Mid April and expectations are rising

It is the middle of April and the next six weeks are the most exciting of the year (in the Oslo area at least). In addition to many new birds for the year there are also new birding sites to reacquaint myself with and I have now competed my first walk to the end of Årnestangen for the year as well as my first grilling of the mighty Svellet.

Conditions today at Svellet were magical and I have a small but growing hope that this will be one of those Svellet springs that are entered into the history books, or at least get remembered on this blog. Today the water level (3.61m) was perfect and there were enormous areas of shallow water and wet mud. 2000 Teal and 234 Curlew were both good counts and the quality came in the form of a male Garganey, a Bar-tailed Godwit plus two very early Ruff and a Redshank. The weather over the coming weeks will be key to whether conditions remain perfect and we need just enough rain such that the mud doesn’t dry up but not too much rain (or sun that causes lots of melt water to flow down the river) such that water levels do not rise too quickly. I hope every birder in Oslo and Akershus is praying to the Birds Gods.

Svellet from the eastern side. Even though I describe conditions as perfect the distances are very long and a scope is essential and even then not always enough to identify all the birds out there

and some of the Teal (krikkand) and also the Garganey (knekkand). As I said they are a long way away

Årnestangen has also delivered with another very early wader in the form of a Whimbrel, an early Swallow and a good selection of raptors including a Red Kite which flew low over my head without me seeing it but that I then caught up with in the scope at about 6km range…

Taiga Bean Goose and Greylags at Årnestangen today. This is a relatively late bird as were the 4 Tundra Beans I saw yesterday

the bird was close to the Geylags in size and had a long slender neck and long thin bill with thin lower mandible.

I had a very enjoyable and successful morning guiding Barbara from Canada on Monday and we saw 60 species including Jack Snipe, Black and Red-throated Divers, Lesser Spotted and Black Woodpeckers. And if you don’t believe my description then read Barbara’s 😊

one of three Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin) at Fornebu. This bird has been regularly feeding in the open and to me looks very much like a Broad-billed Sandpiper...

and a more expected shot of a Jack

and a Common Snipe (enkeltbekkasin)

male Kestrel (tårnfalk) in Maridalen

and a Mistle Thrush (duetrost) in The Dale

Little Ringed Plover (dverglo) are back at Fornebu and will hopefully breed again this year

and Ringed Plovers (sandlo) are also back at last years nest site although they have less and less space available to them

Stock Dove (skogdue)

Waiting

My expectations are, of course, sky high but even if they were lower then I would have been disappointed the last few days. I keep expecting that rush of raptors, ducks or to be honest anything feathered but it just ain’t happening. I have visited the (once) mighty Svellet a couple of occasions to witness slowly rising water levels covering bone dry mud and if this continues then we can kiss goodbye to the springs greatest bird experience in these parts. Conversely if water levels gradually fall in the next couple of weeks then we could be lucky enough to experience something special. Time will tell but the first Greenshank of the year today were at least enough to keep me optimistic.

The Ring-necked Duck was refound on Thursday. Some of Oslo’s  finest had looked for it the day after I saw it without it being discovered and after that it seemed to be forgotten about until a sharp pair of eyes refound it 3 days later. I saw it yesterday when it was getting involved with the displaying Tufted Ducks which had me thinking it would stay around for a good while. I could not find it today though so either it has gone or I was observant as the finest a few days ago…

a pair of Ringed Plovers (sandlo) are breeding at Fornebu despite there being less and less suitable habitat. Here the male was incubating what seemed to be just 2 eggs

and the first Little Ringed Plover (dverglo) of the year at Fornebu which may also try to breed

a Kestrel (tårnfalk) in Maridalen

the Ring-necked Duck (ringand)

The ice melts

Whilst I was away at the weekend the ice melted on Maridalsvannet. This is early but despite it having been so dry the water levels are currently high so the lake doesn’t yet look that appealing. That being said though there have already been some good birds and maybe when the ice doesn’t melt until the end of the month as is often the case that means that a lot of birds are missed out on as they cannot splash down even if they wanted. Both species of diver are already back and their display calls ring around the valley. More impressively though has been the three , yes 3, species of grebes that have graced the lake. Following last years first ever record of Little Grebe in the Dale a bird in exactly the same place it was probably the same bird. Great Crested Grebe is more expected but a Slavonian Grebe hanging out with Teal is record early as this species normally passes through, and not annually, at the end of the month.

Raptors are still very thin on the ground but the first Osprey of the year turned up on Tuesday and a Peregrine was hunting in the valley today. Today also finally saw the first day with really good numbers of passerines on the (very dry) fields: Bramblings, Redwings and Meadow Pipits were the most numerous.

A real treat today was being able to listen to the calls of migrating Curlews and a flock of 6 really wanted to land but in the end gave up and flew north.

an ice free Maridalsvannet looking towards the south

my first Osprey (fiskeørn) of the year - a particularly well marked female

migrating Curlews (storspove)

Little Grebe (dvergdykker)

Slavonian Grebe (horndykker)

and the best picture of all, a Great Crested Grebe (toppdykker)...

there have been up to 10 Lapwing (vipe) on their favoured two fields and there are already two nests. Nest 1

Nest 2

Green Sandpiper (skogsnipe)

a Kestrel (tårnfalk) today and a Brambling (bjørkefink)

a young Peregrine (vandrefalk) that I saw three times today

Yesterday I thought I would see if Sørkedalen had anything more to offer and caught up with the plastic hybrid goose that has been around for a couple of weeks and a real piece of plastic had me for quite a few seconds thinking I had seen my first Ring Ouzel of the year…

what looks to be a hybrid Emporer x Barnacle Goose together with Pink-feet

showing leg colour

and I thought this was a Ring Ouzel...

Stonechat in the Dale

Stonechat was for a long, long time my Norwegian bogey bird. I even saw three Siberian Stonechats before seeing my first normal one in 2018. Since then though they have been like buses and I have even seen two in Maridalen (both found by Halvard). On Thursday I made that three and pleasingly found it myself. This was also my third! in Oslo this year so was not an addition to #oslo2024. I would willingly swap two of the chats for a single YbW which is a species I have probably seen close close to 100 times more of in Norway (although only the once in Oslo).

Yesterday saw Jack and I giving the islands some real effort but had nothing eastern for our troubles. Late Swallows and Greenshank, an early Purple Sand and a flyby Kingfisher were the highlights alongside the now expected Shag.

A visit out east on Wednesday gave me my first Rough-legged Buzzard of the autumn and four different Great Grey Shrikes but once again I drew a blank on harriers.

Stonechat (svartstrupe) in Oslo

Rough-legged Buzzard (fjellvåk)

juvenile and adult White-tailed Eagle (havørn). The juvenile was stil begging for food

with an even larger bird

Two Common Buzzards (musvåk). The paler bird of the type that are often mistaken for Rough-legs

Kestrel (tårnfalk)

Purple Sandpiper (fjæreplytt). This is actually the earliest ever autumn/winter record in Oslo

the head of a Red-throated Diver (smålom)

Shag (toppskarv) with Cormorants (storskarv)