Back in Oslo and procrastinating away I am using dog
walking duties as a means of checking out on my breeding raptors. Yesterday,
saw me visiting the Honey Buzzard nest and today was a final attempt to find the
Hobby nest.
The Honey Buzzard young still look healthy although
a very obvious difference in the development of the two birds is perhaps more
than just an age difference and could suggest food shortages mean one of them (the
older one) is getting more food. I looked under the nest and saw no discarded
wasp comb which I take as a bad sign. Walking up to the nest area I glimpsed an
adult gliding towards the nest but was unable to see if it was the male or the
female although based on the last two years the female will probably have already
bailed. An hour and a quarter at the nest revealed only the young doing nothing
other than sitting still with no wing stretching or squabbling. On the way back
to the car I saw two dark HB thermalling high over the nest site that quickly
disappeared from view and then the male appeared low over the trees by the nest
and also quickly thermalled out of view. I could not make out if the first two
birds were a male and female but assume they were non/failed breeders moving
over the area or perhaps prospecting for a future nest site.
On the Hobby front it was a case of bad news and
good news. The good news is that I located the nest and could confirm that there
have been young, the bad news is that the confirmation came from the presence
of a dead juvenile on the ground under the nest. The carcass was right by a
path and the nest right over it and it was only seeing the carcass that allowed
me to find the nest. The nest was incredibly will hidden and impossible to see
from anywhere else other than under it. I had no live birds in the area so have
no idea whether any other young have fledged although if they had then I would
have expected to hear them. My last sighting in the nest area was 16 June and I
have visited since then without joy so it was a real surprise that such a large
juvenile was there which would have meant the adults would have been caring for
it and bringing food for the last month. The carcass still looked fairly fresh
although had been eaten at and there were droppings from a mammal on it. My
theories for how it ended on the ground are either being blown out during high
winds or perhaps a Goshawk attacked the nest resulting in one of the young
jumping out and the others being eaten?? My failure to locate any adults (especially
hearing them) on previous visits is also strange and makes me wonder if one of
the adults also perished at some point such that just a single adult was bringing
food but that is pure speculation.
Otherwise, I have had very few other raptors when in
Maridalen although it is the end of the month that is usually the most
productive and there is little in the way of migrants other than a few Whinchat
and Red-backed Shrikes. The two baby Whooper Swans are growing and being well
guarded by their parents but I have not seen the lone baby Mute Swan again.
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| The two Honey Buzzard (vepsevåk) young on the nest. The head of the closest bird is still covered in white downy feathers whereas the other, older, bird has lost most of them |
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| very poor pictures of the two HB that thermalled high over the nest. |
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| the male from the breeding birds that appeared out of the forest by the nest |
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| the unfortunate proof that Hobbies (lerkefalk) have indeed bred in Maridalen this year |
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| the carcass of a juvenile Hobby |
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| fresh droppings of a mammal that I assume had been feeding on the carcass |
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| here, I have turned over the carcass |
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| the nest was very difficult to find but through the binoculars I could see lots of white feathers around the nest |
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| one of four 1st year Red-backed Shrike (tornskate) that as is most recent years are finding lots to eat in a cooperative organic vegetable patch |
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| a juvenile (male?) House Sparrow (gråspurv) was with the Tree Sparrows (pilfink) at Kirkeby and indicates repeated breeding of this once mythical species (for me at least) in Maridalen |