Back to Svellet

The Beast turns 8 in September which coincidentally means that according to all that dog/human year malarkey he and I are the same age (at least for now). I guess there have been a few thousand morning walks he has taken me on over the years and we have seen a few interesting birds in the area where we live with Pine Grosbeak probably being the best. Yesterday morning though we added a new species with a Wood Warbler singing in the local wood. Although the oak dominated wood may be suitable as a breeding locality I am sure the bird was a migrant. As such I think it is only the second time I have come across a singing spring migrant (not that I have come across any non singing ones either). And that got me thinking - why do I hear many singing migrant Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers but not Wood Warblers? Is it because Wood Warblers don’t often sing on migration or is it just because there are so many, many more Chiffs and Willies that you are so much more likely to encounter one of them?

 

Svellet was the subject of my attention yesterday and whilst water levels have only risen by 2cm since yesterday and 4cm since Monday there was a considerable reduction in the number of birds. And I was able to watch that number more than half when a young Peregrine had a go at some Wood Sandpipers which of course all flew off but also never returned.

Over the past couple of weeks I have seen the waders frequently flying around due to a raptor (most often unseen) but always landing again but what I observed today clearly shows that migration awaits and the birds clearly have an unavoidable urge to keep heading north.

We have a couple of days of rain ahead of us and also southerly winds after aperiod of cold northerly winds so we may still have some mighty experiences at Svellet but it will definitely be a question of quality rather than quantity now.

I also walked out to the end of Årnestangen which was a rather quiet affair on the bird front with not a single waders at the tip but there were two butterfly surprises with my first Swallowtail and Painted Lady of the year which were not what I expected on a quite cloudy and not that warm day.

Svellet from the east

and from west looking north 13 May 2026

and looking south

and Årnestangen

In Maridalen the Lapwings continue to surprise positively with 3 broods seen - 4 and 1 were on open ground and fully accounted for but another single youngster popped out of long grass and there could definitely, and hopefully, have been more there. Two females are also on new nests and a pair were displaying so there may be yet another nest to come. They all still have to survive more farmer activity and foxes and crows but I think we are in a surprisingly good place.

my first Painted Lady (tistelsommerfugl) of the year. A faded but otherwise undamaged individual

whereas the colours of my first Swallowtail were perfect it had clearly already been attacked by birds and had chunks missing from the back of its wings

Mid April and expectations are rising

It is the middle of April and the next six weeks are the most exciting of the year (in the Oslo area at least). In addition to many new birds for the year there are also new birding sites to reacquaint myself with and I have now competed my first walk to the end of Årnestangen for the year as well as my first grilling of the mighty Svellet.

Conditions today at Svellet were magical and I have a small but growing hope that this will be one of those Svellet springs that are entered into the history books, or at least get remembered on this blog. Today the water level (3.61m) was perfect and there were enormous areas of shallow water and wet mud. 2000 Teal and 234 Curlew were both good counts and the quality came in the form of a male Garganey, a Bar-tailed Godwit plus two very early Ruff and a Redshank. The weather over the coming weeks will be key to whether conditions remain perfect and we need just enough rain such that the mud doesn’t dry up but not too much rain (or sun that causes lots of melt water to flow down the river) such that water levels do not rise too quickly. I hope every birder in Oslo and Akershus is praying to the Birds Gods.

Svellet from the eastern side. Even though I describe conditions as perfect the distances are very long and a scope is essential and even then not always enough to identify all the birds out there

and some of the Teal (krikkand) and also the Garganey (knekkand). As I said they are a long way away

Årnestangen has also delivered with another very early wader in the form of a Whimbrel, an early Swallow and a good selection of raptors including a Red Kite which flew low over my head without me seeing it but that I then caught up with in the scope at about 6km range…

Taiga Bean Goose and Greylags at Årnestangen today. This is a relatively late bird as were the 4 Tundra Beans I saw yesterday

the bird was close to the Geylags in size and had a long slender neck and long thin bill with thin lower mandible.

I had a very enjoyable and successful morning guiding Barbara from Canada on Monday and we saw 60 species including Jack Snipe, Black and Red-throated Divers, Lesser Spotted and Black Woodpeckers. And if you don’t believe my description then read Barbara’s 😊

one of three Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin) at Fornebu. This bird has been regularly feeding in the open and to me looks very much like a Broad-billed Sandpiper...

and a more expected shot of a Jack

and a Common Snipe (enkeltbekkasin)

male Kestrel (tårnfalk) in Maridalen

and a Mistle Thrush (duetrost) in The Dale

Little Ringed Plover (dverglo) are back at Fornebu and will hopefully breed again this year

and Ringed Plovers (sandlo) are also back at last years nest site although they have less and less space available to them

Stock Dove (skogdue)

Twitching a sleeping Stone Curlew

Whilst I was birding Oslo yesterday a message came through that a Stone Curlew had been found at Årnestangen. With under 50 records it is a national rarity and the only previous record in Akershus (it is still to be seen in Oslo) came just last year. This year’s record is interestingly the earliest ever in Norway. It goes without saying that I have not seen one in Norway.

I didn’t really consider going for it even though from the photos that were put out it was clear that the bird was at its daytime roost (they are primarily nocturnal birds) and it didn’t move at all until it was almost dark. In other words, it would have been an easy yet very boring twitch. I have to admit that this apathy to twitching is just a tad extreme especially as I do take my Akershus list seriously – I am just 7 species off the lead and everyone who is ahead of me has been birding here for at least a decade and in some cases 3 or 4 more than me so there are bound to be species that will turn up that they currently have over me.

I had no expectation that it would be present today (I am more open to day 2 twitching) but whilst walking the dog a message came through that it was again roosting in exactly the same spot. It was far easier today to make the decision to twitch and it ended up being as easy as I expected and also as boring. The bird was watched from a very safe range with lots of heat have and it not doing anything but hey, a tick’s a tick 😊

Årnestangen was otherwise very quiet with only a few raptors on a day that I had expected there to be many although a few Ospreys were my first of the year and a young Peregrine put on an amazing show as it chased and repeatedly dived at a Lapwing before eventually giving up allowing the Lapwing to fight another day.

A quick check of Maridalen on the way home revealed the first Black-throated Diver and Wheatear of the year.

Stone Curlew (triel). I am still debating with myself if this can be called a record shot but the video shows it better and I did manage to catch the only time when it did something other than sleep

and my first Wheatear (steinskvett) of the year on the same stones where I normally get my first bird

Oslo Little Stint

On Thursday I had to drop Jr Jr off at Bygdøy so afterwards decided to see if the fjord at Huk had anything to offer. I don’t normally visit there at this time of the year unless it is blowing a gale which it wasn’t but it was blowing from the south and raining so there was always the chance of something. The rocks and skerries here attract Purple Sandpipers in winter but I have seen few other waders over the years other than Oystercatchers and those I have seen have generally stopped just briefly before continuing on their journey. Yesterday was a bit different though as first a Little Sint and then a Dunlin showed themselves and seemed quite happy searching for food in exactly the same way the Purple Sands do. The stint was only my third in Oslo and is a genuine rare species here with just 6 other records this century.

I also visited Østensjøvannet for the first time in a good while and there were worryingly few birds. Even if there was a lack of quantity then it was compensated so some extent by some quality with a male Pintail coming out of eclipse, a Shoveler, a Peregrine and most surprisingly a Common Scoter. This is a surprisingly scarce species on the lake with only 6 previous records ever and these have either been on spring passage or in late October (which matches when birds turn up on Maridalsvannet). A record in mid September is therefore unusual (and I had seen none on the fjord) and the bird was an adult female which is also an unusual record with records later in the autumn being almost exclusively 1cy birds.

 

Another unusual trip for me was a walk all the way out to the tip of Årnestangen. Water levels have kept on rising and the mud flats were gone but it was a relatively good day for raptors with 9 species noted including a hunting Hen Harrier at relatively close range.

Little Stint (dvergsnipe) with Eiders (ærfugl) - they are small!

and the Dunlin (myrsnipe)

this Herring Gull (gråmåke) made short work of a starfish

Østensjøvannets male Pintail (stjertand) coming out of eclipse. Hopefully it will hag around until it has acquired its full breeding plumage. Male Pintails that have turned up in Oslo have often, for some unknown reason, lacked the long central tail feathers that give this species its name and it looks like this bird (which could well be a returning individual) will also lack them

Shoveler (skjeand) with Tufted Duck (toppand)

adult female Common Scoter (svartand) with Great Crested Grebe (toppdykker). There was a brood of 2 less than half grown grebes which still had stipy, downy plumage and one of which was sat on a parents back. This is very late and it will be interesting to see how things go especially if we have an early cold snap

Great Grey Shrike (varsler) at Årnestangen

and a Great White Egret (egretthegre)

hunting Hen Harrier (myrhauk)

with a mouse

and a Merlin (dvergfalk)

Cranes (trane) are starting to head south now

2 Shoveler and 2 Wigeon (brunnakke) at Merkja

The Beast accompanied me to Årnestangen and I finally discovered who the viewing shutters were designed for...

Three Great Days

The last three days having been shockingly good!!

All you need is some rain and then the wind to change to southerly and boom.

Fridat started naturally in Maridalen where 19 Temminck’s are yet another record but stubbornly refuse to attract any other calidris to join them. On Thursday though I finally had Greenshank there and 4 Golden Plovers so this springs wader list is very respectable and on Saturday 4 Redshank also dropped in. A short visit to Østensjøvannet gave lots of feeding hirundines in the cold northerly wind which was nice to see after a couple of years where an insect absence has meant there has hardly been any there. House Martins were the scarcest and I am worried about this species. Black-headed Gulls continue to suffer and I could see just 2 nests still occupied. Highlight was a pair of Garganey found by Jack the day before and excitingly their behaviour suggested to me they will try to nest.

After this I announced to anyone who wanted to listen that I was off to Nordre Øyeren to find a Broad-billed Sandpiper and that turned out to be a good prediction😊. I stopped first at Merkja where the american Green-winged Teal is back and a good selection of waders included 18 Temminck’s (still beaten by Maridalen). Svellet again had absolutely no waders but it was Årnestangen where the excitment was. A Bar-headed Goose on the walk out was a tickable piece of category C plastic after the Norwegian records committee has recently «upgraded» it from pure plastic category E.

The real action was to be had at the end though where an initial sweep of the dry mud flats revealed nothing… but a second sweep showed a wader walking around the corner from an unviewable bit of shoreline. Eventually a few others joined and they turned out to be 4 species with a Broad-billed headlining, 11 Sanderling being a very high spring count and 2 each of Dunlin and Ringed Plover being more expected.

But that was only the beginning of the day! In the evening I was guiding to GG Owls. This allowed me to take in a Caspian Tern at Hamar and then the owls completely outdid themselves with the male bringing 3 voles in the course of just an hour which mum fed to three hungry chicks. Happy days!!

So, after such a long day I could be forgiven a little lie in yesterday morning on what had all the hallmarks of being THE day this spring with rain and strong southerly winds forecast. I decided to allow others the joy of walking out to Årnestangen and instead went first to Maridalen where 19 Temminck’s were still present and now even displaying and 3 Greenshank and 4 Redshank were new. I reckoned it was sea gazing that was the best option today and positioned myself at Halden Brygge, Fornebu from 10:30 where a kiosk provides great shelter when it blows from the south. A flock of 30 Oystercatcher heading north as I got out of the car was a promising sign and then a minute later the sight of a flock of 21 Kittiwake was a sure sign that birds were moving. This flock headed north over the city and then a bit later a new flock of 23 came from the south and eventually landed on the water. Red-throated Divers were moving high up with 141 in total and I grilled every tern I saw with all being local Common Terns until suddenly the closest tern of the day turned out to be a Sandwich. This was big - finally after 24 years by far my biggest bogey bird in Norway had fallen😊 and I even got photos. It was heading south and as I watched it a large flock of Brent Geese came into view heading north!! It was all a bit too much. These were pale-bellied birds which usually fly up the west coast of Norway on their way to Svalbard but occasionally take a wrong turn and head up the east coast. They were obviously very confused and eventually turned around and headed south again. After this there were some smaller flocks including one which did head north and I last saw it heading over Maridalen.

Today has been a wet day but I have of course been out. In Maridalen rising water levels and a night with no rain had caused all but 3 of the Temminck’s to move. The fjord didn’t seem to have any interesting birds with the wind having turned easterly and rain making visibility bad. So Nordre Øyeren beckoned. I chose not to walk out to Årnestangen after Svellet only had 8 Temmincks to offer but Merkja had the goods with 2 Mountain Marsh Runners having already been found and feeding alongside Dunlin and Temmincks with the Green-winged Teal also still present and showing well😊

Here are videos and pictures of everything bar the GGO which I will have to come back to.

finally - Sandwich Tern (splitterne)!! and I found it myself :-) 

sea gazing from Halden Brygge

confused Brent Geese (ringgås) over Oslo

here we see they are the Pale-bellied subspecies

I have not counted but reckon they are around 300

Kittiwakes (krykkje)

female Garganey (knekkand) giving unusually good views

male

Caspian Tern (rovterne)

these are probably my best views in Norway much better than the Svellet experience

Bar-headed Goose (stripegås) with Canada Geese and a Canada x Greylag hybrid

a Dunline (myrsnipe) and Broad-billed Sandpiper (fjellmyrløper) - trust me!

Sanderlings (sandløper)

Green-wnged Teal (amerikakrikkand) with normal Teal

quite a collection of birds at Merkja

a male Ruff (brushane) with 4 other wader species

Temminck's Stints 

the Broad-billed Sandpipers at Merkja were much close than at Årnestangen but I still failed to get good photos

2 Mountain Marsh Runners with a Temminck

Dunlin and Temmincks

Green-winged Teal