The ice melts

Whilst I was away at the weekend the ice melted on Maridalsvannet. This is early but despite it having been so dry the water levels are currently high so the lake doesn’t yet look that appealing. That being said though there have already been some good birds and maybe when the ice doesn’t melt until the end of the month as is often the case that means that a lot of birds are missed out on as they cannot splash down even if they wanted. Both species of diver are already back and their display calls ring around the valley. More impressively though has been the three , yes 3, species of grebes that have graced the lake. Following last years first ever record of Little Grebe in the Dale a bird in exactly the same place it was probably the same bird. Great Crested Grebe is more expected but a Slavonian Grebe hanging out with Teal is record early as this species normally passes through, and not annually, at the end of the month.

Raptors are still very thin on the ground but the first Osprey of the year turned up on Tuesday and a Peregrine was hunting in the valley today. Today also finally saw the first day with really good numbers of passerines on the (very dry) fields: Bramblings, Redwings and Meadow Pipits were the most numerous.

A real treat today was being able to listen to the calls of migrating Curlews and a flock of 6 really wanted to land but in the end gave up and flew north.

an ice free Maridalsvannet looking towards the south

my first Osprey (fiskeørn) of the year - a particularly well marked female

migrating Curlews (storspove)

Little Grebe (dvergdykker)

Slavonian Grebe (horndykker)

and the best picture of all, a Great Crested Grebe (toppdykker)...

there have been up to 10 Lapwing (vipe) on their favoured two fields and there are already two nests. Nest 1

Nest 2

Green Sandpiper (skogsnipe)

a Kestrel (tårnfalk) today and a Brambling (bjørkefink)

a young Peregrine (vandrefalk) that I saw three times today

Yesterday I thought I would see if Sørkedalen had anything more to offer and caught up with the plastic hybrid goose that has been around for a couple of weeks and a real piece of plastic had me for quite a few seconds thinking I had seen my first Ring Ouzel of the year…

what looks to be a hybrid Emporer x Barnacle Goose together with Pink-feet

showing leg colour

and I thought this was a Ring Ouzel...

Flooding brings birds to Oslo

I kept it local and didn’t leave the city today. The fields at Hengsenga, Bygdøy are looking so good at the moment with lots of flooding. We now just need to hope that the water lasts another week and coincides with a good arrival of waterfowl. Ten Teal alongside the male Gadwall that has been present for a couple of days is a good start and with luck Shoveler or Garganey may turn up. Greylag, Barnacle and Pink-footed Geese are also present alongside three Greylag x Canada hybrids. Amazingly enough despite the number of people and dogs that use the area the birds all seem quite settled.

Waders are also present and I notched up a very impressive 6 species on Bygdøy today. The flooded fields held a whopping 34 Common Snipe which is the highest number ever recorded in Oslo!! plus a single Jack Snipe. There were also single Green Sandpiper and Lapwing and at Huk Oystercatcher and 7 Purple Sandpipers. The Purp Sands are now clearly very used to people would I am sure walked between my legs if I had positioned myself correctly!

In Maridalen there is still lots of snow – it is knee high in places and the diversity of birds is still low but Skylarks were up singing and small groups of thrushes were along the road where the snow has melted.

Not a single raptor today though which was a real surprise but low cloud would explain that.

male Gadwall (snadderand) - a rare Oslo guest

three Greylag x Canada hybrids were also present amongst Greylags (although no Canadas were present)

Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin)

Mistle Thrush (duetrost) on the snow in Maridalen

Purple Sandpiper (fjæreplytt)

Long-tailed Tit

not often I take a picture of a Hooded Crow (kråke)

Beardies r back

Today was pretty wet and grey but with no wind. Maridalen had good numbers of thrushes and finches flying around but nothing to set the pulse racing.

I thought that Bygdøy might have something. I’ve always fancied the reedbed and wasteground at Hensenga for Stonechat or something rarer but it was pretty birdless today. The Oslo fjord was also very birdless but a Chiffchaff with a sweeo call got me a bit excited and needed to be seen to ensure that it wasn’t something else. I had intended that my birding would be restricted to these two sites but with so little to see time had flown and I then decided to defy the new ridiculously high road tolls that have been put up around Oslo (notionally in the name of the environment but really just a very regressive tax from a left wing council) and drive out to Fornebu.

I had been thinking yesterday that maybe there was a chance of Bearded Tits as I have seen other reports from further south that suggested the autumn movement of this species had begun but thought it was a bit too early in the autumn and had my mind more on Kingfisher or Jack Snipe. As I endeavoured to find these species I heard a “ping” from the reedbed. Beardies! There was in fact lots of pinging and a flock of at least 11 birds exploded out of the reedbed and partook in the high flying they are famous for before plunging back into the reeds where I managed some god views in the rain. These birds were in the small reedbed at Storøykilen which often seems to attract the first arriving birds before they relocate to the larger reedbed at Koksa where some attempt to overwinter most years. I thought about also checking out Koksa to see if there were any more birds but the rain put me off although I see that another observer had 4 in Koksa so there may have been at least 15 birds present at Fornebu although they could of course have moved around. Tomorrow is forecast to be sunny with little wind so should give a good opportunity to discover how many there are unless they use the nice weather as a chance to move on (they seem to have an untameable urge to move around).

There were many Blue Tits also in the reedbed which I think are probably migrants and also two Chiffchaffs. I also heard a Water Rail and put up a Jack Snipe and had a very unexpected Dipper so there was a nice birdy feeling.

I checked out Sørkedalen for the first time in ages. There have been a couple of reports of large numbers of geese using Bogstadvannet but it seems there is no one regularly visiting the valley anymore so there is probably lots going unnoticed. There were still a lot of geese today with 320 Greylag and 260 Barnacles but I couldn’t find anything more exciting other that four Greylag x Canada hybrids with their parents.

male Bearded Tit (skjeggmeis)

female

pair

three females and a male

2 males & 2 females

a female with a Blue Tit (blåmeis)

an underexposed flock of part of the flock when it went high flying

3 (of 4) Canada x Greylag hybrids

all four can be seen here with dad on the right. Mum (the Greylag) had her head down

this picture of female Goosander (laksand) and Red-breasted Merganser (siland) from Maridalen yesterday was supposed to be very educational except for the fact that the birds were always swimming away from me and the Goosander always had its head underwater

Ducks

Today was another windless, blue skied day over Oslo but over Nordre Øyeren, where I was, there was a thick layer of cold fog.

Birds there were though with a surprisingly high number of ducks. The east side of Øyeren seems to be favoured this year and after seeing a report by Erling Hobøl from Wednesday I decided to visit Monsrudvika which I very rarely go to.

When I first got a glimpse of the water it was very atmospheric with loads of ducks being just visible through the fog and he air was full of their calls. The highlight here was a massive 34 Shoveler which is the same number as Erling had and is the largest count reported in ArtsObservasjoner for Norway EVER! Lots of Wigeon (400) here plus Teal and Mallard but surprisingly no other dabbling ducks. Merkja had a better selection of ducks with a further 3 Shoveler, 3 Gadwall, 11 Pintail and 500 Mallard alongside 50 each of Wigeon and Teal.

Diving ducks were more or less absent and there were very few geese or swans to see today but the numbers of dabbling ducks are very good for these parts.

I went over to the other side of Øyeren and checked out Snekkervika and Fautøya. Quite a few Wigeon and Teal here too and the cow field revealed 14 Snipe and 2 Jack Snipe, the latter of which predictably only flew up as I was about to step on them.

I had a few Bullfinches today of which one gave the trumpet call and another group only called very quietly but it sounded like they were also giving a variant of this call. It would therefore seem that an invasion of eastern Bullfinches is underway.

 

very atmospheric with lots of ducks through the fog today

here some of the Shovelers (skjeand) are visible

here are 6 Canada x Greylag Goose hybrids. There was a brood of 5 with their parents plus a large and different looking bird (just left of centre with a pale breast) that was together with a Greylag and 2 Canada Geese

A Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin)

Hybrid blues

Feeling some post-Værøy blues I visited Årnestangen today and saw hundreds if not thousands of birds which was a bit of a contrast to Værøy’s meagre pickings. There were many, many thrushes, mostly Fieldfares feeding on rowan berries but also Yellow Wagtail and Chiffchaff. The water level is high with no mud banks left and some of the fields flooded and the wildfowl are concentrated on Fautøya. Here among hundreds of Mallard, Wigeon and Teal were three Shoveler and two Pintail. Amongst a small flock of Canada Geese was a single Greylag Goose and 5 juvenile hybrids between the two species.

I had my first migrating flock of Pink-footed Geese for the autumn with a flock of 200 heading south of which a group of 20 broke off and flew around the area seemingly looking for somewhere to feed. When I first heard the flock I thought they were Bean Geese and realised that I cannot separate them on call. I also find it to be far from straightforward to separate these two species in flight if one doesn't see the overwing and it is clear from the number of records of migrating Bean Geese from certain areas of the country that others have similar difficulties. Bean Goose is a truly scarce species in Norway which we now know to have very traditional migration routes yet the number of records from some areas would have you believe it to be much more regular…..

I had pretty good views of 2 Hen Harriers both of which were 1cy birds but taking good photos of them remains a challenge for me. Driving up to the main road a spotted what looked like a Carrion Crow but suspected it would turn out to be the hybrid that has been reported a few times here recently. At some range in the bins it looked very black and pure and it was only by studying the photos I managed to take that evidence that it is a hybrid were evident. Compared to the two hybrids I have seen before this bird was much, much blacker and is I suspect a second or third generation hybrid with just a single Hooded Crow ancestor. It may also be a pure Carrion Crow that has a few dark grey feathers although a quick google search failed to find any pictures of similar birds. It also raises the question (as the Black Duck hybrid and various gulls do) as to where one draws the line between a hybrid and what can be called a pure bird.

five Canada x Greylag Goose hybrids

Carrion Crow x Hooded Crow hybrid but a bird at the Carrion Crow end of the hybrid spectrum

no grey to see in this photo though

this picture isa bit to grainy to make much of but there appear to be a few grey feathers amongst the black. Then again though it looks like there is grey on the upper breast where both species are black so maybe the grey feathers are not because of a hybrid influence?

1cy Hen Harrier - looks to have a dark eye and is therefore a female

same bird

2 juvenile/1st winter Lesser Black-backed Gulls showing a bit of the variation in this species

here when the pale grey upperwing I visible then Pink-footed Geese are easy but depending on light conditions and the height the geese are flying then geese can be difficult