Back to dire

The lack of daily updates is of course because things didn’t continue as hoped…

Despite being at the start of prime time Oslo birding there is still only a trickle of new birds. Greenshank numbers fell again yesterday at Svellet to a dire 15 although the first (3) Wood Sandpipers hinted, hopefully, at things to come. Today though was a tad better, as of course it should be as it is 1^st May and what should by rights be THE best day of the year if only because it is a national holiday and every self-respecting birder has no excuse but to be out finding something. Well either most birders lack self-respect or there was nothing to find..

But, back to Svellet and today. Jack and I had agreed to have our now annual early doors visit to Huk, Bygdøy to record the awesome spring migration that we proved can occur on our 9^th May visit in 2024. 1^st May is too early though and we know it but we have to give it a go…. Fog put a real dampner on things although we could see perhaps 500m. There was however nothing happening either to be seen or perhaps most importantly given the condition to hear with just two Meadow Pipits flying in giving any impression of active migration although a Reed Bunting clearly felt the same as us and was heading south to escape these DIRE conditions. Five Purple Sandpipers were still “wintering” on the rocks although are now in breeding plumage and we did hear a migrant wader when a Little Ringed Plover flew unseen past us.

Huk this morning where a bloody big cruise boat is just visible in the fog

We gave it an hour and then headed to Svellet where even though we arrived before 8am there was already heat haze to contend with. There were however waders with now 43 Greenshank and 24 Wood Sandpiper and 6 male Ruff and 2 Golden Plover provided some variety. Curlew numbers however had fallen to just 13 so total wader numbers did not reach three figures let alone the four figures I am hoping for. Rain tomorrow afternoon may make, and I really pray for, a difference. Water levels are still falling slightly – today down 3.62m - so we can’t ask for much more on that score.

one of the trickle of new birds - my first Whinchat (buskskvett) of the year arrived in Maridalen on the last day of April

a Wryneck (vendehals) in the Dale

a trip to Hellesjøvannet yesterday gave precious little on the exciting bird front but this Brown Hare (sørhare) was only my second sighting of this recent colonist whose numbers took off around 2015 and it is steadily hopping north from Sweden. It was introduced to southern Sweden in the early 1800 so is considered an invasive introduced species in Norway and is an undesirable as it out competes the native Mountain Hares.

Farewell winter, good (tomorrow) morning spring

A final post before the first migrants arrive and all hell breaks lose (in my dreams).

 

If the weather forecast plays out then today marks the end of this winter’s big freeze and from tomorrow positive temperatures, some rain and southerly winds will hopefully kick start the first wave of spring migration 2026.

 Winter had a final gift in the form of a big dump of snow on Sunday night and this extra snow will, I hope, ensure we get some good spring flooding that hopefully will last many weeks. I really hope that Hengsenga on Bygdøy will have flood water until at least the beginning of April as I believe there is the potential for something very good here.

I have seen some signs of spring despite the weather not yet having changed. A Wood Pigeon heading north on the early morning dog walk on Tuesday will be the first of very many and a Greylag Goose looked a bit forlorn on the ice at Østensjøvannet but today provided another two and better species. In my last post I listed three early migrants that I hoped to find soon and all had names beginning with S. After writing it I realised I could have added another S species to the list, namely Stock Dove. When visiting Bygdøy today hoping to find the first Oystercatcher of the year I stopped off to see if any Stock Doves had returned to their usual spot and sure enough one was sat atop a usual tree which is Oslo’s first in 2026. Huk didn’t have an Oystercatcher yet but a flock of 8 Twite flying over were also Oslo’s first of the year but rather than being migrants may be birds that have wintered on islands close by taking a bit of a fly about. 17 Guillemot on a flat sea was a notably high count for the time of the year but I couldn’t find any divers or grebes which should soon appear.

 

I am really looking forward to the coming week and have high hopes for both Bygdøy and Østensjøvannet but think Maridalen may have to wait a bit longer as there is still so much snow.

a total of 4 Little Grebes (dvergdykker) at Kongshavn on Saturday. This is a joint highest count for Oslo and I would love to know where these birds breed

they acted as though they were two pairs and called a bit but are not yet in summer plumage

Østensjøvannets female Pintail (stjertand) now with bling

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) in Maridalen on Sunday

Greylag Goose (grågås) at Østensjøvannet on Monday

my first Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett) of the year. It was not drumming or "singing" but gave itself away through its weak tapping

Maridalen at its wintery finest

distant Pygmy Owl on Tuesday

and much closer

here, it had just visited the old woodpecker hole which I photographed it in in my last post and flew out with this mouse! I have assumed that this particular bird is living off its larder at the moment as when I see it in tree tops it is just looking as though it is enjoying the view rather than hunting

The first Greylags at Bygdøy Kongsgården but I bet that in a weeks time there will be triple figures here and hopefully with some smaller, scarcer cousins in their midst

Oslo's first Stock Dove (skogdue) of the year

Water Rail (vannrikse) still going strong at Østensjøvannet

and Jacky Boy is also still going strong. The upcoming thaw will be good news for them but will also, I fear, make them more difficult to find

Mid Jan

After 3 very cold days but with only a small amount of snow we then had a day with LOTS of snow on Tuesday and Wednesday whilst temperatures rose to +/- zero. Thursday was cold again although at only -5C was a relative joy to be out in but today, Friday, the forecast is for the mercury to rise over zero and lots of RAIN. Welcome to icy pavements and roads and hell on earth…

This week I have mostly been looking for snipes, rails and owls and succeeding to a good extent. Jack Snipe, Water Rail and Pygmy Owl have shown well, Common Snipe has been seen briefly but a Great Grey Owl in Maridalen has only been heard about via via but if the record is genuine then both myself and a number of others would appear to have been very close to it whilst being oblivious to its presence. Hopefully it is genuine and is refound although I so no evidence of rodents so cannot see that it will hang around one particular area for long.

I have spent a lot of time trying to film Jack Snipe feeding but that has proven very difficult and merits its own post.

A trip to Huk, Bygdøy revealed nothing unexpected except for a female Pintail feeding in the rock pools which rather surprisingly is my first record here. Three different female (but no male) Pintails have been seen in Oslo this winter – one at Østensjøvannet and upto two at Bestumkilen/Vækerø. In the last couple of weeks though only a single bird has been reported at Vækerø so whether the Huk bird was one of the other two or another bird is difficult to say.

Maridalen on Wednesday after all the snow but before the rain

the Pygmy Owl (spruveugle) has become more reliable again. Here it looks as though it is searching the ground for mice but otherwise it clearly had its eyes on birds at the feeding station

one of upto three Water Rails (vannrikse) wintering in Oslo

the open water that attracts Water Rails and snipe also often attracts Robins (rødstrupe) and Wrens

the min cruise ferry from Kiel arriving in Oslo on Thursday morning as seen from Huk. Purple Sandpipers were on the rocks and a few Velvet Scoter and Eider were diving for food. The female Pintail can be seen swimming left

the female Pintail (stjertand) feeding in the rock pools

one of six Purple Sandpipers (fjæreplytt)

the Pygmy Owl in Maridalen on Thursday. It is always easier to find it when it perches on top of a tree. Just after I took the picture it vanished but I then suddenly heard an explosion of noise from a flock of Long-tailed Tits that I had previously not been aware of so I assume it went for one of them

Long-tailed Tit (stjertmeis)

The sound of the small flock. They were still very excited a couple of minutes after they exploded into life

and my continued "hunt" for a video of one of these feeding will get its own post sometime soon

Snow and ice

Winter looks like it is now here to stay and Maridalsvannet froze over suddenly last night. I cannot remember such a sudden freeze event here with it normally happening gradually over a few days

The conditions today were perfect for searching ice free streams for goodies and I turned up a Jack Snipe which I managed to film by setting up the camera and operating it rom my phone whilst out of view of the bird. It took over 8 minutes for the bird to unfreeze and after some bobbing it then ran off out of view all of which I managed to capture.

In mid Norway, the first Azure Tit for the country was found a couple of days ago and on looking at the pictures of what is undoubtedly a Cosmic Mind-f*cker of a bird (to borrow one of the phrases from the brilliant Bill Oddie’s Little Black Bird Book which is now 45 years old!!)

I started feeling quite twitchy and might I say it, slightly aroused. I started making plans to go and see it – either an 8 hour drive or a flight to Trondheim and then a 2-3 hour trip either in a hire car or by a combination of bus and ferry. If someone else I knew had been going the next morning then I think I would most likely have gone but as a couple of days have passed I have become a bit more sensible and in time honoured fashion think I will wait until I find one in Maridalen…… 

a completely frozen Maridalsvannet with just the usual small area of open water where the river enters at Hammeren and where there was a Cormorant and Grey Heron. The whole lake froze overnight whereas it usually happens more gradually

a high key (over exposed) Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin)

and properly exposed

these droppings in the stream made me sure I had a snipe to find and the bird was not far away

a spectacular sunrise at Huk, Bygdøy this morning. There were good numbers of gulls, although nothing rare, and whilst some were eating starfish many were picking food from the surface of the sea (not sure what)

Yesterday, I walked into town along Akerselva. As I was meeting Mrs OB for dinner and a date at the Opera I took no optics with me. I didn’t miss them with me being able to identify everything I saw either on call or because they were close enough for the naked eye and even managed to film two of the most exciting species on my phone.

 

female Siskin (grønnsisik) at under 50cm range

2 Goosanders (laksand) also taken with the phone

Final birding of 2025

Despite me posting a part 1 of my summary of the year it isn’t over quite yet and I have managed to fit in some birding around festive and family activities. On the 22^nd I guided Emily and Diane from California for a very cold and crisp couple of hours at Huk, Bygdøy. We had a good haul of typical species with Purple Sandpipers headlining.

And today I saw one of the Maridalen Pygmy Owls for the first time in over a month and although I think food is hard for it to find I did see it with rodent in its claws.

We suddenly had a change in the weather just before Christmas with temperatures falling below zero and with no wind ice immediately formed in the bays at Fornebu. We also got the thinnest layer of snow on Christmas Eve so had a white Christmas too.

Maridalsvannet always takes a long time to freeze over but has started freezing over in the bays and there is a chance it will mostly freeze over before the New Year (when in a normal winter it will definitely be frozen) although I suspect it may take a bit longer.

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) in the Dale

Cormorants (storskarv) at Huk

and Purple Sandpipers (fjæreplytt) same place

Waxwings (sidensvans) are still in the area where I live and a couple joined Fieldfares that were eating wind fallen apples in the garden

Dausjøelva in Maridalen on 27th Dec

and looking over Nesbukta on the 26th with the first ice forming