Maridalen continues to surprise

I have a new hotspot in Maridalen. The best fields for migrants have always been at Nes and Kirkeby but this year, so far, it is the fields at Nedre Vaggestein and adjoining Sørbråten. These fields have been often held Cranes and last autumn Whooper Swans but I have not noted too much more there although the grass field at Sørbråten has always been a good place for thrushes and Starlings and the first White Wagtails of the year. So far this spring though it is the muddy stubble fields at Nedre Vaggestein (NV) that have attracted the birds. This is where I previously published pictures of Whooper Swans and the Rock Pipit but it all started to take off yesterday - 23 Whooper Swans, a pair of Teal, a Lapwing (it would be great if they breed here), 30 Skylarks and best of all 25 Snow Buntings were a good haul.

Today though on a visit with Jack it felt exceptional. The swans and geese were gone and Snow Buntings represented by only 2 of their kind but Skylarks were now up to over 60 (and we had over 100 in the valley as a whole), over 100 Chaffinches, 20 Linnets, 4 Twite, 21 Mistle Thrush, 50 Starling, 20 Yellowhammer, 2 Reed Buntings plus Blackbirds, Fieldfares, Brambling, Greenfinch and Goldfinch all on the fields. And best of all a Woodlark heard singing. Only my second in Oslo and Jack’s first we were also able to get a couple of other birders on to it but it only sang distantly and we never managed to see it. This is a species which I am sure will become more regular on spring passage as its Norwegian population increases and with a lot of forestry work creating suitable breeding habitat I also expect it to breed in the not too distant future. The weather today was unpleasant with low cloud and temperature of only 2C so it was a surprise the bird sang at all. Tomorrow is forecast to be fog which may mean it hangs around and sun forecast for Thursday may mean it sings again. Fingers crossed for that and also for continuing increases in the number and variety of birds on these fields.

I have always been a bit wary of birding here as had been told a tale that suggested the farmer was very suspicious of, and confrontational to, birders near his farm. I met the farmer yesterday though and he was very pleasant but most interestingly also very interested in making his land better for nature. He has planted different crops to give seeds, he manages his forest selectively and is not bothered about draining every wet corner of his fields which very unfortunately seems to be a bit of a thing amongst other farmers in the Dale. His work is definitely having a positive effect so well done him!

This video from yesterday shows the farm, the fields, Whooper Swans, Teal and the Snow Buntings.

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The Snow Buntings were particularly nice to see. They were not a species I saw in the early years of my visits to Maridalen but are now a species I expect to see annually but they can come through in a very narrow time period early in the spring so you have to be lucky and be out on the right days. They are now my 4th S in Maridalen this spring with the first Starling a few days ago in addition to the previously reported Skylark and Stock Dove

Snow Buntings (snøspurv) in a muddy field

these were particularly white birds for a bird that is always particularly white and had me wondering about subspecies

Mallard (stokkand) and Teal (krikkand) with Whooper Swans (sangsvane))

most of the 23 Whoopers on Monday

Summer holidays 2025 installment 2

Our summer holidays have moved on to Beitostølen and the mountains of Valdres. I have not birded that much with butterflies getting slightly more of my attention. Despite some periods with hot, sunny weather and an abundance of flowers there has not been an abundance of butterflies although there is the usual nice selection of species.

I made a second trip to Vågåmo to look for Large Grizzled Skipper (alvesmyger) after drawing a blank on 7 June probably because they were not yet on the wing then. When I arrived it was windy and cloudy but the weather forecast promised me that the sun would shine and sure enough it eventually did and I found my target relatively easily in exactly the same area where I had seen normal Grizzled Skippers on 7 June. The Larger cousins were noticeably larger and one individual that I spent most time watching was the same size as Mazarine Blues (engblåvinge) and also flew in a manner more reminiscent of a Blue than a Skipper.

I had 4 individuals a couple of which were laying eggs in a small roadside area which doesn’t look that remarkable and hopefully the species is more numerous and widespread than the only handfull of records every year suggest.

Large Grizzled Skipper (alvesmyger)

The view looking south whilst waiting for the clouds to move and reveal the sun

The sun about to break through

A Mountain Burnet (fjellbloddråpesvermer) on an Alpine Catchfly (fjelltjæreblom)

Mountain Fritillary (fjellperlemorvinge)

Silver-spotted Skipper (kommasmyger)

Alpine Blue (fjellblåvinge)

Mountain Ringlet (fjellringvinge)

Spot the Fieldfare (gråtrost) nest? At 1389moh this must be one of the highest ever found

Snow Buntings (snøspurv) seem to becoming commoner on Valdresflye

The view from 1527moh towards the south

And to the west

The mountains - Valdres

We have had another long weekend and with good weather forecast on Saturday I decided to head to the mountains on Friday evening. Normally I would have had a boyz weekend in the mountains around this time but circumstances have conspired to mean that wouldn’t happen this year so I rather spur of the moment packed a sleeping bag in the car and headed off on my own. In the end I was out for 27 hours and had 2 hours of sleep, 30 minutes of which was a rather necessary power nap on the way home…

I surprised myself with how much energy I had although on the way home I was counting down the kilometres.

After 3 and a half hours driving I started the birding at my Great Snipe lek. After a blank last year I was hoping that was just a bit of bad luck but there were no birds again this year and I now reckon the lek has been abandoned. Why is more difficult to answer. It is close to a path and a ski lift but has always been so and I cannot see any changes in the immediate area that would affect the birds. The Beitostølen area has seen lots and lots of building of cabins but the lek is above the cabins, perhaps though the nesting females have always used areas that are now being developed and the general area is no longer attractive for them. Alternatively the species itself is suffering a significant decline due to factors in winter and passage areas and this has causes some leks to disappear as the birds concentrate in core areas. These are my maximum counts at the lek since I discovered it in 2012 and the downward trend is obvious:

the (former) lek site

 There were very few birds around the lek otherwise and the vegetation was still very brown. There was little snow and only lakes above 1300m had ice but I think this is from a warm period 2-3 weeks ago but since then it has been cold and windy so vegetation has not yet started developing.

I drove a long stretch of road during the night with frequent stops hoping to find Great Snipe other places but did not succeed. There was a lot of other life though. Between midnight and 1am I was surprised by how much activity there was from other waders and grouse and also a Short-eared Owl that perched in my headlights.

I had my hour and half sleep in the car and awoke at 3:30am to lots of noise. All manner of birds were singing and displaying and over the next 6 hours I feasted my eyes on Dotterels, Temminck’s Stints, Shore Larks, Lapland and Snow Buntings, Bluethroats, Long-tailed Ducks, Scaup, Common and Velvet Scoters and more. It is clearly not a rodent year in this area and aswell as no Long-tailed Skuas I just had a single Rough-legged Buzzard, another Short-eared Owl, 2 Kestrels, a Golden Eagle and a White-tailed Eagle.

 

After this as the sun warmed things up I concentrated on butterflies  and I took a slight detour to visit a site of the rare Large Grizzled Skipped (alvesmyger). I did at the time think I had found them but my pictures show I saw, or at least the ones I managed to photograph, were ordinary Grizzled Skippers which I didn’t realise occurred there. Their large cousins do fly later and the end of June is the time most people see them so I will have to try again later… I did have another good species but none were new for me so I am a bit disappointed but will I hope have a butterfly post soon.

Dotterel (boltit)

it was only displaying females that I saw but they were very active

Golden Eagle (kongeørn) and a mountain

I heard quite a few (although not lots of) Bluethroats (blåstrupe) but saw none at close range

I only had Lapland Buntings (lappspurv) at one site but 5! males were singing and song flighting within 100m of each other

a Ptarmigan (fjellrype) at 11pm

male Shore Lark (fjellerke)

and his mate

one of the two Short-eared Owls (jordugle) I saw

Snow Buntings (snøspurv) were unusually numerous this year

male

female

03:39 at my hotel

my now favoured raptor watch point was a bit disappointing this year with just 4 birds of 4 species: Golden Eagle, White-tailed Eagle, Rough-legged Buzzard and Kestrel