August raptors

Both yesterday and today I have seen a nice selection of raptors and we are now entering that brief period of raptor abundance around Oslo when the local youngsters are on the wing and the first migrants are moving through.

Yesterday I was guiding Steve and Ann from Blighty and we visited Årnestangen and Maridalen. High water levels meant that there were hardly any waders at Årnestangen but raptors more than compensated. We had 4 different Marsh Harriers (no juveniles yet), Honey Buzzard, Common Buzzard, Osprey, a young Peregrine mobbing one of the harriers, Merlin, Sparrowhawk and best of all an adult and juvenile Hobby that were hunting a Swallow with breath taking agility right over our heads. As a sign of the relative abundance of raptors at the moment I also had Osprey and Peregrine over the house!

Today I visited Hellesjøvannet where I had Marsh Harrier, Honey Buzzard, Common Buzzard, Osprey, Hobby, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk so nine species of raptor in the last two days isn’t bad going.

Red-backed Shrikes and especially Whinchats are also numerous at the moment suggesting both species have had a good breeding season. Willow Warblers and hirundines are not that numerous though and there are also very few insects which may be related - no mosquitos and absolutely no dead insects on the windscreen when driving.  Dragoflies also seem to be far less numerous than in previous years.

This Honey Buzzard (vepsevåk) that flew over Hellesjøvanet s carrying part of a wasps nest in its talons and would have been on its way to the nest. Looks to be a male

Osprey (fiskeørn)

Hellesjøvannet must be the best place in the whole of Norway for Pochard (taffeland). Today there were 86 birds of which only 7 were females

a female Black Darter (svart høstlibelle) in Maridalen. Last year there were hundreds on the wing, today I had just 6

and a male

5 Black-throated Divers on Maridalsvannet yesterday. There is also a pair with two well grown young on the lake and also upto three Red-throated Divers

Guiding Kite

I had my first post-holiday guiding today and had the pleasure of showing Patricia from Georgia (USA sate and not ex-Soviet republic) the birds that Oslo has to offer in a morning session. We birded Maridalen and had a good selection of the commoner birds. At this time of the year birds have stopped singing and many birds are in post-breeding moult and become very skulky and difficult to find. Birding is therefore a lot less rich than in for example May but we did come across a few mixed flocks though which contained up to 8 species and had the first autumn migrants such as Yellow Wagtail and Whinchat.

As we were approaching the end of the outing we commented that we had not seen a single raptor so I decided to go looking for the Hobby that has been so reliable recently. He wasn’t to be found but as I scanned I picked up a large, distant raptor in a glide flight. I didn’t get a Common Buzzard vibe and thought that finally I would see my first Maridalen Honey Buzzard of the year. Getting the scope on it though I immediately saw that it was no Honey Buzzard but a kite! At the distance it was difficult to see too many details but my impression was that it had to be a Red Kite and my poor photos confirm this. This species is still rare in and around Oslo but is now becoming annual and this is the second Maridalen record. The views were not good at all but yet again guiding has turned up a good bird – I really should do it more often ;-) !!

Red Kite (glente) - just about recongnisable

Queen of Spain Fritillary (sølvkåpe) - a species of butterfly that seems to be becoming commoner around Oslo

there are far fewer large dragonflies in Maridlen which may explain why the Hobby may have moved on but there were hundreds of newly emerged Black Darters. 

Oslo birding again

I am finding it very difficult to sit in front of a computer and blog. It is still the school holidays, I am decorating and it there are far more enjoyable and relaxing things to be doing that being online. I have had some enjoyable birding experiences since being home though and feel now that these have built up enough momentum that a quick blog post is mandated.

In Maridalen the record breaking Whooper Swan family has lost one of their young but the other seven are now almost fully grown. A Hobby is also still present in the valley. It looks to be a 2cy bird and I have seen no evidence of breeding (i.e apart from the first sighting of 3 birds on 21 June I have only seen a single bird and there is no sign of it taking food to a nest) although I did hear it calling yesterday. I assume that it’s just a young non-breeding bird that is hanging around an abundant source of dragonflies but maybe next year there will be breeding.

Nutcrackers have begun their annual movement into the city in search of hazel nuts and specific types of spruce cones.

Red-backed Shrike families are also moving off from their breeding territories and have turned up in Maridalen.

Biggest surprise in Maridalen though has been 2 juvenile Arctic Terns which turned up 30 July and are still present. They would not have bred in the area but this is a very early record – one would normally expect to find Arctic Terns around Oslo in late August or September. When we were in Northern Norway though I saw Arctic Tern chicks that were very large so clearly some areas have had an early breeding season.

Other than Maridalen I have had a couple of visits t Årnestangen where wader passage has started with highlights being adult Broad-billed Sandpiper, Turnstone, Sanderling, Temminck’s Stint, and Grey Plover. It is still early for much raptor passage but Marsh Harrier, White-tailed Eagle, Hobby and Osprey are good enough to get started with.

Today, I had an interesting experience when I thought I heard a Spotted Crake singing from a suitable area of habitat. I played the song on my phone and the reply started approaching me and turned out to be a juvenile Teal! The volume was always low but otherwise it sounded just like a Spotted Crake. I wonder how many of the autumn reports of singing Spotted Crakes (heard only) could actually have been juvenile Teals?

From the top: Swift (tårnseiler), Osprey (fiskeørn) and adult White-tailed Eage (havørn) from Årnestangen. The eagles and Ospreys put on a spectacular display but I have a full memory card and managed just one picture which turnd out quite well..

A 1cy/juv Arctic Tern (rødnebbterne) in Maridalen

the lack of a dark trailing edge to the wing and the small, all dark bill help separate from the more expected Common Tern

10 adult Black-throated Divers (storlom) together on Maridalsvannet is  perhaps a sign of a poor breeding season

Hobby (lerkefalk)

2cy male Marsh Harrier (sivhauk). Not a very good picture but shows why this bird is a 2cy: it retains its juvenile outer primaries and nearly all the secondaries and ha only moulted its inner primaries

adult male Red-backed Shrike (tornskate) with newly caught prey

as soon as the male caught the insect this youngster appeared and started getting very excited

the male (left) then flew and gave the food to a youngster (right) and another youngster felt hard done by

Whooper Swans (sangsvane)

a horribly over exposed photo of my first Lesser Marbled Fritillary (engperlemorvinge)

and a fresh black darter (svart høstlibelle) 

Not just birds in Maridalen

I felt like an all-round naturalist today. Many birders switch to butterflies, moths or dragonflies in the summer but I have never really developed a passion for these species groups although I do like to record the butterflies I see (although I’ve never managed to get to grips with telling apart the various blue and fritillary butterflies). Today though it was almost as though creatures other than birds were more interesting. I found three adders in very close proximity of each other and then in the same area had a couple of dragonflies which I’ve managed to identify as Black Darters (svart høstlibelle) and a load of caterpillars feeding on nettles which I’ve identified as Peacock (dagpåfugløye) plus I had three mink and all this in addition to yesterday’s snails!!!

I nearly stood on the first adder which was a dark, probably melanistic, individual (a black adder) which was curled up in some short grass and as I moved away to take a photo with the big lens I nearly stood on another dark individual. As I then tried to photograph this one I then found a larger and normal coloured individual. Eventually all three got tired of my failed attempts to photo them and slithered away amongst some nearby stones. I suspect that it might be mating time which is why these three individuals were so close to each other. I had one hiss at me as I came to close to it as I was trying to move some grass to get a better picture which was quite exciting!

Birds were similar to the last few days with the Red-backed Shrikes still present, two distant Hobbies, a young Goshawk and a young Buzzard being the highlights.

Black? Adder

the same individual as above

with tongue out

the larger and normal coloured Adder

the other dark individual

this is a female Black Darter

I identified this as another Black Darter based on what I see as a black stripe with three yellow dots however I've received feedback that this is a newly hatched female Common Darter

female Common Darter (rødbrun høstlibelle)




Peacock (dagpåfugløye) caterpillars

Dad and child Red-backed Shrike

one of the young