Bleary eyed

I rose at 0430 this morning determined to have a good mornings birding before breakfast and I most certainly did. Inspired by huge numbers of waders seen at Nordre Øyeren yesterday (over 1200 Greenshank) I made this my destination. I was on site at Svellet at 5am. This huge area of shallow water and mudflats is only viewable from a distance with a telescope so the views are not great but it is worth squiting your eyes and scanning. There had obviously been a lot of interchange of birds over night because I had "only" 300Greenshank but these were accompanied by 400Wood Sandpipers and smaller numbers of Ruff, Redshank and Curlew.
Amongst 160 Teal was a pair of Shoveler and sitting rather majestically on a small post in the water was an adult White Tailed Eagle whilst over the water an Osprey hunted.

Next stop was the large bay of Snekkervika. Here there were smaller numbers of waders but there were additional species: Whimbrel, Little Ringed Plover, Snipe and Ringed Plover. I again glimpsed a Redstart for my customary second but did have better views of a Spotted Flycatcher which appears to be the first for the year around Oslo. Also new for the year here were Whitethroat and Sand Martin. My Norwegian year list now stands at 154 putting me in 12th position among the people recording their lists on http://feltornitologene.no/kryss/index.htm?list=year&y=2010

I was home before 9am for breakfast with the family - not a bad way to start the day.

Yesterday I was up in Maridalen in the late evening and again saw the Tawny Owl who presence was betrayed by scolding Blackbirds - if only the rarer owls were this easy!

Blast From the Past

Reflecting on quite how poor the Tawny Owl video was I thought it might be a good idea to upload a slightly better video of a much much more impressive owl:

Great Grey Owl 30 November 2009.

Stir crazy

After 3 days in the house looking after a poorly 1 year old I was itching to get out and I managed three hours around Maridalen this evening. I was hoping to see Wryneck which has been reported a couple of times in the past week but no luck. There were however enough other signs of spring to make for an enjoyable evening even if the northerly wind made it a but chilly. The water level is very high and there is no mud but even so there were a few waders (elsewhere there have been very high numbers sighted today so there is obviously some movement). 2 Wood Sandpipers and 2 Greenshank are always nice to see and on the water were 17 Tufted Duck and a pair of Red Breasted Merganser. Land birds were represented by 2 Wheatear, 2 Whinchat and a male Redstart which showed for 1 second before disappearing and not to be seen again.

Highlight though was a Tawny Owl which gave me my best views ever of this species. Before I have only seen birds in flight that I have disturbed but finally I saw a bird in daylight. I was on my way to check out a nesting box to see if there were any signs of Tawny Owls when I heard a Blackbird giving a very agitated alarm call. I located the Blackbird and then saw a Tawny Owl fly away. The Blackbird with company of a Song Thrush kept track of the Owl though and I was soon able to see it halway up a spruce tree. This video allows you to just about see the bird and hear the scolding Blackbird.

Camping

We decided to be brave and attempt our first family camping trip with our 21 month old. We chose a spot by a lake only 2kms from the car park with good enough tracks that we could take the pram. Camping wise everything went well, we had a fantastic fire burning, good food, and a campsite right by the lake. Only problem was the littlest getting ill and throwing up all over herself whilst asleep in the tent at 11pm. Luckily I had chosen to sleep under the stars (was also required as the tent is not big enough) and had hoped this would allow me to hear some owls. Unfortunately I wasn't succesful with this although it was fantastic to see the sunset and stars although this is already getting difficuly as the sky does not get fully dark until around 2330 and is already light again around 0400.
I was very surpised to hear a pair of Cranes calling to each other on the Saturday evening and then again early on Sunday morning before they flew low over my head at 7am (the video is taken from my sleeping bag!).

Otherwise birding was very slow going. At dawn I could hear Black Grouse calling distantly aswell as a Black Throated Diver but the dawn chorus consisted only of Blackbirds, Chaffinches, Tree Pipit, Robin and Willow Warbler. On the lake a male Red Breasted Merganser, a pair of Teal and a noisy pair of Canade Geese joined a pair of Common Sandpipiers.

Twitching Norway style

Out of the house at 0710 on my way to Borrevannet near Horten, 1 hour south of Oslo. A male Montagu's Harrier and Great White Egret had been seen there yesterday and this seemed like a pretty good reason to visit a renowned locality that has never previously been graced by my presence.

When I arrived just after 8am there were three other birds present who could report that both birds had been seen earlier but not by them. Well fear not Oslo Birder is here! After about 20 minutes I saw the Egret in flight distantly and it then landed allowing telescope views. As it warmed up a couple of male Marsh Harriers started to fly around the reedbed and not long after at around 9am I picked up the Monties coming in from the other end of the lake. It did a fly by of the tower and then headed out to some fields which is quartered for a bit before returning towards us and then gaining great height before drifting west out of view.

Borrevannet is a great site being a shallow lake with large reedbeds set in low lying farmland close to the coast. In addition to the two rarities there were in total at least 3 Marsh Harriers, an Osprey, 3+ singing Thrush Nightingales, Yellow Wagtail, Marsh Tit and Wood Sandpiper. Later in the spring there are dozens of Thrush Nightingales here plus many Reed and Marsh Warblers.

Is summer over daddy?

That was the question my 5 year old asked at breakfast as we watched the snow falling which it continued to do until the middle of the afternoon. What is going on? This picture shows spring flowers with a dusting of snow. Birding was a bit difficult today but an afternoon drive did see me notching up my first Rough Legged Buzzard of the year along with an Osprey. I also had my first Blackcap of the year outside a friends house and yesterday in much more spring like weather saw my first Pied Flycatcher singing in Maridalen along side 4 migrant Wheatears. On Sunday a family walk in the forest north of Maridalen had this very tame pair of Goldeneye competing with Mallards for bread:

Yesterday saw me on my bike riding 43km in the forest north of Maridalen. Sporting a new pair of cycling shorts it was a lit less painful than my previous excursions on my bike this spring but I was still fairly sore when I got home (I was also exhausted!). Higher up the lakes were still completely frozen
and I could not complete my intended route as snow and ice covered the forest tracks which had not been used by cars. Birds were pretty scarce with a Buzzard, a pair of Black Throated Divers, 3 Crossbills and a few singing Tree Pipits the highlights. On returning to Maridalen a couple of Swallows were a pleasant sign of spring but otherwise there was very little to see.

This morning saw me up at 0430 in attempt to see Black Grouse at the presumed lek site I have found in the forest in Maridalen (the same one I visited on Thursday). There was mist and a lot of dampness in the air as I walked 2km through the forest. Little to hear on the way up (too dark and too misty to see much) with a very brief outburst from an Owl the only excitement. It was all too brief to identify to species but it could possibly have been a Tengmalms Owl which is at the top of my still to see list. As I approached the lek site I again heard the bubbling display call of a Black Grouse as you can (just about) hear on the following video.

I approached the lek site cautiously thinking I was hearing the birds from a 100 metres range but suddenly a calling male errupted from the ground only 20 metres away followed shortly by a female. Not very satisfactory at all. I could here another bird calling from the lek site but as I approached I realised again it was not at the lek but calling from trees close by. I sat within sight of the lek from around 0530 - 0600 but no birds came in to display and I could only hear very distant calls from other birds. A Green Sandpiper was flying around calling aswell as Crossbills and Tree Pipits. I decided to give up but on my way back I again heard calling Grouse from the area of the lek so returned very cautiously. This time there was I believe only one male displaying from tree tops. I heard it from 3 locations and managed the following photo as proof of its existence.

I'm not quite sure why I did not get to see the birds at what I have always presumed is the lek site but maybe the weather was less than favourable for full display?

A day of 2 halves...

.. in terms of weather and birding trips. The first half saw me up in Maridalen in mist and temperatures of only about 5 degrees. Despite this the ice is melting fast and the lake is now around 60% frozen. All the waterbirds of yesterday were gone (showing how active migration is at the moment) and were replaced by 8 Pink-footed Geese, 3 Grelyag Geese and 2 Black Throated Divers. Also nice was a group of 8 Golden Plovers flying around seemingly confused by the mist and a Curlew also flying around rather forlornly. I headed up into the forest hoping to find evidence of Black Grouse. It was rather miserable in the forest with verly little to see or hear. I did hear a Black Grouse calling whislt I was approaching the lek site but when I got there I drew a blank (maybe they heard me approaching and flew off). Evidence of their presence is shown below:

 Otherwise I glimpsed a Hazel Grouse and found a pair of Willow Tits inspecting a potential nesting site.

The second half was an afternoon trip with Bjørn Olav Tveit, author of the recently published first ever where to watch guide for Norway. Despite Bjørn Olav's knowledge and warm sunny weather with southerly winds we saw very little at Nordre Øyeren. Numbers of Teal were very much reduced from earlier this week with only a couple of hundered present. A few Greenshank were picked out at about 1 kilomotres range but nothing new except for a couple of House Martins amongst a handful of Swallows.
On the way back to Oslo we popped in at Østensjøvannet which is rich shallow lake within the city limits. A White-fronted Goose had been reported earlier and we easily located it - most likely the same bird seen earlier in April at Bygdøy. Also present was a strange hybrid seemingly paired with a Barnacle Goose. It can be seen in the following photo along with the White-fronted Goose, Barnacle Goose and Greylag Goose. I reckon it is a hybrid between Barnacle and Grelyag.

Sleet

Today has been cold and the drizzle even turned into sleet. Brrrr.

Undeterred I spent an hour or so at Maridalen this morning. The ice is slowly melting although still covers 90% of the lake. I reckon that by May 1st it will be ice free. 3 Common Scoters were a good find and relatively confiding allowing me to get the following photo:

A pair of Wigeon and a pair of Whooper Swans were also good finds and finally I found a Ring Ouzel this year at Maridalen.
Other than that there was a fair amount of frog spawn to be seen. We will collect some this weekend and see if we can be better frog foster parents this year than we managed to be last.

An early start today to match my high hopes saw me on the road at 0730. I headed to the far south east of Akershus county on the border with Østfold. This area has a number of shallow reed fringed lakes which are often very attractive to a number of water birds. After an hour I arrived at Hemnessjøen which I had never visited before. There were not huge numbers of birds to be seen but a dozen Red Throated Divers and a couple Black Throated Divers were good to see. Highlights though were a male Marsh Harrier which was collecting nesting material and delivering them presumeably a female deep in a reedbed although I did not see her. A Bean Goose with 5 Greylag Goose was a bit too distant to safely identify to race but it looked most like a Tundra. Perhaps most surprising though was a male Eider which is extremely unusual inland. Quite what this sea duck was doing here I have no idea. 4 Swallows and a Tree Pipit were welcome summer visitors. Next stop was Hellesjøvannet where this time a pair of Marsh Harriers were seen collecting nesting material. This video shows the male:

Marsh Harriers are very rare breeders in this part of Norway so to see signs of breeding at 2 separate localities was noteworthy.

I really expected today to be a day when something good would turn up: wind from the south east should be very productive at this time of the year. As usual my expectations were not met but there were enough new birds to keep me going and I have even greater expectations for tomorrow.
I visited Årnestangen and Nodre Øyeren. The ice has completely melted now and the water level is extremely low. I have never seen the water this low and there are huge areas of mud exposed which are starting to attract waders. Hopefully the water level will remain low through May although it would be nice if it rose a bit such that the birds are not so distant.
There are still large numbers of Teal - I had 1800 in total with 13 Pintail and a few Wigeon amongst them. Waders were not in large numbers but there was some variety: Wood and Common Sandpiper and Ringed and Little Ringed Plover were new for the year as was Willow Warbler. I've still not seen any Swallows but they will surely turn up in the coming days.

Double entendres

Bird and nature websites can sometimes be blocked by firewalls due to the double meaning of many species names. The following account of my trip to Maridalen this evening is a (fairly) accurate account of what I saw although the adjectives may normally have been ommitted.
Whilst admiring a pair of Great Tits I was excited to see not one but two hairy Beavers showing well in the river whilst a proud Woodcock flashed by.

Drought

No birds and no rain. The weather is really not the best for birds at the moment although the majority of people would probably be very happy with how it is. We are still having frosts at night but we haven't had any real rain since easter and it is very dry underfoot. We went to Fornebu today and decided to grill some sausages. Only problem was I didn't place the bbq very cleverly and suddenly I had to deal with a little bush fire! As for birds today a single male Ring Ouzel was nice to see as I had given up on seeing this around Olso this year.
At home the first daffodills are just coming out in the garden and tulips will also be out soon. We have pairs of both Blue and Great Tits interested in the only nesting box I had up so I have put another one up and maybe both will nest in the garden this year.
Monday promises southerly winds and some rain - maybe that will bring some new birds.

The geese came today....

.... and I saw them. 3540 to be precise between 11.00 and 14.00. This little film snip shows a large flock going over.

I had cycled up to Maridalen to see if there were any signs of Black Grouse at a lek site I found last autumn but there was too much snow on the forest tracks for me to cycle there so I was on my way home when I heard my first flock of geese going over and then after seeing another 2 flocks I realised that something big was happening. There were in total 23 flocks during the three hours with the largest being 380 birds. I had not taken any food with me but managed to persuade Seamus that what he needed to do was have a bit of exercise and an outdoor lunch. Surprisingly enough he agreed and at 1pm i was enjoying cheese and salami sandwiches. Here is my lunch arriving.

 Otherwise, there was qctually quite a bit to see with 3 Black Throated Divers now on the small area of open water, 4 Teal, an Osprey which appeared from the south and after a look at all the ice disappeared off to the south again. The Buzzard was still present and one of the local Goshawks was taking an interest in the Wood Pigeons again. In the forest I found Crested and Willow Tits a small flock of Bramblings and best of all this Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. I know that this is an absolutely atrocious video but you do get to hear the bird calling and drumming which in the UK at least is a pretty rare sound these days.