Maridalen today. The bill looks to be fully developed
Whilst I was away at the weekend the ice melted on
Maridalsvannet. This is early but despite it having been so dry the water
levels are currently high so the lake doesn’t yet look that appealing. That
being said though there have already been some good birds and maybe when the
ice doesn’t melt until the end of the month as is often the case that means
that a lot of birds are missed out on as they cannot splash down even if they
wanted. Both species of diver are already back and their display calls ring
around the valley. More impressively though has been the three , yes 3, species
of grebes that have graced the lake. Following last years first ever record of
Little Grebe in the Dale a bird in exactly the same place it was probably the same
bird. Great Crested Grebe is more expected but a Slavonian Grebe hanging out
with Teal is record early as this species normally passes through, and not
annually, at the end of the month.
Raptors are still very thin on the ground but the first Osprey
of the year turned up on Tuesday and a Peregrine was hunting in the valley
today. Today also finally saw the first day with really good numbers of
passerines on the (very dry) fields: Bramblings, Redwings and Meadow Pipits
were the most numerous.
A real treat today was being able to listen to the calls of
migrating Curlews and a flock of 6 really wanted to land but in the end gave up
and flew north.
an ice free Maridalsvannet looking towards the south
my first Osprey (fiskeørn) of the year - a particularly well marked female
migrating Curlews (storspove)
Little Grebe (dvergdykker)
Slavonian Grebe (horndykker)
and the best picture of all, a Great Crested Grebe (toppdykker)...
there have been up to 10 Lapwing (vipe) on their favoured two fields and there are already two nests. Nest 1
Nest 2
Green Sandpiper (skogsnipe)
a Kestrel (tårnfalk) today and a Brambling (bjørkefink)
a young Peregrine (vandrefalk) that I saw three times today
Yesterday I thought I would see if Sørkedalen had anything more to offer and caught up with the plastic hybrid goose that has been around for a couple of weeks and a real piece of plastic had me for quite a few seconds thinking I had seen my first Ring Ouzel of the year…
what looks to be a hybrid Emporer x Barnacle Goose together with Pink-feet
