Some medium sized raptors at last

The last two days have started with low cloud and then ended up being gloriously sunny and the birdlife really changes with the weather. I have visited Østensjøvannet both days following the ducky bonanza on Tuesday but the variety of ducks has declined inversely with the amount of ice cover. On Tuesday there was 75% ice, yesterday 50% and today none. Yesterday I found a new, female, Pochard who was choosing to keep the company of displaying Tufted Ducks instead of the male who was only 100m away. Today I had really high expectations as last night had seen clear skies and southerly winds until 2am when it started raining and I felt certain there would be big arrival of waterfowl. Well, all this weather had done was to cause a big clear out and there was nothing of interest and very few birds generally on the lake.

Yesterday I spent a long period staring skyward in Maridalen and finally saw those larger raptors I was longing for with first Rough-legged Buzzard, Oslo #129, and then Osprey, Oslo #130. Today in a short visit in the morning #131 came in the form of Black-throated Diver and I am now a bit unsure as to whether I will see any new species for a few days.

Today I gave up on Maridalen quickly as it was too foggy and decided to head for Nordre Øyeren. Here there was no fog but disappointingly few birds. Water levels are unusually high for the time of year but there was still a good amount exposed at Svellet. 24 Oystercatchers and 2 Curlew were the only waders though. Snekkervika also had mud and shallow water but only moderate amounts of dabbling duck.

I then decided to head south east and do Aurskog-Høland again with the hope that raptors would finally show. They did show but there wasn’t the variety I hoped for. 16 Marsh Harriers was undoubtedly a record count for me with seven showing simultaneously as one spot but where were the Hen or Pallid Harriers or Red Kites?

A single adult Bewick’s Swan was not one of the birds I had seen previously and I thought I had found a new bird but I now see that it has been seen on and off at the same time as the pair were being seen regularly.

There is still lots of flood water at Kjelle but maybe too much as it was almost birdless. Hopefully though there will be very good conditions there later in the month.

adult male Rough-legged Buzzard (fjellvåk). These dark birds can be tricky to tell apart from Common Buzzards

male Marsh Harrier (sivhauk)

adult Peregrine (vandrefalk) stooping

male Kestrel (tårnfalk) hovering

female Pochard (taffeland) at Østensjøvannet

the male

the female again who seemed to like the male Tufteds (toppand)

yesterday in Maridalen there were three species of corvids together when 2 Rooks (kornkråke) dropped in and briefly perched with Hooded Crow (kråke) and Jackdaw (kaie)

this Rook was at Østensjøvannet today in what must already be a record year for the species in Oslo

adult Bewick's Swan (dvergsvane)

these Curlew (storspove) flying over Østensjøvannet this morning had me thinking there would be lots to find at Nordre Øyeren, but there wasn't.

an unusually photogenic male Teal (krikkand)

female

my first frog and spawn of 2024

Bewick's Swans and friends

There is more to birding than owls and at the moment we have migration to enjoy. Passerine migration is still going slowly and snow and -4C today is the reason for that - April can still offer up proper winter weather and millions of years of evolution has engrained that knowledge in species of birds that eat insects or need bare ground to feed on. My only new Oslo species, #116, since my last post was a passerine though with a Ring Ouzel on April 1^st. This was an early record on a warm day and since then I have seen few thrushes of any ilk.

Wildfowl are well on the move though and a traditional early April trip into Aurskog-Høland and Indre Østfold via the Glomma yesterday did not disappoint. There was lots of flood water in the valleys and very large flocks of geese (mostly Pink-footed), Whooper Swans and Cranes. It is still too early for large numbers of dabbling ducks although Teal are starting to arrive in small flocks. It also appears to be too early for raptor passage and the hoped for Red Kite or at least a Harrier sp. did not reveal itself.

There were a number of goodies though, the majority of which I knew would be there. In addition to seeing the 2cy Bewick’s Swan I found before Easter, there was also an adult pair to see (one of which is ringed, see below). I had White-fronted Geese at three locations, Taiga Bean Geese at two and a Great White Egret.

Kallaskjøen was covered in birds (and still a bit of ice)

Bewick's Swan (dvergsvane) ringed bird (752). Ringed as a juvenile female 13.8.2008 in Russia

there have been few reports since then and the last was in Denmark in December 2015 before she turned up in Norway 2 weeks ago

here mate to the left has a noticeably different bill pattern

their behaviour suggested a pair with what I interpreted as display (see video) but the ringed female (right) looks to be larger than the presumed male which doesn't make sense

flood waters and hundreds of swans and geese at Haneborg (not far from Kjelle)

the 2cy Bewick's was about the closest bird which made finding it easy

Great (White) Egret (egretthegre) have become regular in the autumn but are still rare in the spring although it cannot be many years until they breed

Hellesjøvannet where this one was would surely make a good breeding locality

my first Ring Ouzel (ringtrost) of the year in Maridalen

this worm eventually proved to be too much

although it gave it a good go

I came across a flock of 22 Taiga Beans Geese at one of their traditional feeds and seeing them in good light at quite close range they are a bewildering bunch and there are many single birds that look they are Tundra..

the right bird has a Tundra look to it

this bird had a metal ring and has therefore mostly likely previously had a collar which has now fallen off. The distinctive bill pattern may allow its identity to be determined. I believe this is 6X after going through all my old posts especially this one https://oslobirder.blogspot.com/2019/03/a-bit-more-like-it.html where there is a picture of the same bird with 6Z and here where there is a picture of 6Z and 6X https://oslobirder.blogspot.com/2016/03/a-new-routine.html. 6X is a bird I saw first in 2013!

this 2cy White-fronted Goose (tundragås) was associating with the Taigas

this large flock of wildfowl was on a field that I have never checked out before. They were not easy to grill but..

there were some White-fronted Geese amongst the hordes of Pink-feet

Cranes (trane) were very obvious yesterday with the largest flock being over 100 birds

nocturnal trips in Maridalen have revealed many Woodcocks (rugde). I saw this pair displaying in the thermal imager but they became shyer once illuminated

this fox was very confiding early on Easter Monday morning

this adult male Goshawk (hønsehauk) was initially seen chasing a Sparrowhawk that was in turn chasing a Chaffinch. Look how red its iris is

Lapwings (vipe) are so call that any chance to photograph them needs to be taken