Still no YbW

Many kilometres have been walked since my last post and many a time have I stopped to listen to a distant call that I thought heard interesting but I am still to hear a Yellow-browed Warbler and my autumn is still missing something vital. Were I to have travelled to a wind blown island then I would have filled that hole but this autumn has so far not been very productive at all in Norway so I wouldn’t have seen very much at all and the would probably just have got very wet and pissed off.

Things have been so quiet here that I have found myself leaving Oslo in a last ditch effort to at least get some good raptor experiences before winter comes. A trip to Årnestangen did result in two Hen Harriers but not quite the views I was hoping for and a trip out to Aurskog Høland gave many Common Buzzards and Kestrels but nothing more interesting. An upswing in rodent numbers is happening further north which probably explains why Rough-legged Buzzards haven’t started coming through yet as they must be finding enough to eat in the mountains although the first snow which will come soon may well push them south. A couple of records of Great Grey and Hawk Owl in south eastern Norway does give some hope that these species are also moving around and the coming months will be interesting.

my first Hen Harrier (myrhauk) of the autumn and as usual I fail to get a decent photo

a juvenile Buzzard (musvåk) showed slightly better

and an adult male Kestrel (tårnfalk) even better

I got very close to this Kingfisher (isfugl) which was I believe I quite recently fledged juvenile (from a third brood?) but it was always well hidden in the riverside bushes

another collared Greylag Goose (grågås)

Also from Trøndelag in mid Norway, my sighting at Årnestangen was the first reading since it was rung. The population of Greylag Geese that goes through the south east of Norway every autumn has now become enormous

the tagged Taiga Bean Goose has now left Norway. Look at the straight line it is flying in although the kink at the end suggests it has realised it was heading too far to the south

it is not often I see a bull Moose with such large antlers as selective hunting means that there are hardly any older bulls to be seen

a farmer was cutting silage and attracted lots of covids as there were clearly lots of rodents being exposed (and perhaps killed). This Raven found something

Scrapping for crumbs

The title of this post was supposed to be a metaphor for searching for autumn waders in Oslo but thinking about it scrapping for crumbs would actually be more exciting.

Yesterday, Jack and I took the ferry and visited the islands. The wind was from the NNE, it was raining and the tide so low that the bay at Gressholmen was just exposed mud. Hordes of waders were as good as guaranteed….

Well of course that was not the case. Two voyeuristic passes of Fru. Galteskjær gave a single Common Sand on the second pass. Fru. Gressholmen’s muddy delights had NO waders but Lindøya gave us a Ringed Plover, 4 Oystercatchers and a Common Sand. There was a highlight but we only realised once I was back home in front of the PC.

When approaching Bleikøya we had seen a wader at very long range and I pointed the camera and shot and prayed. As we got closer we found first one and then two Common Sands in the same area so assumed this was what we had originally seen. Zooming in on the very grainy photos on the PC though shows we had originally «seen» a Turnstone - my third and Jack’s first in Oslo.

 

Maridalen has in fact been possibly even better for waders the last few days. On Friday a Golden Plover flew over, and today there was a Dunlin, 5 Snipe and a Common Sand. The Dunlin is only my second ever here and had found a very thin bit of mud to spankulerer on.

There are close to 600 Greylags in the valley and one carries a neck collar showing it to have been ringed in Mid Norway and to spend the winters in Holland.

With it being so wet there have been few raptors showing themselves although today I had my first Merlin of the autumn.

Greylag Goose G V8 (what font is that?)

and here her history

when I first looked at my photos I wan't sure whether this was even a bird

but these must count as record shots of a Turnstone (steinvender)

there is not much else to find amongst the Greylag Geese in Maridalen except for these 2 hybrids with Canada

and this Pink-footed Goose. A Taiga Bean or (scraping the barrel) a Bar-headed Goose would help me on my #Oslo2024 quest

some mud and a wader in Maridalen!

a 1cy Dunlin

Emergency stopping for a bug

This year hasn’t been that good for butterflies yet with lots of rain and when there is sun it is often windy. I have consequently not spent much time searching for them but as with all things with wings sometimes they come to you. Yesterday whilst driving in Maridalen I saw a large black and white butterfly flutter in front of the car. For the first time (that I can remember at least) I emergency stopped for an insect although it soon transpired I had all the time in the world. The butterfly, which was a Poplar Admiral (ospesommerfugl) was attracted to the road and was clearly finding something good, probably salt, on the tarmac. It managed to avoid death at the hands of passing cars, although all slowed down as they were clearly interested to see what I was up to, and it kept landing and showing itself off from all angles. Whilst this was happening a Swallowtail flew over although unfortunately did not stop. So arguably the two most spectacular Norwegian butterflies at the same time and in the Dale 😊

 

Poplar Admiral (ospesommerfugl). Only the fourth time I've seen one and by far and away the most cooperative. They are famous for being attracted to dog sh*t but seems tarmac roads are just as attractive

I paid a visit to Østensjøvannet yesterday hoping that the rainy weather might have produced something (a Black Tern turned up at Årnestangen at the weekend) but as with all my rain fuelled visits this spring there was not even a Swallow to see. Something is clearly up with the lake with there being no insects hatching and therefore no Swallows, terns or most importantly gulls to feed off them. I reckon that this is the reason that Black-headed Gulls, which used to breed here in a colony of many hundreds of pairs, have now more or less completely abandoned the lake for breeding. It did look like there were two nesting pairs though which was a surprise although whether they can raise young is another thing.

Even if there were no insect eaters, a couple of male Gadwall in eclipse plumage were most unexpected.

male Gadwalls (snadderand) in eclispe

Coot (sothøne) parent and young

when at Østensjøvannet it is rude not to take a picture of a Great Crested Grebe (toppdykker)

Maridalsvannet has been having lots of hatching insects over the last few weeks with many Common and a few Black-headed Gulls hawking them. There have also been Common Tern which today peaked at 6 birds which I am sure is a record here. There have also been lots of Swifts, Swallows and House Martins and the odd sighting of Sand Martin. Today there three birds including a pair mating on wires right above my head. I never saw them visiting potential nest holes although they have previously bred in holes between stones on a nearby bridge.

I did foolishly have another nocturnal outing last night but with nothing to show for it I think this must be my last of the year, in Maridalen at least.

mating Sand Martins (sandsvale)

Swallows (låvesvale) collecting nesting material. The bird on the left is ringed. It is quite late to be nest building

I haven't been able to make much out of the ring not even which country 

Marsh Warblers (myrsanger) have become quiet as they pair off

there are now two Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgås) at Maridalsvannet. At least one of them is paired to a Greylag and maybe both

These two Mallard (stokkand) chicks are very different

the Great Northern Diver (islom) is going strong

and yet another video of it