Bugs & Shrikes

 I have yet to see either the Purple or White-letter Hairstreaks nectaring but a trip to Fornebu yesterday to allow the Beast to run around socialise within the fenced in dog park gave me at least 5 Brown Hairstreaks (slåpetornstjertvinge) which were all nectaring and showing ridiculously well. I saw the upperwing of 4 and all these were males suggesting that they had only just emerged (males usually emerge before females). This is a very good count for this species in Norway and the planting of lots of ornamental plant including Blackthorn seems to have been good for them and Fornebu may well be one of the very best locations for the species.

I also saw 3 musk beetles which is an enormous species of longhorn beetle. There were not many birds to see although I did flush a migrant Great Snipe from long grass whilst searching for butterflies.

Today I was in Maridalen and came across quite a few Red-backed Shrikes. First I had a male with three young begging for food. It is normal that it is the male that looks after the young once they leave the nest and the female normally disappears very quickly. It was therefore surprising when I later found an adult female feeding a single youngster. Had the male been predated and she was left to bring up the young on her own?

male Red-backed Shrike (tornskate)

juvenile and male

a headless youngster

and an adult female with a youngster

Brown Hairstreak (slåpetornstjertvinge)

all brown upperwing shows it to be a male

a Common Blue (tiriltungeblåvinge) and a slightly obscured Brown Hairstreak

Musk Beetle (muskosbukk)

Peacock butterfly (dagpåfugløye)

Green-veined Whites (rapssommerfugl) attempting to mate

Delayed (for Rufous reasons) post

After missing two species in Tuesday’s guiding I of course then heard the Corncrake in its usual place the same evening and then on Wednesday morning had great views of a Grasshopper Warbler (which had been discovered the day before) at Østensjøvannet. A Sedge Warbler (less than annual in Oslo) was also reported from ØV but I only managed to locate a strange singing Marsh Warbler in the same place.

On Wednesday evening I took David and Jaye out again with the main target being the pure nocturnal singer Nightjar. We succeeded royally with a male and female showing well, if briefly, at the relatively early time of 23:15. I also made up on Tuesday’s misses with the Grasshopper Warbler also being bagged and the Corncrake fell eventually although we did only hear rather than see it but all is well that ends well 😊.

In Maridalen the sun shone and I spent some time trying to find interesting dragons and damsels on Wednesday. I just found it really frustrating with the dragons mostly flying too fast and not perching visibly and the ones that looked interesting mostly defied my attempts at taking pictures. A strange, and large insect proved to be a Water Scorpion (probably common but very rarely reported) and it was quite amazing watching it our of the water and pulling itself along sedge leaves.

an unusually good view of the Grasshopper Warbler 

Nightjat (nattravn) - it was close but all happened too quickly such that I did not get the photos that I could have hoped for

lack of white in tail and wings shows it to be a female

the non-breeding Whooper Swan (sangsvane) pair in Maridalen

this Willow Warbler (løvsanger) was annoyed with the Grasshopper Warbler. It is a very grey and long looking bird unlike most of the local breeders

Osprey (fiskeørn) in Maridalen 

Water Scorpion (vannskorpion) - a big beast and quite scary looking!

Maridalen insects

On my birthday I persuaded the girls to join me on a trip into Maridalen and their present to me was that they didn't moan!!!

We had hoped to see the Adders but these were not to be found but we did see a variety of cool looking insects and picked 5 litres of blueberries from a very small area.

Birds were not a real focus although I did see the 3 young Red-backed Shrikes which were now very actively feeding on their own and dad has presumably gone now. Also a group of 2 young and an adult Buzzard were I'm quite sure locally bred birds.

we saw two groups of this insect on blueberry bushes but I've no idea what it is

male Common Blue Damselfly (Stor blåvannymfe)

daddlylonglegs (no idea what their proper name is) mating which looks to be a difficult and painful act