Honey Buzzard nest 2024

The highlight of the late summer and early autumn was traipsing out into the forest to observe and just as importantly document the comings and goings at the Honey Buzzard nest. But this year it started even earlier as we were lucky enough to be able to observe the birds for the whole of the breeding season (minus pre nesting displaying and mating) even if nothing much happened until the eggs hatched.

I paid a total of 25 visits to the nest split by month as follows:

June: 2

July: 6

August: 10

September: 7

And clocked up 66 hours observing the nest which is an effort I am very proud of.

 

It was the same nest as last year and while I am confident the male is the same bird I am not sure about the female. In both years the female has been extremely difficult to observe away from the nest and I have never managed a photo of her in soaring flight however the plumage when perched whilst similar similar does not look to be the same (concentrating on head and throat) so I believe it is a different bird which may also explain the late breeding. Last years nest was late but this years was even later although in both cases the female has left early – less then two weeks after the young hatched.

 

As before I have observed the nest along with Stig Johan Kalvatn and it was Stig who had the first observation in the nest area with a bird (not individually identified) sky dancing high over the area on 1^st June. On 13^th June he saw there was some fresh, green, nesting material on last years nest but no birds were seen. I visited the next day and also saw the nesting material but no birds but a visit on 20^th resulted in a bird flying away from the nest tree when I entered the area. 

the nest on 14th June. No bird to be seen but a couple of green branches have been added

On 26^th Stig saw the female was on the nest and on 1^st July I observed the male doing the same. Four subsequent visits in July revealed the female on the nest on three occasions and the male once but no change overs or otherwise interesting behaviour was noted although I never stayed more than half an hour.

female sitting on 12th July

nest shot

video 17th July with male on nest:

Male sitting on 18th July

Video 27 July with female on nest:

the female on 27th July

That changed on 29^th July though - the female was on the nest when I arrived and was sitting differently to previous days with her tail hanging out of the nest and she was sitting higher up but she did not tend to anything in the nest. After 70 minutes though the male arrived. The female left the nest quite quickly and perched nearby whilst the male clearly was feeding unseen young in the nest! He fed for about 10 minutes before then settling down to brood them. I could not see what he fed them with but as he was not stripping flesh off something then I assume it was wasp larve.

29th July - the male is sitting on the side of the nest

I had visited two days previously when the female was still incubating so the hatching occurred some time between July 27^th to 29^th. With a stated incubation period of 30-35 days this means egg laying began around 25^th June which matches nicely with our observations in June.

a branch with fresh leaves that had been dropped by the nest. 29th July

filming on July 29th

 On 1^st August the male was brooding when I arrived and the female arrived 2 hours later with food. The male left the nest straight away although as with the female a couple of days earlier he initially perched nearby. I could not see the young nor see what the female was feeding them.

1st August - the male

and the female

On 5^th August I had a mammoth session just shy of 7 hours and observed two food deliveries and most excitingly saw the young for the first time - there were two of them. The female was brooding when I arrived and after 1h 20m the male arrived with a frog. The female left immediately but the male did not feed the young for 3h 20min. I am not sure why he waited so long but I guess when the young are so small that they could have been completely full from an earlier feed. 4hrs 45min after leaving the nest the female returned with an unknown food item and this time the young were fed immediately.

5th August - female

male

female again and brooding

female from other side of nest

On 11^th August when the young were close to 2 weeks old I saw that they were left alone for the first time. The female had been brooding when I arrived and left when the male came with a frog. After feeding them he then left the nest.

11th August - the female with 2 white fluffy heads showing. The feather sticking up is I believe one of the females tail feathers which she has lost whilst on the nest

and an unusually good view of the male after he had left the nest and perched in a nearby tree

On 12^th August I did not visit the nest but saw a female HB in Maridalen carrying wasp cake that based on plumage could have been my nesting female although subsequent observations in Maridalen suggested very strongly there was a pair with young in the valley itself.

On 13^th August I dad 4 hours at the nest and this time they were not brooded AND I did not see the female despite the male coming to the nest with food 5 times which was definitely frog on 3 occasions, which the male feeds to the young by stripping off flesh but on the other two occasions the young fed themselves so had presumably been given wasp cake. On the last occasion I was observing from a watchpoint away from the nest and could see that at 1137 he flew over the nest high up with a frog clearly dangling from his talons. He then sky danced over the area before at 1152 dive gliding straight into the nest. When I am sitting by the nest I do not get to see if this happens frequently when the adults arrive but I suspect not and believe that this behaviour from the male was an attempt to get the females attention and find out if she was still around.

13th August - the male watching me from a tree top close to the nest

the male feeding the young strips of frog meat

the male leaving the nest

the mal flying over the nest area with a frog clearly dangling from his talons

he then proceeded to sky dance over the area

The female was never seen again and this early departure is even earlier than 2023 when she was last seen on 18^th August and the nesting was a few days earlier so this year she left relatively over a week earlier and leaves a lot of work to the male who has also shared in the incubation.

On 16 August I saw the young feed themselves while the male remained perched on the nest whilst the young fed. The male remained at the nest for an hour and a half (waiting to see if the female would turn up?). I made myself visible and the male flew off and called for the first time this season. The male took a long time to find food (in contrast to my last visit) and it was another 3 and a half hours before he returned when he was met by very eager and noisy young.

During the long absence of the male the young were a bit active on the nest including some wing stretching.

16th August - the male on the nest @08:37 catching the morning sun

a rare shot of him flying over the nest

the young are starting to develop some flight feathers

look how translucent the wing is

the flight feathers are starting to grow but are far from being developed

the age/development difference between the two birds was small

5 hours of viewing on 19^th August I witnessed two food deliveries. The male fed the young the first time what was probably frog but the second time it must have been wasp cake as he just dumped it and left them to feed themselves. The male clearly (sometimes at least) remains perched close to nest as when I left the area 10 minutes after the male had delivered food the second time he reappeared calling and landed close to me before then circling over the area calling a lot. 

19th August - the male feeding the young what was probably frog flesh

On 25th August I did not witness too much but the young looked healthy

25th August - still quite downy

the older chick on the right has less down on the head

On 26^th August I did not visit the nest but saw a picture of an already fledged youngster from another site in Norway highlighting just how late this nest is.

On 27^th the male visited three times with wasp cake in just over 2 hours of watching so seemed to be visiting a wasps nest 15-20 minute flight away.

27th August - the young have lost a lot of down but are still two weeks away from fledging

the male

Video from 31 August:

31st August

here the age difference is obvious with the older bird on the right having lost most of the down on its head

On 5^th September the male came with wasp cake at 1123, 1204 and 1231 so had clearly found a wasps nest quite close by. One of the young was also perching on a branch a metre or so from the nest.

5th September - the youngest chick perched on the edge of the nest

the youngest showing its head whilst the oldest wing stretches

the youngest still with some downy feathers on its head is closest

the youngest

youngest on the left still on the nest whilst the oldest has moved onto a branch

the oldest

the male over the nest with food

low over nest area

On September 8^th the male was bringing food regularly and the oldest young perched away from nest but in same tree. 

8th September - the oldest

both young with the youngest on the left. All down has been lost now and it has a browner plumage than its older sibling

both birds eating wasp larve

the older, darker, youngster

 

filming the nest on September 8th this time from the other side of the nest which is the better side to observe from once the young start wandering away from the nest

On September 10^th the oldest young had clearly started flying and exploring area. Male did not visit nest in just over 3 hours of watching at nest but I did see him 40 minutes later from a viewpoint flying towards nest. Just shows that a lot of work must go into finding a wasps nest but once one is found then it results in lots of food.

Video 10th September:

10th September - the youngest chick

and the oldest

youngest on the left

oldest

and here the youngest after a short flight

Video 12th September:

12th September - the youngest chick still on the nest

here eating wasp larve

the older chick on the branch

here dad has arrived with food and both young go crazy

the youngest later on with a full stomach

By 13^th September both young had left the nest and it was only through their wing flapping that I could locate one of them until the male arrived with food which resulted in both young flying to the nest making lots of noise.

One of the young took a piece of wasp cake to a branch to eat and dropped it and I was later able to find it and see that some of the capsules contained fully developed Common Wasps.

The young were very active flying around the area within the trees and one even flew down to the ground to I believe drink from a puddle. They were also discovered by a couple of Fieldfare which scolded them in the same way they do with Tawny Owls.

13th September - the oldest

youngest

youngest wing stretching

youngest on the left

the oldest

the oldest

the youngest

the oldest

on the right a slice of wasp cake with empty chambers after all the larve have been eaten. On the right a small piece that I saw one of the young drop whilst eating on a branch. Not all of the chambers are empty

and three contained full grown Common Wasps (jordveps)

Here is a video from my mobile phone taken on a number of days in September whilst I was sitting and observing the nest:

Subsequent visits on 16^th and 17^th September revealed no birds. According to the literature the young should hang around the nest for at least a week after fledging and still be supplied food by the adults but I have never observed this with the now three nests I have followed in Norway. Indeed the young seem to leave almost as soon as they can fly and I have never even seen them soaring over the nest area either. I would love to know what they do after fledging but a GPS tag will probably be the only thing that can give me an answer to that.