Late summer bopping

The weather has continued to be conducive to raptor watching in Maridalen and I hoped to be able to pin down, at least roughly, where the Honey Buzzard has a nest but despite seeing and hearing him I have come no closer. However, I have found photos of the same bird showing quite how large a range he covers in his search for food. He must even at times fly very close to the nest I follow showing how different pairs share the same feeding territories. Given how widely he travels though then I find it strange that I have not knowingly seen “my” male anywhere but at/over the nest.

By looking at my pictures and other posted online I have found out that the recent male is the same as the one I saw skydancing on 26May and which has been seen by Stig over Tonsenhagen (SE of Maridalen) on 17August and yesterday and was also seen on Friday south of Sognsvann which was the same day I had two sightings in Maridalen. This bird can be individually identified by its almost perfect plumage with no missing feathers but some very specific damage to the primary tips of the left wing allow it to be recognised with certainty.

the male in Maridalen on Friday. I have circled the specific feather damage that can also be seen on the photos I have linked to plus in my photo from the last few days on this blog

the lines at the top show how I saw the bird on Friday, the red cross is where is was seen the same day and the blue cross where Stig has also seen him. In the bottom left is the scale for 1km so he moves a long way

on Friday he returned calling and I heard him from over 1km

my first juvenile also on Friday. He appeared from the same area where the male had flown to but continued flying south on his own so was I believe a migrant

this Hobby (lefrkefalk) showed well

another Hobby trying to catch something

juvenile Sparrowhawk (spurvehauk)

an Osprey (fiskeørn) at Fornebu on Friday

and one of three in Maridalen the same day. This a juvenile I believe

and an adult yesterday which flew a long way north with this fish so clearly has young on the nest still

a migrating Kestrel (tårnfalk)

Yellow Wagtail (gulerle)

my first Whooper Swan (sangsvane) in Maridalen for a while

Water Rail (vannrikse) and Moorhen (sivhøne) at Fornebu

the Water Rail trying to hide

this Moorhen has been alone since it was very small but has raised itself well

BOP photos

Here are photos of the more photogenic but sadly less rare raptors from yesterday with a couple of pics from today. The Honey Buzzard sighting was very interesting. I wrote that he was not near his nest (not that I knew where the nest was) when he was calling but that looks not to be true. Upon looking at my photos I see that when he flew over me he was carry a disc of wasp cake but when he returned only 7 minutes later (which is when he started calling) he was empty taloned. This surely means that he delivered the food to young (in a nest) only 3 minutes flight away and he was not flying fast either. Neither was he flying towards dense forest and although he disappeared for me due to a line of trees I think the nest must be in one of a couple of low lying woods. Today the same male appeared from the same direction (although quite high up) but dedicated watching revealed no other sightings or clues as to where the nest is.

Two male Goshawks were also interacting yesterday – one looks to be an adult male and the other a 3cy male which is perhaps trying to muscle in on a territory.

An adult and juv Hobby were also interacting with each other and a Sparrowhawk high over the lake and it is unknown whether these were from the local family or from further away.

male Honey Buzzard (vepsevåk) with a disc of wasp comb in its talons

and 7 minutes later without

here he is straining his neck as he had an Osprey, a Common Buzzard and perhaps most important a Goshawk to be aware of

his beak is open and he was calling

performing contortions

the same bird today. In the field in challenging light I thought this was a female but it can be seen to be the same male

Common Buzzard (musvåk) - a moulting adult

Sparrowhawk (spurvehauk) - there are  a number of juvenile birds around that have fun practicing their hunting skills of anything no matter size

another bird

a male Goshawk (hønsehauk) with a Wood Pigeon (ringdue). This bird has a mix of old and new feathers and is a 3cy

this is probably the same bird but taken today, whereas other picture was taken yesterday

2 male Goshawks together yesterday

the closer bird is the presumed 3cy whereas the bird on the left is an adult. Note how it has the white undertail covert feathers puffed out which normally happens during display

adult above

Osprey (fiskeørn) - adult male

juvenile Hobby (lerkefalk) left sparring with one of its parents

the same juvenile, aged by the absence of red trousers

and here the youngster is sparing with a young Sparrowhawk

adult Hobby with its red trousers

Nutcrackers (nøttekråke) are regularly to be seen flying high overhead with their crops full of nuts. They fly many, many kilometres from the city into the forest where they store the nuts for winter consumptions

the fields are rather disappointing but there a few Yellow Wagtails (gulerle)

Beitostølen 2024

The summer holidays continue as per tradition with a week in Beitostølen. It is unusually wet and cold so my chances of seeing butterflies are going to be limited but I have made the most of any periods of sun. There seem to be very few butterflies here though this year which I hope is just a timing issue with more to come after some warm weather but that will unfortunately be after we have left.

On the bird front we managed a dry if cold walk on Valdresflye where I was very happy to see a couple of Long-tailed Skuas which had eluded us a month ago.

On the drive up we picked up my parents from Gardemoen airport. A delayed plane and hour long queues at passport control meant we suddenly had time to kill so a dog walk at Nordbytjernet beckoned. I hoped to see the Great Reed Warbler again although no luck on that score perhaps indicates it has moved on. It did however result in a news species of odonata with a very unexpected Blue-tailed Damselfly (kystvannymfe). As it Norwegian names suggests this is a coastal species in Norway and my records appear to be the furthest inland in the country.

Long-tailed Skua (fjelljo)

Although the presence of the skuas suggests tbere are some lemmings this Rough-legged Buzzard is the only raptor seen so far

Dotterel (boltit) is always a joy to find

Here, a Temminck’s Stint and two Ringed Plover (sandlo)

The Temminck’s

The same Dotterel as above - a female (the males will be sitting on eggs)

A female Bluethroat (blåstrupe) which clearly had young nearby

A Yellow Wagtail (gulerle) just out of the nest

A male Common Blue (tiriltunge blåvinge)

And a male Alpine Blue (fjellblåvinge) - I’m not sure if the two species can easily be separated from above

From below though the Alpine Blues are distinctive

They have been the commonest butterfly up here (with over 100 at one locality)

Silver spotted Skipper (kommasmyger)

More mating Alpine Blues

Blue -tailed Damselfly (kystvannymfe)

A different individual

This was an interesting one. I assumed it was also a Blue-tailed with a strange pattern on the 8th tail segment

But here you see it must be a Variable Damselfy (fagerblåvannymfe) although quite an unusually marked one