Garganey Buzzes the Tower

The tropical conditions have not brought as many southern rares to Norway as one would hope for and in fact there have been fewer rare birds so far this spring than one would normally expect. Yesterday a couple of Spoonbills turned up south of Oslo and most surprising of all a 1^st summer Ross’s Gull (hardly a southern bird..) turned up at the Great Big Dump so this gave me some hope.

The hot weather though has caused a rapid decline in water levels at Årnestangen and I interpreted the published water level this morning to mean that there would once again be some mud at Årnestangen. Årnestangen and Nordre Øyeren generally offer the best chance of something exciting around Oslo and although it would have been best with a thunder storm I thought that it would be worth the long walk out. From the car I could see that there was indeed a small sandbank exposed so I set off on the 45-minute walk confident I would find marsh terns, Black-winged Stilt, Red-footed Falcon, Spoonbill or something of that calibre as reward for the long walk and the extreme numbers of mossies.

Well I didn’t get quite that level of reward, but it was worth the trip. The sandbank held a 1^st summer Little Gull, 7 Ringed Plover, 1 Redshank, 1 Dunlin and a Broad-billed Sandpiper! There were quite a few male dabbling ducks which were nearly all males but amongst 36 Teal were 3 females and this caused loads of commotion with displaying and calling. Two male Garganey were also calling a lot and showed very well. Both had started moulting and one was a particularly poorly marked bird which I don’t think was just a result of moult.

Raptors were again in very short supply with 3 Ospreys and a couple of Marsh Harriers the only ones noted. Marsh Warblers were singing but I failed to find anything scarcer other than a single Sedge Warbler.

male Garganey (knekkand). This picture worked out very well!!

this is the uncropped photo of the bird as it buzzed the tower (one for the Top Gun aficionados) 

and from below

the two male Garganey together. The bird in the bckground had a very poorly defined white crescent on the head

2 Marsh Harriers (sivhauk)

a pair of Lapwings gave grief to anything (me included) that walk past or flew over their field but I saw no young.Curlews and Snipe are also breeding in the area

a displaying Snipe (enkeltbekkasin) - note the two outer tail feathers which make the distinctive noise 

a Small Heather (engringvinge) butterly

same butterfly

and my first Common Blue (tiriltungeblåvinge) of the year

Still in holiday mood

I must admit to still being in summer holiday mood and with additional IKEA unflattening and Jr and Jr Jr to entertain both birding and definitely sitting in front of the PC have taken a (welcome?) back seat. That of course doesn’t mean I haven’t been birding – far from it ;-) Trips to pick mushrooms in Maridalen, the beach at Fornebu and Årnestangen on Saturday morning with Per Christian and today in the early morning have of course given some birds plus butterflies and dragonflies which I am getting increasingly interested in.

The water levels at Årnestangen are quite high and there were no large numbers of waders to see either on Saturday or today. Dunlin are especially scarce with none seen on Sunday and today there were none to start with before 10 eventually appeared (only one adult). There were a few interesting species to find (although I am still to see Curlew Sandpiper or Little Stint this year). On Saturday, we had three adult Grey Plover and today the highlight was a juvenile Black-tailed Godwit which I had hoped to find as there seems to have been a mini influx to Norway the last few days. 2 adult Bar-tailed Godwits, 4 juv Turnstone and an adult Knot (also a late year tick) were also good birds today. Ringed Plovers were the commonest wader with 56 and in total I had 14 species of wader today.

Raptor numbers are starting to build up although no Pallid Harriers have made there way down from the mountains yet. Marsh Harriers have arrived though with at least four different birds: 1(-2) juveniles, a 2cy male, a 3cy+ male and a 2cy+ female. Common Buzzards, Sparrowhawks (3 seen together hunting White Wagtails), Osprey, Peregrine, Hobby and Kestrel completed the list but still no Honey Buzzards.

Passerine migration is only just getting going but today I had a calling flyover Red-throated Pipit which is an early date.

a 2cy+ female Marsh Harrier (sivhauk). The pattern of moult may allow the bird to be more accurately aged as either a 2cy or a 3cy+ but I haven't manged to work it out 

a nice fresh juvenile 

the 2cy male with a Sparrowhawk

same birds. The Marsh Harrier can be aged as a 2cy due to it still have mostly juvenile (brown) secondaries and outer primaries

the juvenile and 2cy+ female interacted

Grey Plovers (tundralo)

Turnstones (steinvender) and Knot (polarsnipe)

the all black legs make this (in my book) a Ruddy Darter (blodrød høstlibelle)

this similar dragonfly with pale hind legs is either a Common Darter (rødbrun høstlibelle) or Vagrant Darter (sørlig høstlibelle) but I don't think the picture allows a certain ID

the yellow inner wings of this small red dragonfly make it easy to ID as a Yellow-winged Darter (gulvinget høstlibelle)

a  mating pair of Black Darters (svart høstlibelle). There are more and more black males to see now

larger dragonflies seem to pose far less readily but I did managed to photo and subsequently ID this Southern Hawker (bågrønn øyenstikker)

mating pair of Common Blues (tiriltungeblåvinge)

High Brown Fritillary (adippeperlemoringe) 

Lesser Marbled Fritillary (engperlemorvinge)

Queen of Spain Fritillary (sølvkåpe)

Silver-washed Fritillary (keiserkåpe)

Large Marsh Grasshopper (sumpgresshopper)

Today I had a shag

The potential of the islands in the inner Oslofjord just offshore Oslo city has been known for a long time. Eric Roualet in particular has regularly visited the larger islands of Gressholmen, Lindøya and Nakholmen which are accessible by busboat and has turned up quite a few scarce and the odd rare. In the last few years though Andreas Gullberg has visited the smaller islands with the use of his own boat. He has found a lot of locally exciting species and shown that a number of species are far more regular than previous records suggested.
I had a chance to go out with Andreas on Saturday but a combination of a body resistant to getting up before 6am and my daughter’s football tournament meant I had to decline. I duly missed out on a Long-tailed Skua (Akershus tick) and Turnstone (Oslo tick) amongst others. I went out to the larger islands today though hoping that there might still be something hanging around.
I had a good start with an Arctic Tern feeding with three Common Terns soon after the boat left land. Arctic Tern is rare in Oslo although annual.
On Gressholmen there were 8 Dunlin, a Ringed Plover and 3 Greenshank in the tidal bay. An offshore rock held 4 Knot which were pushed off by the rising tide. Passerines were nearly non-existent with a single Wheatear the only bird of any interest. Butterflies included my first Pained Lady of the year plus a couple of male Common Blues.
Lindøya held some resting terns. I had good views of a juv Arctic and 5 juv Common and later on from long range saw a total of commic 12 terns on the same rock. The same rock also held 13 roosting Dunlin and 4 Ringed Plovers.
Moving onto Nakholmen (the hourly boat service giving exactly an hour per island) I had 4 Knot which must be the same as on Gressholmen. A shriek made me look up and there were two Hobbies cruising around overhead. They were an adult and juv I expect these to be from the family group that has been entertaining people at Nessodtangen on the other side of the fjord
On the boat back to the city I had a chance to check Galteskjær. I saw no waders and then did something I don't normally do - I went through the 80 odd roosting Cormorants. The reason for this was that Bjørn Olav had seen a Shag at Fornebu on Saturday – a species I have never seen in either Oslo or Akershus. And boom! I had a Shag (and it's been a while 😉). This is also the first Oslo record (or at least the first published one...) giving me two Oslo firsts this year after the Short-toed Lark in Maridalen in April.
The birding ended with an adult Peregrine ripping into its lunch on top of the town hall when the boat docked.
A very fresh southerly wind blew up during the day. This wasn't forecast and I don't know how local it is but could push some interesting sea birds into the inner fjord.

It's a Shag (toppskarv)

Juv Arctic Tern (rødnebbterne) left with 3 juv Common Terns (makrellterne)

Arctic (left) with Common. Note the smaller size, black bill, dark legs and less noticeable carpal bar of the Arctic

Common (left) and Arctic in flight. Note the dark trailing edge to the secondaries on the Common but white on the Arctic

2 Knot (polarsnipe). I took loads of pictures of these and will probably come back with a separate posting

4 Knot

these 2 ringed Barnacle Geese (hvitkinngås) overwinter in Holland. They were also recorded with 3 eggs in the nest on the late date of 7 July this year. The fact they were alone suggests their breeding failed

Common Blue (tiriltungeblåvinge)

Dunlin (myrsnipe) with 2 Ringed Plover (sandlo)

Dunlin

adult and juv Hobby (lerkefalk). The adult didn't seem in the mood to share its catch

Painted Lady (tistelsommerfugl)

adult Peregrine (vandrefalk)

2 very dainty looking juv Ringed Plovers (sandlo)

small White (liten kålsommerfugl)

this Wheatear (steinskvett) found a smal caterpillar

Lice

One of two Nutcrackers (nøttekråke) feeding in the garden this morning - note the bulging throat full of nuts!

I think I’ve been complaining too much about the seawatching recently afterall I did see 2 good birds in over 6 hours of sea gazing.

Today though I felt I could complain. Over breakfast I noticed a small creature creeping up my youngest daughter’s hair – a head lice! Out with the special comb and yes both the girls had them. Well that meant no school for them, no trip with Rune for me and a trip to the chemist to buy some poison. After administering the treatment and washing all bedding and towels I suggested a ride around Fornebu – this is always greeted with enthusiasm.

When we got there just after 1pm it was sunny, warm and there appeared to be some birds around. First a juvenile Buzzard (musvåk) was hunting close by (an unusual sight) and hovering before flying over our heads allowing me some pictures (I am slowly getting the hang of the new lens but am still not entirely satisified).

juvenile Buzzard

In the bushes there seemed to be good numbers of warblers with many Willow Warblers (løvsanger) and a few Blackcaps (munk) and whilst watching a young Whinchat (buskskvett) I noticed some movement around some berry bushes. The first bird I saw was a very large warbler, with noticeable barring on the undertail coverts, a big eye, a big bill and a generally plain grey plumage. Like a large Garden Warbler with barring – a Barred Warbler (hauksanger)! It grabbed a berry and disappeared in the bushes. I tried my best to relocate it but with two impatient kids I was limited to just hanging around the general area and occasionally peering at the bushes...without luck. Then when we were leaving it flew and showed well. In flight it was very distinctive. It resembled a shrike due to its size, strong bill and undulating flight. Additional plumage features that I picked up were its prominent wing bars and the white outer tail feathers which showed very well when it landed. Barred Warbler is less than annual in these parts and this was an Akershus tick for me.

Later whilst the kids were playing in a playground a male Bluethroat (blåstrupe) hopped around some bushes and a couple of Wheaters (steinskvett) also showed.

male Bluethroat

I really got the feeling there had been a mini fall at Fornebu today and just wonder what would have shown with an early morning visit.

Butterflies have been more obvious of late in what has generally been a very poor year for them. I had my first sighting of Brown Hairstreak (slåpetornstjertvinge) along with a showy Common Blue (tiriltungeblåvinge) which allowed themselves to be photographed.

female Borwn Hairstreak

male Common Blue