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 |