The big lull

It’s been a long while since my last post and it has been an infuriating time but I’m sure I’ve written something similar many times before at this time of the year. We have entered what a lull with sunny, dry weather meaning no meaningful arrivals of birds and also difficult viewing conditions especially at Årnestangen and Svellet where long distances and hear haze become a real issue.

It is spring though and of course new birds are arriving but it is a trickle and there is no volume of birds. Slavonian Grebes have made their annual visit to Maridalsvannet, a visit that seems to come earlier and earlier each year. Other species that have arrived early are Wryneck, Pied Flycatcher, House Martin and Willow Warbler but raptor migration is still a dream despite me trying from a variety of places – I have yet to see a Hen Harrier let alone a Pallid..

I have just had two good days of guiding with Margie and Greg from Wisconsin where we racked up 85 species with Wryneck, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Ring Ouzel and Rough-legged Buzzard amongst them. Despite us starting the day early it became quite hard going after around noon with the sunny weather causing a real decline in activity. This sunny weather is forecast for at least the next 10 days so I fear that the magical Svellet spring that I was predicting may already be unlikely. The day we do get some rain though could end up being one of those days though.

 

After guiding and drop off at the airport I continued north for an evening in owl land. I twitched a Great White Egret on the way which I actually managed to see from the motorway at 110km/h but did also stop to admire a bit better.

Owls are a mixed picture. Ural Owls are giving me my best ever joy with the species with two nest boxes that I have checked now being occupied - this amounts to nearly 10% of the known Norwegian population!

Great Grey Owl though is a different story. I again visited the two nests from last year and found no birds by the natural nest. By the platform the female was still present but not on eggs. She is a strange one though and gave herself away by bill clicking when I was still close to 50m away and had not yet seen her. She is clearly territorial. 

 

One person who knows a lot more about owls than me reckons it is just still early in the season and that birds will nest and lay eggs whereas another reckons the rodent population has collapsed. Time will tell but unless they lay eggs in the next week or two it will be too late. In the Facebook group Ugler i Norden there are updates from a platform that has a camera watching over it. Here birds were first seen coming to the platform already 22 Feb and mating was observed from 7 April but the first, and so far only?, egg was not laid until 2 months later on 21 April. This to me suggests a pair who want to breed but are finding the food situation very borderline.

When in the forests a roadside female Capercaille was a treat and I continue with my tree scratching whenever I see a suitable hole. This time I did get a bird but and a Stock Dove was very unexpected given where I was but why oh why couldn’t it have been a Tengmalm’s?

Six Slav Grebes (horndykker) on Maridalsvannet - an Oslo record count!

a single bird two days later may well have been in addition to the six

Two Ring Ouzels (ringtrost) - it always feel like a big relief when I see these in the spring as it is a species I never feel guaranteed to see in Oslo (but do)

female Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett) whilst guiding. This bird was making a lot of noise and was I reckon unpaired and getting desperate

my first Wryneck (vendehals) of the year and another good bird to see whilst guiding

a great looking old Black Woodpecker hole that I was sure would reveal a Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle) but instead and for me very surprisingly revealed a Stock Dove (skogdue). At least my tree scratching skills seem to be OK now.

roadside female Caper (storfugl)

Great White Egret (egretthegre)

Great Grey Owl (lappugle) - the same bird as in my previous owl post

Ural Owl (slagugle) - also the same bird as in my last owl post

but he she is with her mate (on the left). I have rarely encountered the male at a nest site and then they are normally much shyer than this bird seemed to be. He flew in after the female called and maybe felt he had a job to do

and Ural Owl nest #2. This box is old and the bottom starting to fall out perhaps suggesting that whoever put it up no longer checks it and I hope it survives the season

Maridalsvannet on Monday morning. Lovely weather but no many birds

a very long, straight road in Hedmark's deep forests

A pair of Ringed Plover (sandlo) is clinging on at Fornebu and here, and in the video, the male is creating nest scrapes for the females approval. The area they were doing it in was very close to paths and roads so I suspect they will struggle.

I finally managed to read the rings on the Mute Swan (knoppsvane) pair that is visiting Maridalsvannet this spring. Surprisingly they are not the same pair that bred last year which have established themselves at Fornebu now. This pair have  been seen together since March 2025 when they were at Østensjøvannet but did not breed . The female P576 was ringed as an adult in 28km away in March 2017 so is a mature lady. She bred in 2022 with another mate but did not raise young whilst the male was ringed as a juvenile in November 2023 11km away and is so young that he wouldn't have been expected to breed before now

I have also seen Long-eared Owls (hornugle). They were a pair by an old Crow's nest but it did not appear that eggs had been laid yet

The annual early spring outing to Gressholmen

Yesterday saw me watching some big owls very well in Hedmark and I will come back to them in a day or so but first an update from a good days birding in Oslo.

Every spring the car needs its service and I use this carless day to go out to the islands and today was that day. I only visited Gressholmen but it was a good trip even though it is still way too early for anything that exciting. However 3 Slavonian Grebes at close range were, as always, a treat and they even displayed a bit. These, a Green Sandpiper and a Great Grey Shrike which even sang a bit were all Oslo’s first records of the year..

After this a trip to Middelalderparken failed to reveal anything rare among the few hundred gulls bathing there (although turnover is clearly high so things can always turn up). A very pale mantled Lesser Black-back and a yellow-legged and slightly dark mantled Herring Gull got some attention. I also managed to fit in a trip to Østensjøvannet before the car was ready to be picked up and thankfully didn’t need any additional work doing to it.

Slavonian Grebe (horndykker) pair

This video has lots of display and interaction between the birds

And this short extract shows some interesting display with what seems to be the unpaired bird trying its luck before being chased off. Note how it dives under water and then starts penguin displaying which gets a positive response from the other bird before its mate turns up

look at the reflection of the black head feathers

all 3 birds which were a pair and I believe a male

the pair of Smew (lappfiskand) still at Østensjøvannet

the yellow-legged Herring Gull that isn't a Yellow-legged Gull...

this pale backed Lesser-black Backed Gull (sildemåke) is ringed and its life history and other pictures suggest is an intermedius with some pigment problems (note that the primaries are not black) rather than a graellsii

Great Grey Shrike (varlser). It was intently staring at the ground in an area with lots of Water Vole holes but I did not see it catch one which would also have been a large prey item

I only discovered this Greylag Goose nest when it hissed at me as I almost stood on it

this young Herring Gull looks to have got some paint on it

there were 6 Ringed Plovers (sandlo) on Gressholmen which probably represent the entire Oslo breeding population

And a video of a drumming female Lesser Spotted Woodpecker from earlier in the week

An Easter not to remember

I have often written that Easter is my favourite time of the year for birding in Maridalen and indeed it still is even if that doesn’t necessarily mean it is always as productive. The timing of Easter of course varies from year to year and a late Easter will always be better so this year’s relatively early Easter which has coincided with lots of fresh snow has unsurprisingly not been one for the birding memory books. I have been out early every morning but there have hardly been any new birds of signs of viz mig.

The absolute highlight on that score being three Red-throated Divers flying in high up and then circling the lake calling before landing and displaying on the lake. This is one of the earliest ever records in the Dale but in most years the lake would still be frozen until at least the middle of April so the conditions aren’t normally conducive to any water birds this early. In addition RtDs have only recently established themselves as local breeders so we didn’t previously have birds using Maridalsvannet for more than a day or two whilst on migration (and birds heading further inland will not come through for a few weeks) whereas now they are an expected sight through the whole breeding season.

Tomorrow’s weather forecast does actually look quite promising so I may have written this downbeat post a day too early.

In the absence of any interesting bird photos I will chart the changing weather conditions.

me scoping the lake on Wednesday 1st April when it was till sunny

lots of snow at 8am on Friday 3rd

the fields at Kirkeby on 4th April at 07:18

and the fields at Nedre Vaggestein also on the 4th which unsurprisingly held hardly any birds

Kirkeby again on the 4th but now at 0852 when at least the sun had come out but stil no birds

and Kirkeby at 0822 today the 5th. Not a pleasant morning

and looking over the lake from Nes at 0829. There may have been lots of grounded waterfowl out there but the fog meant their presence or not will remain one of earths great unanswered questions

 

And a video of a drumming Lesser Spotted Woodpecker from before I went to England. A pair is now well established and with luck I will find their nest hole.

Fog more fog and finally the golden globe

 My new favourite Maridalen fields were jinxed by my last post and have been almost empty since! Fog also covered the valley on Wednesday and until early afternoon on Thursday but today we had sun from the get go and I had sky high expectations. With a light southerly wind I was expecting Falsterbo heavy but had to wait a looooong time for my first raptor. In the meantime a number of small flocks of Pink-footed Geese headed north but I really thought there should be raptors. We have not had a raptor migration day yet this spring and by my reckoning there should be thermals full of Common Buzzards and Sparrowhawks waiting to head north. Well, my reckoning doesn’t seem to count for much.

There were NO Sparrowhawks, and none of the four Common Buzzards that eventually passed in front of my field glasses looked to be actively migrating. One of them, a very pale bird, looked to be the same as I have seen in previous years. There was one raptor highlight though that then brought a little rush. I picked up a young Golden Eagle heading very slowly west over the north of the valley whilst I was stood at Nes. I drove up to the north and did not find it but did pick up a Kestrel and a White-tailed Eagle heading north so there was some quality if no quantity. Along with Goshawk I had five species of raptor today and am already up to to nine for the year in Oslo.

 

The first Adders are also out showing themselves and my first butterfly, a Small Tortoiseshell was on the wing today so spring is springing!

a young Golden Eagle (kongeørn) at far too long range but you can see what it is

One of 4 Common Buzzards (musvåk) none of which was actively migrating. This very pale bird looks to be the same that has been in the valley in previous years

Goshawk (hønsehauk)

Goldcrests (fuglekonge) look to have really suffered due to the cold spell so it was nice to find this bird which was also singing

Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers (dvergspett) are making themselves known singing and drumming and I have seen a pair together. Here the male

and here the female who was reacting to the male in the next door tree

Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgås) - one of a number of small flocks heading north today

pair of Teal (krikkand)

male Adder (hoggorm)

and a different individual