Waiting for the birds to come

Whilst at the cabin I received reports of both Pomarine and Long-tailed Skuas that should have been heading my way but without me managing to see them although I did find another Arctic Skua and a Black Guillemot (both rare in these parts).

On Sunday morning a male Surf Scoter was reported from further south and was heading north towards me. I had a hope of seeing it but no real expectation of actually succeeding. When a few hours later I found a flock of scoter resting on the sea I of course had to grill them. It was long range and terrible light and the birds were sleeping but then a porpoise surfaced right by them and they all stuck their heads up nervously and voila - one had big white areas on its head😊. This is a real blocker on the Akershus county list with just one prior single observor (but photographed) record which has now been supplemented by my single observor and NOT photographed record.

Butterflies are always a focus when we are staying here and I thought I had added Wood White to the area list but have retracted that observation as I didn’t get a photo and subsequently had some confusing small Green-veined Whites. Dingy and Grizzled Skipper and Green-underside Blue were the undoubted highlights with only 2 other species noted - Brimstone and Orange Tip.

I added Icterine Warbler to my year list and a Red-backed Shrike singing in a neighbouring garden was a true surprise as I failed to see any on the usual clearings (probably still too early).

A Spotted Flycatcher (gråfluesnapper) in the garden

An Arctic Skua (tyvjo) harrying a Common Gull (fiskemåke)

Red-backed Shrike (tornskate) singing in a neighbouring garden

We had many sightings of Porpoises (nise)

A Grizzled Skipper ( bakkesmyger)

A Dingy Skipper (tiriltungesmyger)

A couple of Slow Worms (stålorm) mating under a bush in the garden

This picture was supposed to document the Surf Scoter (brilleand)..

Green-underside Blue (kløverblåvinge)

A little holiday update

I eventually found up to 9 breeding pairs of Red-backed Shrikes (5 pairs plus single birds at 4 sites) plus Wrynecks at 2 sites so these two species may well have an OK year after all. One of the pairs of Wrynecks had 3 young already out of the nest and I heard their begging call for the first time – a call which can be confused with the song of Firecrest! One of the pairs of Red-backed Shrikes also had young which had just flown out of the nest and which were much shyer than their parents and kept in the depth of bushes most of the time. Raptors were very scarce with just local breeding Common Buzzard and Sparrowhawk – I had expected to find Honey Buzzards.

Butterflies continued to be my main focus. I added eight new species:

22.    Grayling / kystringvinge

23.    Holly Blue / vårblåvinge – a very rare second generation adult

24.    Small White / liten kålsommerfugl

25.    Common Blue / tiriltungeblåvinge

26.    Small Copper / ildgullvinge

27.    Comma / hivt C

28.    Heath Fritillary /marimjellerutevinge

29.    Swallowtail/svalestjert – Sara found a caterpillar which we looked after for a few days

I also managed my first ever picture of the Pearly Heath and managed to see from a picture the spine on the front leg of the male Silver-studded Blue which confirmed my suspicion that the smaller blue butterflies I were seeing were this species and not Idas Blue although as these two species can fly together I could well have seen both.

Dark Green Fritillary /aglajperlemorvinge  

Dark Green Fritillary /aglajperlemorvinge 

Heath Fritillary /marimjellerutevinge 

Heath Fritillary /marimjellerutevinge

Queen of Spain Fritillary / sølvkåpe 

Silver washed fritillary / keiserkåpe 

Silver washed fritillary / keiserkåpe 

High Brown Fritillary /adippeperlemorvinge 

High Brown Fritillary /adippeperlemorvinge  

High Brown Fritillary /adippeperlemorvinge  

Silver-studded Blue/argusblåvinge This shows, I believe the spur on the front leg 

same butterfly and the spur can be seen!

another assumed Silver-studded Blue/argusblåvinge 

same individual. Here a forward pointing spur can be seen on the middle leg but this is apparantly also seen in Idas

same individual

Common Blue / tiriltungeblåvinge

 Holly Blue / vårblåvinge – a very rare second generation adult 

Brimstone

Grayling / kystringvinge 

Swallowtail caterpillar

it sticks this out as a defense mechanism and it emits a foul smell (although we didn't detect the smell)

Common Buzzard (musvåk)

a very unexpected mid summer Pink-footed Goose (kortneggbås)

a very well marked old female Red-backed Shrike (tornskate)

a more normally marked female

another more normally marked female

and another boldly marked old female who I also saw with a bird in her beak

who was mother to this youngster

and paired with this male

Wryneck (vendehals) with a beak full of ant larvae which it was taking to fledged youngsters

Slow worm (stålorm)

this year seems to have been very god for breeding Swallows and there are many youngsters on the wing

Norways royal yacht

Hulvik hytte - the sequel

summer pickings

Continued bad weather in northern Norway caused us to postpone (cancel?) our summer holiday in Bodø for a second time and we instead enjoyed temperatures in the high twenties at the cabin in Hulvik last week.

We added to our reptile list with an adder this time meaning that I have now seen all three Norwegian snake species here (Grass, Smooth and Adder) plus Slow Worm so I just need Common Lizzard to have seen all the Norwegian reptiles here.

I was a little more active on the birding front this time with a couple of trips to Kurefjorden. There was no significant wader passage as I had hoped and certainly nothing rare but raptors showed well with seven different species on show including a young Peregrine (vandrefalk) that was honing its hunting skills on Lapwings (vipe). Chances for decent pictures have been very few and far between but Osprey (fiskeørn ) and a Goshawk gave some closish fly-bys.

A quick trip to Maridalen today produced two fishing Ospreys and some muddy edges which still look promising for waders even though a Common Sandpiper was the only wader on show.

the glow worm from last week

Goshawk (hønsehauk)

Osprey (fiskeørn) with fish at Kurefjorden

and another from Maridalen

last weeks Slow Worm (stålorm)