Making Owling Great Again

To Make Owling in the future Great Again Per Christian has been banging together Tengmalm’s nest boxes and Great Grey Owl platforms and on Sunday I helped him hang them up along Owl Road. Hopefully they will be used already next spring and if so will make finding these species so much easier.

Whilst we were out we did not see either of the two species but did have a really nice encounter with a Pygmy Owl.

Today I had a perhaps even better with another Pygmy Owl in Maridalen and maybe we should be hanging up nesting boxes for them although I think they will have no lack of natural (Great Spotted) Woodpecker holes to use.

I also visited Østensjøvannet today as a swift was reported nearby yesterday. Although reported as a Common Swift it is far more likely that it was a Pallid. It is relatively warm at the moment (close to 10C) but there are no visible flying insects so a Swift will struggle in the city so it was no surprise that I did not refind it. A Scaup was far more expected but still good bird to find and at least two Water Rails were an addition to my Oslo year list.

me underneath a GG Owl platform

and Per Christian putting it up

me and a Tengmalm's box

The Pygmy Owl on Owl Road which can be heard giving its autumn song in the video:

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle)

And today's bird in Maridalen:

the Scaup (bergand) at Østensjøvannet

and a Water Rail (vannrikse)

Wigeon (brunnakke)

the female Pintail (stjertand) at Østensjøvannet

and a big surprise was this flock of Pintails flying over Owl Road

Oslo Little Stint

On Thursday I had to drop Jr Jr off at Bygdøy so afterwards decided to see if the fjord at Huk had anything to offer. I don’t normally visit there at this time of the year unless it is blowing a gale which it wasn’t but it was blowing from the south and raining so there was always the chance of something. The rocks and skerries here attract Purple Sandpipers in winter but I have seen few other waders over the years other than Oystercatchers and those I have seen have generally stopped just briefly before continuing on their journey. Yesterday was a bit different though as first a Little Sint and then a Dunlin showed themselves and seemed quite happy searching for food in exactly the same way the Purple Sands do. The stint was only my third in Oslo and is a genuine rare species here with just 6 other records this century.

I also visited Østensjøvannet for the first time in a good while and there were worryingly few birds. Even if there was a lack of quantity then it was compensated so some extent by some quality with a male Pintail coming out of eclipse, a Shoveler, a Peregrine and most surprisingly a Common Scoter. This is a surprisingly scarce species on the lake with only 6 previous records ever and these have either been on spring passage or in late October (which matches when birds turn up on Maridalsvannet). A record in mid September is therefore unusual (and I had seen none on the fjord) and the bird was an adult female which is also an unusual record with records later in the autumn being almost exclusively 1cy birds.

 

Another unusual trip for me was a walk all the way out to the tip of Årnestangen. Water levels have kept on rising and the mud flats were gone but it was a relatively good day for raptors with 9 species noted including a hunting Hen Harrier at relatively close range.

Little Stint (dvergsnipe) with Eiders (ærfugl) - they are small!

and the Dunlin (myrsnipe)

this Herring Gull (gråmåke) made short work of a starfish

Østensjøvannets male Pintail (stjertand) coming out of eclipse. Hopefully it will hag around until it has acquired its full breeding plumage. Male Pintails that have turned up in Oslo have often, for some unknown reason, lacked the long central tail feathers that give this species its name and it looks like this bird (which could well be a returning individual) will also lack them

Shoveler (skjeand) with Tufted Duck (toppand)

adult female Common Scoter (svartand) with Great Crested Grebe (toppdykker). There was a brood of 2 less than half grown grebes which still had stipy, downy plumage and one of which was sat on a parents back. This is very late and it will be interesting to see how things go especially if we have an early cold snap

Great Grey Shrike (varsler) at Årnestangen

and a Great White Egret (egretthegre)

hunting Hen Harrier (myrhauk)

with a mouse

and a Merlin (dvergfalk)

Cranes (trane) are starting to head south now

2 Shoveler and 2 Wigeon (brunnakke) at Merkja

The Beast accompanied me to Årnestangen and I finally discovered who the viewing shutters were designed for...

A hybrid duck and more snipe

I still haven’t finished going through my videos of snipes but have at least sorted out of the pictures from the last few days. It has been very wet and grey but every now and again the rain stops and you can appreciate how autumnal it is with the trees showing some great colours. Bird wise there has been little to see other than the snipes with Common now increasing to 21 at Maridalen. Long-tailed Tits seem to be on the move with suddenly many flocks seeming to move westwards after I had not really noted any earlier in the autumn.

An incredible sight in Maridalen yesterday was a flock of at least 10,000 Bramblings that flew west over the lake in a dense flock that stretched over 2km!!!!

The Stonechat in Maridalen was last seen on Monday and on Tuesday a bird was seen at Østensjøvannet. The pictures of it are far too grainy to be sure but it could well be the same bird. I went looking for it yesterday but it seemed to have moved on again. Østensjøvannet is not particularly birdy this autumn (except for geese) but Smew and a male Pintail were nice and a probable hybrid female aythya duck was a headache.

Maridalen pictures from Monday:

Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin) and its Common cousin (enkeltbekkasin)

Jacky boy

Long-tailed Tit (stjertmeis)

my last sighting of the Stonechat (svartstrupe)

small numbers of Teal (krikkand) are on Maridalsvannet

Tuesday:

spot the Jack Snipe. Instead of my usual photo taken with a mobile at a couple of metres range this is taken with the 600mm at around 50m range

there he is

Common Snipe

more Common Snipe

Wednesday:

Common Snipe with reflection

The one parent Whooper Swan (sangsvane) family seems to have lost one of the young

a very small part of the Brambling (bjørkefink) flock that was 2km long as it flew over!

Today:

what may well be my last Adder (hogorm) of the year

Brambling

one of Maridalen's House Sparrow (gråspurv) family with its far commoner cousin a Tree Sparrow (pilfink)

Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgås) that have stopped in Maridalen for a feed

Østensjøvannet:

this male Pintail (stjertand) arrived a while ago when still in eclipse plumage but is now nearly in complete breeding plumage (and far earlier than any of other dabbling ducks there). It lacks a proper long tail though

male Wigeon (brunnakke) in different phases of plumage progression

a Cormorant (storskarv)

and a confiding Grey Heron (hegre)

the Smew (lappfiskand) is still present

As duck hybrids of not most peoples cup of tea I have kept it for last.

It is possibly a pure Tufted Duck (toppand) but I reacted initially to its head shape and reddish plumage. The eye colour also looks too red for a pure Tufted. I thought initially there might be Ferruginous Duck (hvitøyeand) in it but it lacks the obvious white arse of that species. I will do some more research but will be pleased to here if anyone has any thoughts.

this and the next picture from Wednesday

and this and the next from today

here it does have some white under the tail even though it is not visible on the swimming bird

and a Tufted Duck with its very yellow eye and this bird also shows a Ferruginous like white arse which is not that uncommon for the species so should definitely be present on a hybrid between the two