Memories

I’ve long been itching for a seagaze. It didn’t need to be a particularly good one just as long as there were a steady passage of birds. Over 10 years ago I had for a few years the habit of driving the hour to Brentetangen, just south of Moss in Østfold and seawatching from there before visiting nearby Kurefjorden. I cut some of my Norwegian birding teeth doing this and had some good birds and company doing so. Brentetangen used to attract quite a gang on good days but these days seems to get little attention. Serious birders are become a scarce species not just in Oslo but it would seem all over Norway.

I’d been looking at Windy.com for a few days and had highish hopes that yesterday would deliver some north bound passage over the sea. After a long period of northerly winds they were finally going to swing south on Thursday afternoon so by Friday there should be loads of birds. The winds did not end up being quite so southerly as initially forecast and it was quite cold but I still think that I should have seen more than I did which in terms of migration was pretty much nothing. Gannet and Kittiwake were good birds for me and are both species that usually need a real southern storm to end up Akershus waters but just 20km further south are fairly regular no matter the weather.

the view from Brentetangen looking 10km across the fjord to Vestfold

 

Kurefjorden was also disappointing with 18 Dunlin being the only calidris waders although I was sure I heard a BbS.

and Kurefjorden. I was expecting waders to be dropping out of the skies

 

Question now is how many years will it be before I try the Østfold combo again?

 

Thursday was another of those religious public holidays that Norway loves «celebrating» but for which 90% of the population have no idea why - it was of course Ascension Day and if you also don’t know what that represents then I recommend Google…

The winds may have been from the north in the morning but finally it was raining and the clouds heavy and low. Surely this would draw all the remaining serious Oslo birders out of their warm beds? Fat chance but as there seemed to be little to find maybe they were just birding smart.

I decided to keep it local. Maridalen early doors was just wet but Østensjøvannet had ca.300 Swallows and martins. I promise I looked at every single one but a red rump was not to be seen. Such a large congregation was a joy to see as the last couple of years have not seen scenes like this and means the lake again must have good numbers of insects.

just a small fraction of the Swallows (låvesvale) and a single Sand Martin (sandsvale)

Back in the Dale around 11am there was a very brief period when the rain stopped and waders flew over: a flock of Wood Sands, a couple of Greenshank, 3 Whimbrel then 160 Golden Plovers. And then it was over.

most of the Golden Plover flock (heilo)

I allowed Jr Jr to have some driving practice and drive me to Svellet but despite water levels not having risen and rain having fallen there were hardly any waders. This is strange given the passage I had over Maridalen and also a fall of arctic bound waders reported at Øra but I have noted this before that when other places experience fall like numbers of waders that Svellet can be nearly empty of birds.

 

Maridalen has had some exceptional days in late April and May always when there is rain and heavy, low cloud but they are not happening with the regularity I remember although I am sure that they didn’t happen quite as much as rose tinted memory tells me. Looking at the numbers it is actually seven years since the last big day which was 10th May 2019 but that will perhaps be a day never to be repeated.

 

This morning’s pre breakfast Maridalen visit was no less uninspiring that the last few days except for one bird that was totally not on my radar - a Taiga Bean Goose. This was my first record in the Dale although there is a previous record (but I remember seeing that bird and choosing not to put it on my list as such).

I finally found nesting Black Woodpeckers although they were still excavating which is very late. Three Great Spots were also drumming which again is late - both these species should be on eggs by now. Two Wryneck singing in the same area were to be more expected at this time of the year but no less exciting for that.

I nearly didn't pay these geese any attention but with the nakes eye thought that the bird second left looked a bit like a young White-fronted Goose (tundragås) one of which was found yesterday at Østensjøvannet. Through the bins it proved to be a Greylag but I continued looking at the other geese and the one of the top was a Taiga Bean!!

here the head and bill shape leave me in no doubt

just based on this picture though I am sure you could rgue for both Tundra and Taiga although I think the bill shape can only match Taiga and the extensive orange is also a very pro Taiga feature

It was also a large bird with a swan like stature

I would not say this bird is a classic Taiga but believe that most features are pro Taiga. I also must say that I do hate single Bean Geese and it would be much more convenient if the two species were lumped again

in the river it was also upending which I also view as pro Taiga

I had been hearing Black Woodpeckers (svartspett) and was sure they were nesting so went looking for a suitable tree and hole. These huge splinters on the road! gave away where they were.

Easter reprieves itself

I may have had to leave Oslo but Easter did eventually deliver the always hoped for good birding of the spring festive season.

There was also some luck involved. I am sleeping poorly at the moment which often results in me leaving the house for a quick early trip to Maridalen. On Monday though I awoke at 02:50 and feeling rather perky I decided to get up and put in action a plan I had been hatching: head north to Hedmark to find some Great Grey Owl nest sites, twitch a returning Yellow-legged Gull in Hamar and see anything else that might turn up.

The drive went quickly and when I had my first stop at 5am the skies were lightening up and as I got out of the car to scan some recently felled forest there was a cacophany of noise from thrushes but also clearly larger birds. The Black Grouse were not to mistake but I was at a bit of a loss as to another bird. It reminded me a bit of Red-throated Diver but the noise was coming from a pine tree… I could just make out a large bird and it was a female Capercaille and another was calling close by. This is the peak time for leks so I was not sure why they were not at a lek but maybe they have already mated. Another noise also caught my attention and I had a feeling I knew what it might be. I walked towards the noise and saw what was clearly a raptor nest in a large pine and there was a big heading sticking up from it - I had found Great Grey Owls in a natural nest! What was even better was the terrain meant I could look down on to the nest - I had struck gold. The female was clearly calling to let her mate know she was hungry and quite soon I was able to watch him fly in with a vole for her which caused her to call lots. The male then spotted and flew towards me to check me out😊 

This is the first nest I have found completely on my own so I was chuffed.

I enjoyed the owls for a bit and then drove on hoping to find more owls hunting. That didn’t happen but I had three more female Capers and I visited a platform I knew about and had a GG on it but it couldn’t beat «my» nest.

Hamar and a dirty twitch followed and I saw the gull even if I didn’t manage any photos but was just happy with the tick and couldn’t wait to leave the town. The nearby delta at Åkersvika was a bit disappointing but a nearby Rookery was a novel sight for me as this species it incredibly local in Norway.

I had by now got news of a booming Bitteren and a singing Black Redstart back Oslo way and although it was only 11am the day already felt old. I decided that the Black Red would be enough for the day as it was literally on the way home and was able to see it fairly quickly.

The Bittern only had to wait a day and successfully twitched yesterday. It was at Hellesjøvannet where I heard the last of my only two other Norwegian Bitterns back in 2013 but unlike then I actually saw the bird this time and managed a fairly decent recording of the booms. Just like with GGO the very deep «song» is very difficult to localise as it is almost louder the further away it is and in addition it only sang every 20-30 minutes but eventually we reckoned it had to be less than 100m from us in a stretch of reeds that were less than 10m wide. I thought the thermal imager would make it easy to find but it picked up nothing. I switched to continual scanning with the scope and after a looong time it was finally there walking through the reeds. I took up my camera but didn’t even know where to point it and returning to the scope it had vanished again.

female Great Grey Owl (lappugle) on the nest before sunsrise

the male checking me out after it had delivered a vole to his mate

filming the nest after sunrise

enjoying? the sun. For a species that is built to survive freezing winters and hunt in snow I am surprised at how far south they have started breeding and they do not seem to keen on strong sunlight

the nest from below. I am not sure which raptor built it

this short video is taken with the superzoom and phone and you can hear the begging calls of the female. I need to edit videos I took with the bazooka which include the food delivery and will post later

the platform nest

the female Capercaille (storfugl) that I saw after having first heard it and not recognised the call

The call can be heard in this video after footage of another female I had along the road. At the end some distant Black Grouse (orrfugl) can also be heard

these two females were far more easy to observe. They had very different plumages with one being much paler and also having a large red skin area above the eye. I do not know if this is age related

this female was darker and lacked an obvious area of red skin above the eye

the paler female with a lot of red above the eye and also an almost male like "beard"

this one also puffed herself up in a way which I considered to be male like

the paler bird

male Black Redstart (svartrødstjert). The male that bred at the same site last year was a 2cy whereas this bird is a full adult. It is therefore reasonable to assume it is the same bird one year older

Hellesjøvannet on a cold (only +5) and wet (constant drizzle) day which maybe explains the infrequent booming from the Bittern (rørdrum) which chose to boom from the narrow belt of reeds in the middle rather than the more extensive reedbed to the right

The booming can be heard surprisingly well in this video which is much better than the video in my post from 2013 which I have linked to above. As it sang so infrequently I only managed to press the record button after it first started so it lacks the initial noises. The video has 4 different sequences.

a Rookery close to Hamar. The species is exceptionally local in Norway but it clearly has n problem being close to people. In addition to the rookery being right by houses the birds were also feeding in gardens

even if I didn't manage a picture of my first Norwegian Yellow-legged Gull (which is paired to a Lesser Black-backed) I did manage a photo of mating Lesser Black-backeds which are ignoring the plastic owl which is supposed to scare them off

the drizzle at Hellesjøvannet had caused a concentration of all three hirundines. Here a Sand Martin (sandsvale)

Sand Martin and Swallow (låvesvale)

it may be a pants photo but all three species are visible

I spent little time in Maridalen and this was the highlight - two female Pintail (stjertand). This is not an annual species and previously has always been pairs or single males so two females was something different

Record early migrants

Finally there were some unexpected birds.

Yesterday morning in Maridalen was very quiet and this morning started the same. Despite some slight overnight rain there were still very few birds to see with over 100 Fieldfares on the fields the only obvious arrival until around 8am when suddenly lots happened. First a Wryneck started singing, then two Swallows flew over, then a Willow Warbler sang, a Marsh Harrier flew over and a Slavonian Grebe appeared on the lake!! The Wryneck and WW are my earliest EVER in Norway, both by 4 days, and can definitely be described as exceptional records.

Here is my total eBird checklist and a short video with as far as I can hear the sound of 10 species: Wryneck (vendehals), Chaffinch (bokfink), Willow Warbler (løvsanger), Greylag Goose (grågås), Blue Tit (blåmeis), Chiffchaff (gransanger), Great Tit (kjøttmeis), Song Thrush (måltrost), Curlew (storspove) and Green Sandpiper (skogsnipe).

a very early Wryneck (vendehals)

and an equally early Willow Warbler (løvsanger) - if you think this picture doesn't show why it isn't a Chiffchaff (gransanger) then you can hear it singing in the video

my first Swallow (låvesanger) of the year

and already my third Marsh Harrier (sivhauk) of the year in Maridalen. Surely some other half decent raptors should turn up soon

a third Lapwing (vipe) is now sitting

Emergency stopping for a bug

This year hasn’t been that good for butterflies yet with lots of rain and when there is sun it is often windy. I have consequently not spent much time searching for them but as with all things with wings sometimes they come to you. Yesterday whilst driving in Maridalen I saw a large black and white butterfly flutter in front of the car. For the first time (that I can remember at least) I emergency stopped for an insect although it soon transpired I had all the time in the world. The butterfly, which was a Poplar Admiral (ospesommerfugl) was attracted to the road and was clearly finding something good, probably salt, on the tarmac. It managed to avoid death at the hands of passing cars, although all slowed down as they were clearly interested to see what I was up to, and it kept landing and showing itself off from all angles. Whilst this was happening a Swallowtail flew over although unfortunately did not stop. So arguably the two most spectacular Norwegian butterflies at the same time and in the Dale 😊

 

Poplar Admiral (ospesommerfugl). Only the fourth time I've seen one and by far and away the most cooperative. They are famous for being attracted to dog sh*t but seems tarmac roads are just as attractive

I paid a visit to Østensjøvannet yesterday hoping that the rainy weather might have produced something (a Black Tern turned up at Årnestangen at the weekend) but as with all my rain fuelled visits this spring there was not even a Swallow to see. Something is clearly up with the lake with there being no insects hatching and therefore no Swallows, terns or most importantly gulls to feed off them. I reckon that this is the reason that Black-headed Gulls, which used to breed here in a colony of many hundreds of pairs, have now more or less completely abandoned the lake for breeding. It did look like there were two nesting pairs though which was a surprise although whether they can raise young is another thing.

Even if there were no insect eaters, a couple of male Gadwall in eclipse plumage were most unexpected.

male Gadwalls (snadderand) in eclispe

Coot (sothøne) parent and young

when at Østensjøvannet it is rude not to take a picture of a Great Crested Grebe (toppdykker)

Maridalsvannet has been having lots of hatching insects over the last few weeks with many Common and a few Black-headed Gulls hawking them. There have also been Common Tern which today peaked at 6 birds which I am sure is a record here. There have also been lots of Swifts, Swallows and House Martins and the odd sighting of Sand Martin. Today there three birds including a pair mating on wires right above my head. I never saw them visiting potential nest holes although they have previously bred in holes between stones on a nearby bridge.

I did foolishly have another nocturnal outing last night but with nothing to show for it I think this must be my last of the year, in Maridalen at least.

mating Sand Martins (sandsvale)

Swallows (låvesvale) collecting nesting material. The bird on the left is ringed. It is quite late to be nest building

I haven't been able to make much out of the ring not even which country 

Marsh Warblers (myrsanger) have become quiet as they pair off

there are now two Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgås) at Maridalsvannet. At least one of them is paired to a Greylag and maybe both

These two Mallard (stokkand) chicks are very different

the Great Northern Diver (islom) is going strong

and yet another video of it