Still in holiday mood

I must admit to still being in summer holiday mood and with additional IKEA unflattening and Jr and Jr Jr to entertain both birding and definitely sitting in front of the PC have taken a (welcome?) back seat. That of course doesn’t mean I haven’t been birding – far from it ;-) Trips to pick mushrooms in Maridalen, the beach at Fornebu and Årnestangen on Saturday morning with Per Christian and today in the early morning have of course given some birds plus butterflies and dragonflies which I am getting increasingly interested in.

The water levels at Årnestangen are quite high and there were no large numbers of waders to see either on Saturday or today. Dunlin are especially scarce with none seen on Sunday and today there were none to start with before 10 eventually appeared (only one adult). There were a few interesting species to find (although I am still to see Curlew Sandpiper or Little Stint this year). On Saturday, we had three adult Grey Plover and today the highlight was a juvenile Black-tailed Godwit which I had hoped to find as there seems to have been a mini influx to Norway the last few days. 2 adult Bar-tailed Godwits, 4 juv Turnstone and an adult Knot (also a late year tick) were also good birds today. Ringed Plovers were the commonest wader with 56 and in total I had 14 species of wader today.

Raptor numbers are starting to build up although no Pallid Harriers have made there way down from the mountains yet. Marsh Harriers have arrived though with at least four different birds: 1(-2) juveniles, a 2cy male, a 3cy+ male and a 2cy+ female. Common Buzzards, Sparrowhawks (3 seen together hunting White Wagtails), Osprey, Peregrine, Hobby and Kestrel completed the list but still no Honey Buzzards.

Passerine migration is only just getting going but today I had a calling flyover Red-throated Pipit which is an early date.

a 2cy+ female Marsh Harrier (sivhauk). The pattern of moult may allow the bird to be more accurately aged as either a 2cy or a 3cy+ but I haven't manged to work it out 

a nice fresh juvenile 

the 2cy male with a Sparrowhawk

same birds. The Marsh Harrier can be aged as a 2cy due to it still have mostly juvenile (brown) secondaries and outer primaries

the juvenile and 2cy+ female interacted

Grey Plovers (tundralo)

Turnstones (steinvender) and Knot (polarsnipe)

the all black legs make this (in my book) a Ruddy Darter (blodrød høstlibelle)

this similar dragonfly with pale hind legs is either a Common Darter (rødbrun høstlibelle) or Vagrant Darter (sørlig høstlibelle) but I don't think the picture allows a certain ID

the yellow inner wings of this small red dragonfly make it easy to ID as a Yellow-winged Darter (gulvinget høstlibelle)

a  mating pair of Black Darters (svart høstlibelle). There are more and more black males to see now

larger dragonflies seem to pose far less readily but I did managed to photo and subsequently ID this Southern Hawker (bågrønn øyenstikker)

mating pair of Common Blues (tiriltungeblåvinge)

High Brown Fritillary (adippeperlemoringe) 

Lesser Marbled Fritillary (engperlemorvinge)

Queen of Spain Fritillary (sølvkåpe)

Silver-washed Fritillary (keiserkåpe)

Large Marsh Grasshopper (sumpgresshopper)

The week that was

The blame for lack of activity on the blog can be laid firmly at the feet of Jr and JrJr. It is the last week of summer holidays and very hot weather so we are making the most of it. Of course some of the destinations we visit may quite incidentally have a bird or two on offer for Sr but it has actually been butterflies that we have spent most time watching. The hot, sunny weather obviously encourages butterflies to show themselves but it does seem like it has been a good year for butterflies. I am slowly improving my ID skills but still find that with fritillaries and blues that I need to take god pictures and then consult the books when I get home.

Here are some of the species I’ve seen the last week plus a bird or two.

 

a High Brown Fritillary (adippeperlemorvinge) in Maridalen. This species is very similar to Dark Green Fritillary (aglajaperlemorvinge) but the dots towards the back of the underside of the lower wing separate the two species

High Brown Fritillary from above. A different individual from above but both were very worn and missing large parts of their wings

this is the same individual as that in the underwing picture. On the upperinwing the the indented (and in the case small) third dot on the upperwing is a feature to separate from Dark Green

so what is this butterfly that I photographed on 30 July in the same area? Is the third dot indented or not? I never got a photo of the underwing...

this fritillary in Maridalen was a surprise. It was on its own feeding along a path whereas 100m away were loads of other (larger) butterflies feeding on thistles. This was a small fritillary and I made sure I took photos of the underside

which showed it was a Queen of Spain Fritillary (sølvkåpe). I was really surprised by its small size but apparently this is a very variable species with a size of 35-50mm given. This is the first record of this species in Oslo in the ArtsObservasjoner database but I assume this is due to lack of observers (and observers who can be bothered to report their records) rather than it being particularly rare

a far easier Fritillary is Silver-washed (keiserkåpe) here with a Peacock (dagpåfugløye) and a fly

and here with a wasp

and with a Small Tortioseshell (neslesommerfugl) in the background

Comma (hvit C)

Green-veined White (rapssommerfugl)

female Large White (stor kålsommerfugl)

this blue butterfly flew up from my feet on Gressholmen and due to its tiny size I initially though it was a moth. But through the bins I could see it was a blue butterfly. The small size leave only really one option: Small Blue (dvergblåvinge) and an individual this late in the year is according to the literature very unusual

Red Admiral

Peacocks, Comma and Silver-washed Fritillary

and some birds:

a juvenile Common Buzzard (musvåk) in Maridalen

juvenile Knot (polarsnipe) at Fornebu

Knot, Lapwing (vipe) and Ruff (brushane) in flight

the rarest sighting - a juv Moorhen (sivhøne) in Storøykilen, Fornebu. My first sighting here where Water Rails are normally to be found