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

Back home

During the Bird Race on Saturday we had a strange black & white duck. First seen asleep with Mallards we hoped it was a Shelduck which we needed for our list but when it eventually showed more of itself it clearly wasn’t. We dismissed it as a domestic duck type although when we saw it again on Monday I began to think that a hybrid Mallard x Common Eider was more likely and took some footage. There are not many people who share my interest in hybrid ducks and I don’t think anyone else has spent any time on it (I also suspect it has been around a while). 

A hybrid between Mallard and Common Eider sounds an unlikely combination and indeed it is with only one report of a possible female fromNorway (although I would say that bird is another hybrid combo) and just a few documented birds to find on the web although a male at Seahouses, Northumberland is well known.

Based on my photos I feel confident the bird is indeed this hybrid combo with body shape, head and bill shape matching other reported birds.

 

not a great photo but I am confident this is a male hybrid between Common Eider (ærfugl) and Mallard (stokkand). The jizz of the bird especially head shape and the rear end short wings are closer to Eider than Mallard and match photos on eBird. The bill pattern with a black nail also matches other birds as do the light grey tertials (visible in the video). Plumage varies greatly between hybrids but this birds plumage also looks good for a mix between the two species even though it does not match other birds. It would have been nice to document it in flight and also out of the water.

The Pallid Harrier we had was seen migrating past the lighthouse, first flying NE and later migrating out to the SSW. It was scope views only and wasn’t photographed but a hunting Hen Harrier was and this of course led to some confusion and suspicion…. Two Bird Theories are always good but as the Hen Harrier was seen again after the Pallid disappeared out to sea then I think it was a Two Bird Fact 😇. I managed some photos of the Hen.

 

Hen Harrier (myrhauk) -  a 1st year male if I am not mistaken

Back home I have looked for the Taiga Beans a couple of times. On Tuesday I found only 72 on a different field to previously (but again one that has been used in previous years) but on Wednesday found none so perhaps they have moved on already after only two weeks but if that is the case then it will be 2-3 weeks earlier than normal.

I counted 72 Taiga Beans but despite the field looking flat they were difficult to count and birds could disappear so there may have been more but definitely not 129

Water levels in Svellet are still low with lots of mud and shallow water and many thousands of ducks and geese. There were very few waders today but two Marsh Harriers and a White-tailed Eagle may have been responsible for that. A single juvenile Little Gull, 2 Arctic and 2 Common Terns were nice but I always feel there should be far more terns here.

this male Kingfisher (isfugl) was a nice surprise along the Glomma River

this colour ringed Common Sandpiper (strandsnipe) would appear to have been ringed in Norway as the combination of yellow flag on left leg and red ring on right is a Norwegian thing. Finding out more details though is proving hard work though... We also saw a Greenshank with the same red and yellow ring combo but were unable to read the code

we came a bit late to the lunar eclipse and missed the blood moon

part of a flock of 19 Nutcrackers (nøttekråke) that headed out to sea

some also landed in the bushes by the lighthouse. I am unsure whether they were of the slender-billed siberian subspecies or the resident thicker billed subspecies that we have around Oslo

distant Red Kite b(rødglente) being pursued by Hooded Crows (kråke)

we had a few Stonechats (svartstrupe) and the species has bred at Lista this year.

Bopping geese

Tomorrow I am off to Lista for their annual Bird Race. This will be only my second ever visit to what can probably be fairly described as Norway’s premier birding locality and definitely the home of Norway’s most famous bird observatory. If I am lucky I will also win the evening quiz and be crowned Norwegian Birding Champion 2025 (after being runner up on my previous visit in 2017 although most likely I will be knocked out in the early rounds... The birding should be good though and with a bit of luck a rarity or two will turn up when we are there.

Local birding has been pretty good though this week although a hoped for rush of seabirds this morning after a night of strong southerly winds revealed not one single non-local seabird and the only real unexpected sighting was a juvenile Honey Buzzard battling into the headwind to cross from Bygdøy to Nesodden.

I have been to check on the Taiga’s a couple of times and found them to be on the same stubble field that they used for the first time last autumn and then also used this spring. This is quite typical that they will change preferred field in one season and then also use it the following 1-2 seasons and I would not be surprised if next spring they choose somewhere else. When they are on a stubble field they can be surprisingly difficult to count accurately and they have also had both Canada and Greylag Geese, and a hybrid between the two, in amongst them but in the end I concluded that the flock size was still 129 meaning no additions or depletions.

Visits to Hellesjøvannet with raptors in mind turned up trumps with a Red Kite and lots of sightings of Hobbies, Marsh Harriers and especially Common Buzzards with one “kettle” containing 18 birds.

I have only had fleeting visits to Maridalen but had a real head scratching surprise today when I discovered a family of four Whooper Swans on a field and then river (they were very shy) 4km away from where I had last seen the intact family on the lake. The young were large but not fully grown and I am sure could not fly meaning they must be the Maridalen family but I don’t know how to explain the sighting of 18 August and my subsequent sightings of just an adult pair or no birds at all.

Red Kite (rødglente) at Hellesjøvannet. Only my second in Akershus (I have had more in Oslo) and the first one I have managed to photo. Clearly not a juvenile but other than that my knowledge of moult and plumage in this species doesn't allow me to say any more

I was very lucky to come across this juv Goshawk (hønsehauk) eating what looks to be a Jackdaw (kaie) right by the road at the Taiga Bean place. 

Lots more pictures lower down

male Marsh Harrier (sivhauk) at Hellesjøvannet who was regularly bringing small rodents to two juvenile that would fly to meet him and would catch the mouse mid flight

an adult Hobby (lerkefalk) catching a dragonfly whilst brave Swallows (låvesvale) try to chase it off

the wings have been removed

a bit of nictating membrane

Taiga Bean watching

V8 and kids are in the video but when they are distant and in stubble I cannot unfortunately see any legs rings

part of the Taiga Bean Goose (taigasædgås) flock

here with Canada Geese, a Greylag and a hybrid between the two

a family of Cranes (trane)

just a single Pochard (taffeland) at Hellesjøvannet and very few other birds including only 2 Great Crested Grebes suggests to me a lack of oxygen, and life, in the water. There were 3 visits from at least 2 Ospreys and they left with a fish each time on their first attempt which I reckon means there were fish at the surface gulping air

the highlight of today's seas gazing at Fornebu was these juvenile Knot (polarsnipe) that flew in from Huk and landed on the rocks in front of me

I was not expecting to see these today in Maridalen. I will try to see if the beak patterns allow me confirm that these are the regular pair

the flight feathers of the juveniles are not yet fully developed so I am quite sure they have not flown in from somewhere else

spot the shy swans