Regular Oslo birding this week

Birding in Oslo isn’t just Sibes and owls and there are more normal birds to look at and enjoy. A large arrival of Waxwings is brewing although so far most birds I have seen have been flocks hurrying over. There seems to be lots of berries around though so once the birds settle down then I am sure there will be lots of urban birds to enjoy.

Maridalen has been rather quiet with a Great Grey Shrike appearing in many different parts of the valley signalling that food is difficult to find. On the lake there have been quiet a few wind blown Guillemots and amongst them I picked out a Razorbill which is only the third record in the Dale. Nocturnal trips have revealed a few Woodcock although numbers are declining with birds presumably continuing their southbound migration.

I have been out looking for owls twice more but with disappointing results. A trip with Jr and the Beast gave two Tawny Owls but a trip with Jack drew a complete blank which lends some weight to the saying that “a Jack a day keeps the birds away” 😉

Østensjøvannet is normally a productive place in October and there are lots of birds this year but it is a very different make up to the last few years when there has been a lot of water weed which has attracted three figure flocks of Coot, Mute Swan and Wigeon. This year there seems to have been a complete die back of the water weed and the lake is nearly free of the above species with for example only single figures of Coot! Fish eating species however are in higher numbers especially Herons and Cormorants. The commonest birds though are geese which are feeding on a stubble feed and in total there are close to 1000 Barnacle, Greylag and Canada Geese although surprisingly enough nothing scarce amongst them.

Fornebu is very quiet with visits this week revealing nothing of note with colder temperatures and overnight frosts having pushed warblers and pipits onwards.

A trip to Årnestangen was also disappointing although 9 Taiga Bean Geese with Greylags was as always a nice encounter and a small flock of Twite was my first of the autumn.

this young Goshawk (hønsehauk) was a delight at Østensjøvannet today and was respectfully escorted out of the area by the local Hooded Crows. Its large size indicates it is a female

a Jackdaw (kaie) also got in on the act

when the geese at Østensjøvannet take to the wing it is an impressive sight and sound

The only Mute Swans (knoppsvane) are breeding birds that haven't left yet. The young in this family are still far from full grown and seem to have developed slowly due to the shortage of food. In addition there are 3 orphaned young (the dad was found dead and mum just disappeared) which are also not yet able to fly and a single adult that had apparantly crashed with overhead wires

a redhead Smew (lappfiskand) - one of two at Østensjøvannet

Twite (bergisisk) at Årnestangen

a Razorbill (alke) on Maridalsvannet

and the valley's Great Grey Shrike (varsler) hovering as it looks for food

a Tawny Owl (kattugle) perched on a wire in the Dale. 

and a Woodcock (rugde)

last week I sea gazed at Krokstrand. There wasn't much to see (what did I really expect) except for a flock of 95 Kittikwakes (krykje) that suddenly appeared heading north at height

Beans on Bog

I couldn’t resist another go at the Beans yesterday. After breakfast a check of the map showed one of the bird had phoned home from an easily accessible and favored autumn stubble field. I headed up as soon as I could (Beast and children had to be taken care of first) and when I finally arrived at the field there were still geese there. Before I had even got out of the car though they flew off towards their favoured peat bog. I managed some flight pictures and then headed for the bog. The bog is not an easy site to access which is probably why it is favoured by the geese and I am always wary that I will disturb the geese here. I saw the flock flying around the bog and counted 46 birds which was the same number that had left the stubble field. My pictures also revealed 5 tagged birds (3 metal collars and 2 GPS) but I could not read any other than 27 (the same result as yesterday). I then headed down to the river where a flock of 55 was resting on the river bank with one GPS collar amongst them. So I had 101 birds in total of which 6 were tagged. So unless 2 new birds arrived over night I erred on the side of caution with my count of 99 yesterday. Last year I counted 98 on 4 September which increased to 144 on 7 September so there is still hope that more birds will arrive. I also hope to get better views such that I can read collars and also identify family groups.

Other birds were thin on the ground with raptors again being surprisingly scarce although a Buzzard did show well.

The flock of 46 Taiga Bean Geese (sædgjess) in flight over the peat bog

4 of the collars. Only 27 is identifiable with certainty

27 top right. A metal collar bottom left (this bird was with another metal collared bird - the pair in the previous picture). The three birds bottom right are a bird with winf damage that may be a result of gunshot and a metal collared bird who seemed to be paired to a GPS collared bird (which had to be 30)

the Glomma River - the flock of 55 geese are just right of centre

Common Buzzard (musvåk) with Jackdaw (kaie)

Gropper

The weekend saw me very much in (an involuntary) non birding mode and I feared thay with a lot of rain initially forecast that a lot of good birds would be found that I would be unable to see. Luckily for me the rain and the birds did not come.

Today I started by twitching the one good bird that did turn up which was a singing Grasshopper Warbler at Fornebu. There look to have only been 3 previous records from Fornebu with the last in 2009 although breeding occurred in 2003. It is ironic that this bird turned up in the reedbed at Storøykilen after all the bushes have been cleared away because usually this species avoids pure reedbeds and instead likes the bushy edges (which are all gone now). I actually got to see it really well in the reeds and also videod it singing which was a good start to the day.

I then decided to head for Østensjøvannet in Ås where I hoped I would be able to find some raptors as this seemed the best tactic on a day when temperatures reached 24C (in Norway, in April!). Two hours gave me a single Marsh Harrier, early Hobby, Osprey and Kestrel which was at the lower end of expectations but still a result of some sort.

Grasshopper Warbler (gresshoppesanger)

here the bird is walking away in typical mouse like style

a photogenic Jackdaw (kaie)

cleaning its eye

male Marsh Harrier

4 White-fronted Geese (tundragås) which have been aroudn for a while now

the Beast was very interested by the scent of Beaver on this newly felled tree and then turned Beaver himself

before discovering this Adders for me

Spring arriving slowly in the Dalethe

We are having a period of northerly winds and sun which is forecast to continue for a week or so. This type of weather is not really conducive to much migration or falls of birds but of course nothing can completely hold back new arrivals. Despite the fields in Maridalen being very dry flocks of thrushes are appearing and Mistle Thrushes are in record numbers and the most numerous species which must be a first. I saw my first two Ring Ouzels of the year as well today. The pair of Cranes is proving easy to find and Lapwings seem to be established on two fields which is an exciting development as previous years have seen them consolidating to just one field.

this tailless Jackdaw (kaie) looked like a juvenile Bateleur Eagle! I have purposely made the picture darker so the plumage doesn't enlighten things..

Merlin (dvergfalk) - not quite sure of age and sex

the Cranes (trane) have made this field home

Two sightings of Great Grey Shrike (varsler) at different sites but possibly of the same bird

Mistle Thrushes (duetrost) are rarely easy to get a photo of

and these two Ring Ouzels were even more difficult

The Marsh Tit (løvmeis) is still going strong in Maridalen and is the only known individual in Oslo. It was calling a lot today but I have never heard it sing and think it is safe to assume it is a female