A quietness that cannot be explained (by me at least)

Sunday came and went but where were the birds. The weather forecast was correct with cloudy skies, no wind and some showers – surely the sort of stuff to make May 5^th a dreamy day. Well clearly not. There must be something blocking northward passage further south because this lack of birds doesn’t make sense. Today was equally quiet so I am now pinning all my hopes on Thursday when cloud and southerly winds are forecast and surely the dam will break.

Yesterday I was in the Dale by 0530 and a migrating and calling Red-throated Diver from the doorstep at home had me expecting great things. Well that was just a cruel tease and I had left Maridalen already by 0700 to go to Østensjøvannet which was if anything even worse with just a pitiful collection of the expected birds and nothing of any interest on either the lake, the fields or in the sky. My day was sort of saved by then going to Huk, Bygdøy to twitch a Red-necked Grebe that Andreas G had found from his boat but even here the view was so distant that it gave no real satisfaction. New Oslo year species did arrive during the day though with the following added: #152 Yellow Wag, #153 Spotted Fly, #154 Black Grouse (a very distant bird heard displaying), #155 House Martin and #156 the grebe.

An update on the swan saga is that the Whoopers continue to sit on the Mutes nest (and eggs?) and there were still two pairs of Mutes yesterday although only one today. Yesterday the male Whooper flew around the lake and attacked both sets of Mutes. He sent the original pair packing and they decamped to the other side of the lake (and are the ones who seem to have left today) but the new pair put up a much better fight. The female managed to hide (see photos) and the male did have to flee but he soon returned acting quite triumphantly. The male Whooper was joined by his female who flew across the lake calling and the two then celebrated their supremacy with whooping and wing flapping. I have managed to read the rings of the new Mute pair but the ringing website is currently down so have yet to find out their stories.

Further checks of the Three-toed pecker wood have drawn a blank so it definitely looks like something fatal has happened.

my first Spotted Flycatcher (gråfluesnapper) of the year

a female White Wagtail (linerle) at Maridalen's best birding spot

the male Whooper Swan (sangsvane) on his way to beat up the second Mute Swan (knoppsvane) pair

the male Mute did initially adopt his territorial posture and looked like he was going to put up a serious fight

but was soon fleeing

and the female Mute hid

the male Mute returns

he acted very tough although I believe had not seen the female and she did not immediately leave the safety of her retreat. He was ringed at Frognerkilen in March 2023 as 3cy so making him a 4cy now.

he had a good wing flap

here the head of the hiding female is visibly as the male cruises past

the female Whooper had come to join her mate and here they are noisily, and triumphantly returning to the nest as the undisputed heavy wight swan champions of Maridalen

the female ring on the female Mute who appears to be a young bird due to her pale orange bill. She was ringed as a chick at Smestaddammen in Sept 2020 making her a 5cy and a year older than her mate. Previous ring readings do not suggest that either her of her mate have tried to breed before.

05:45 on May 5th looking from Kirkeby over the lake to Skjerven

Waiting for the birds to come

Whilst at the cabin I received reports of both Pomarine and Long-tailed Skuas that should have been heading my way but without me managing to see them although I did find another Arctic Skua and a Black Guillemot (both rare in these parts).

On Sunday morning a male Surf Scoter was reported from further south and was heading north towards me. I had a hope of seeing it but no real expectation of actually succeeding. When a few hours later I found a flock of scoter resting on the sea I of course had to grill them. It was long range and terrible light and the birds were sleeping but then a porpoise surfaced right by them and they all stuck their heads up nervously and voila - one had big white areas on its head😊. This is a real blocker on the Akershus county list with just one prior single observor (but photographed) record which has now been supplemented by my single observor and NOT photographed record.

Butterflies are always a focus when we are staying here and I thought I had added Wood White to the area list but have retracted that observation as I didn’t get a photo and subsequently had some confusing small Green-veined Whites. Dingy and Grizzled Skipper and Green-underside Blue were the undoubted highlights with only 2 other species noted - Brimstone and Orange Tip.

I added Icterine Warbler to my year list and a Red-backed Shrike singing in a neighbouring garden was a true surprise as I failed to see any on the usual clearings (probably still too early).

A Spotted Flycatcher (gråfluesnapper) in the garden

An Arctic Skua (tyvjo) harrying a Common Gull (fiskemåke)

Red-backed Shrike (tornskate) singing in a neighbouring garden

We had many sightings of Porpoises (nise)

A Grizzled Skipper ( bakkesmyger)

A Dingy Skipper (tiriltungesmyger)

A couple of Slow Worms (stålorm) mating under a bush in the garden

This picture was supposed to document the Surf Scoter (brilleand)..

Green-underside Blue (kløverblåvinge)

Exciting birds and a little twitch

The last three days have been very enjoyable. Svellet continues to be Mighty with lots of shallow water and mud but we really could do with some rain. When it is sunny the viewing conditions are very challenging but yesterday it was cloudy and suddenly it was possibly to see all birds well enough to identify them in the scope. There have been many hundred Greenshank and Wood Sandpipers although their numbers were greatly reduced today suggesting a large onward migration with few new birds arriving. A massive 110 Ruff was a huge spring count although is only a fraction of the numbers seen 40-50 years ago, up to 5 Temminck’s Stints and a couple of Black-tailed Godwits. I reckon the water levels will remain low for a least a week and there is rain forecast early next week so we still have the chance of some very exciting birds.

Other interesting birds that I have seen around Svellet and Nordre Øyeren include Bluethroat and Thrush Nightingale and my first Garden Warbler, Whitethroat and Spotted Flycatcher have all been noted. Raptors remain surprisingly scarce with very few species seen which may be an indication that they are busy with nest building and egg laying.

Absolute highlight though and a stunning bird was a Hoopoe at Fornebu which got me into twitching mode. It showed very well almost all day on Wednesday although when I took Mrs OB down in the evening to see her favourite bird it had of course disappeared.

Maridalen has been disappointingly quiet with a Common Scoter on the lake the possible highlight.

In the garden the male Pied Fly has now attracted a female so hopefully they will nest in one of the two nestboxes available although I do hear them in neighbouring gardens so they may choose another site.

Hoopoe (hærfugl). It raised its crown every time it landed.

a flight shot that is pretty much in focus and sharp!

male Bluethroat (blåstrupe) - birds don't get much better

Thrush Nightingale (nattergal) - of one two newly arrived males singing non stop

Two videos. The first long one has lots of sequences of the a singing bird starting with a video taken with the phone showing the habitat. You can hear both birds plus Willow Warbler

Watching the video I noticed that the bird was missing some neck feathers allowing its skin and muscle to be seen whilst it was singing. I have slowed the video down to half speed and zoomed in

young male Goshawk (hønsehauk) and one of the breeding Buzzards (musvåk) in Maridalen

male Hawfinch (kjernebiter) in Maridalen

the female Pied Fly inspecting one of the nest boxes in the garden which the male had been singing beside. This box was previously used by Nuthatches

male Yellow Wagtail (gulerle)

a Pink-footed Goose (kortnebbgås) is still hanging out with the Greylags in Maridalen

Spotted Flycatcher (gråfluesnapper)

The Mighty Svellet on 11 May