A swell day without Svellet

Today I decided to leave Svellet alone and instead visit the Oslo islands. I cannot see that anyone else has visited Svellet today so don’t know if my decision was the right one but I can see that water levels have only risen by  2cm so conditions will still be very, very mighty.

The islands gave a perfectly acceptable account of themselves even if the fjord contained not a single duck, diver, grebe or tern of any interest what so ever. Before I had even got to Gressholmen I saw a massive 4 species of waders (but only one of each)  in the tiny muddy bay by the ferry stop at Lindøya Øst (Redshank, Greenshank, Ringed Plover and Oystercatcher) and this did increase expectations rather considerably. Gressholmen’s muddy bay disappoints (me) more often that otherwise but mid to late May is probably when it is at its best. There had been no rain or southerly winds (they are from the north at the moment) so I did not expect too much but a Bar-tailed Godwit that has been present a few days was still there alongside the same species, but in greater numbers, as I had seen at Lindøya.

A singing Thrush Nightingale in exactly the same scrub as the last two years was my first of the year and a joy to listen to.

A worrying aspect of the trip was quite how few Black-headed Gulls there were. I only found two colonies and the largest was considerably smaller than it has been in previous years. I have also seen that Oslo’s normally largest colony on an islet off Bygdøy is empty this year so unless there is a large colony somewhere else then it looks like a crisis for the species (the inland colonies at Sognsvann and Østensjøvannet are small in relation to the number that normally breed on the fjord).

The absolute highlight and a slight headache came when I was getting on the ferry at Lindøya. I heard angry Hooded Crows and Swallows behind me and turned expecting to see a Goshawk. What I did see was something smaller but after a second I realised it was an owl and must be one of the earded ones. I raised my bins whilst walking and saw the face and was sure it was a Short-eared. I then got on board and reached for the superzoom and filmed whilst the ferry left the dock but only managed 20 seconds before the deckhand said I had to move inside. I was quite happy that I had managed to document only my second ever Oslo Short-eared and decided to look at the video to see if it was any good and of course to see if I had actually pressed record… Well this time I had but the owl proved to be of the longer eared variety. Still a very good bird in an Oslo context. My still only ever record of Short-eared Owl was an equally difficult experience although then I assumed it had to be a Leo and it was only the pictures that allowed me to see it was a Seo… 

a clip from the video showing the grey face and under wing tips that have fine baring and not a particularly black tip all of which say Leo (hornugle)

and here it disappears to the north over Hovedøya and towards the city

The sound of the Thrush Nightingale (nattergal) and a Willow Warbler (løvsanger)

the Bar-tailed Godwit (lappspove) on Gressholmen

The Black-headed Gull (hettemåke) colony on Nakkeskjær where I counted 65 nests although there were undoubtedly more out of sight on the far side

a close up of some of the nests

and here 9 nests on the main part of the island where they do not look to be so safe

a female Wheateat (steinskvett)

In Maridalen it was again difficult to be certain what was happening with the Lapwings but I did see more today. There were 10 adults and five young in broods of 4 and 1. There was also another female acting as though she had young in the long grass and probably two females that were on new nests but that will have to firmed up as a bit more time passes.

the single young Lapwing (vipe) with mum and a "singing" Snipe (enkeltbekkasin)

a new nest

two males have been frequently been squaring off

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

Red Kite

Yesterday was the first day with some passerine migrants flocking, if in small numbers, on the fields in Maridalen with 10 Mistle Thrushes, 6 Fieldfare, 10 Skylarks, 20 odd Chaffinch and the first Brambling all together. And this is just the start of things to come! The first Lapwings are also back with two reported on Saturday and then I had 5 birds yesterday and they were even displaying giving their evocative calls whilst Skylarks sang overhead – things cannot sound more springy than that!

Maridalen’s best bird of the year, and one which may be, although I hope won’t be, hard to beat, came on Friday when a Red Kite flew in front of the car. It was flying low and into a strong head wind but unfortunately never stopped and heard south over the lake and I was able to watch it for over 10 minutes. When it got to the southern end of the lake it then started soaring and was in sight for so long that I decided to drive down there but of course couldn’t find after the 5 minutes it took to get there. This is now my fourth sighting of the species in Maridalen and the second best views I have managed. I often proclaim that a day will be a great day for raptors and talk about Falsterbo Lite but very rarely do my predictions come true. On Friday I would definitely have proclaimed that the day was absolutely awful for raptors and we wouldn’t see any - bar maybe a local Goshawk – just shows how much I know!

Saturday had me guiding Paul and Ann from Connecticut and a very enjoyable day it was but for a bird guide it was a nightmare with, despite my utmost efforts, none of the three target species revealing themselves. I had communicated that it would not be easy to find them given the time of the year but that all three didn’t play ball was a major disappointment. We did see a lot of other birds though...

when I first spotted the Red Kite (rødglente) from the car it was close and flying at tree top height clearly looking for food but it kept flying south into the strong wind and never came closer

it looks as though it had recently eaten as the crop seems full

flying over the lake with appartment buildings under Grefsenkollen as the background

and here flying over Storøya

this years must count as an average date. Given how low cold it was in Jan and Feb then I had expected a late arrival this year but the thaw has come suddenly and without nighttime frosts the snow has melted quickly and most importantly for Lapwings the ground has thawed

once you find the eye then you also just about make out there is a Long-eared Owl (hornugle) in this picture

the video of the Long-eared Owl may be pants but I did manage to take a quite nice video of a Badger at the same place:

Mistle Thrush (duetrost)

there has been a steady passage of Whooper Swans (sangsvane) heading north

Completing S Club 6 and owls with ears

This week has seen the final three members of S Cub 6 arriving for duty with Skylark seen on Tuesday and Snow Bunting and Shelduck on Wednesday. I am still to see, or hear, a single member of the band in Maridalen which is still covered in deep snow with no snow free areas yet. There is also lots of snow at Årnestangen and on most fields around the Glomma in Taiga Bean land but a trip to Sweden on Tuesday revealed very little snow from the town of Ski and eastwards. I had hoped that the drive to Sweden would reveal Red Kites but raptors were limited to just a handful of Common Buzzards and a stop at Gjølsjøen revealed my first Lapwings and a pair of Taiga Beans alongside many Skylarks.

A trip to Taiga Bean land yesterday revealed lots of snowy fields and ice on the river and nothing at all at any of the regular fields that I visited. However on a stretch of the river north of Årnes there was a flock of 12. They flew briefly on to a green field by the river where there were also some Greylags and I have noted previously when they arrive to very wintery conditions that they seek out fields with autumn sown green crops rather than trying their luck on stubble fields. With no working GPS collars I have no idea if the rest of the flock has arrived but expect they have not as it is still too wintery.

The two female Stonechats are continuing to hang around at Fornebu and I saw them capturing large hairy caterpillarsso life seems good for them. A number of new birds have also been found so I hope Maridalen will join the party next week.

 

Highlights of the week, and perhaps unsurprisingly for the time of the year, have been owls but not along Owl Road where visits by others has revealed no increase in singing Tengmalm’s and if anything fewer birds with just two birds seeming to be the expected result.

Eagle Owl is a species I have only seen or heard four times before. Twice in 2013 and again 2014 I visited a nest site in Hedmark and saw, heard and filmed singing birds just after sunset and was happy with these encounters. I am not sure as to the current status of this site but believe birds are still there but a couple of hours drive has for some reason put me off trying for them again. I do know of a closer site which is the only regular known site in Oslo and Akershus and visited in 2016. You cannot get close to the birds here and I only heard one singing distantly – enough for my Akershus list but not the type of experience that has had me particularly excited about repeating. Yesterday though I took Jack to listen for it and we didn’t just hear it but actually saw it!! And now I suddenly want more of them. It sang from when we arrived at sunset and despite searching and searching with the telescope it took another half an hour to see it sitting and singing atop a pine tree. Even though it was now getting quite dark I even managed a photo of sorts. But what a bird and I think they are very few others who have actually seen these birds. It was all at quite some range – over 1km – but very enjoyable. When we first heard the song we were very unsure as to whether it was an Eagle Owl as it sounded most like a Wood Pigeon and was not how I remember the song and indeed Merlin also detected it and identified it as a Wood Pigeon…. That ID was clearly wrong as for starters you wouldn’t hear a WP at such long range but I must admit finally seeing it was quite a relief. The bird had been clearly moving from song post to song post as we would hear it from slightly different places but having now a bit more knowledge of where it is I have hope that a future visit on a wind free, sunny evening could result in much better scope views.

Seeing it perched in the scope with its big ears sticking up you realise what a huge bird it is and in reality it should never be confusable with a Long-eared Owl but with grainy photos the two can sometimes be hard to separate. Two encounters with Long-eareds this week though have not had me wondering what they are. I have spotted them flying in the thermal at an expected site but there has been no singing. There are two explanations for this – either they have already formed a pair and laid eggs or they have not got into breeding modus yet. There was still lots of snow on the fields and I am very sure that they are not yet breeding. The overwintering birds that I followed in 2023 were present at their roost until the end of February without their being any song from them. I have previously found a young (non fledged) bird out of the nest in mid May which would mean egg laying at the end of March but this is very early and you normally encounter young out of the nest in June. I did have a singing bird on 6^th March last year but there was far less snow then so conditions were different.

We have exciting times ahead of us!

Eagle Owl! (hubro) at over 1km range and 40 minutes after sunset. If this photo leaves you wondering what you are looking at then the head is to the right, the tail sticking up on the left and the wings are drooped.

And a couple of videos taken with the thermal of Long-eared Owls flying around. They fly on very elastic wings and seem to float at times but can also perform quick changes in direction and stoop down at each other. Wing clapping was heard but I am not sure it this can be seen in the videos.

the female Stonechat (svartstrupe) still at Storøykilen

Taiga Bean Geese on the Glomma

and a pair at Gjølsjen

all 12 on the Glomma