Coming to an end

It’s so hot and sunny now that I have almost given up on birds for the year and started on butterflies.

If I am to break my Oslo year record of 191 species, let alone smash the 200 barrier, then some rain and falls of migrants are necessary.

My Oslo list is ticking along with yesterday giving Garden Warbler #165 and Scaup #166 whilst today gave Whitethroat #167, Red-backed Shrike #168, Cuckoo#169 and Kingfisher #170. I have never reached this total so early so things should be looking good. Problem though is that I reckon I have only another 4 species that I can consider certain: Reed Warbler, Marsh Warbler, Common Rosefinch and Honey Buzzard whilst all others will bonuses and this includes species like Redstart, Sand Martin and Bluethroat which I would have expected to see by now and fear I may have missed my chance with. So, I will need to find a lot of Oslo rares😊

Yesterday’s Scaup was a bonus bird and was a pair on Maridalsvannet which is only the third spring record here. Today’s Kingfisher was even more unexpected but could well indicate breeding which I need to follow up on.

pair of Scaup (bergand) on Maridalsvannet - a rare species on spring migration

Wood Warblers (bøksanger) are now back. Although it is never to be found in large numbers I had 5 birds today

Wryneck (vendehals)

male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett). I had both these species in the same tree "singing" but did not mange to record it

female Red-backed Shrike (tornskate)

Black throated Diver

Blackcap (munk) have been back a while

but Garden Warblers (hagesanger) are only just arriving. As usual I need to see them to tell them apart as I usually don't hear a difference in their song

an unexpected sighting was this silent flyby Cuckoo (gjøk). I was alerted to its presence by alarm calling White Wagtails

a singing Pied Flycatcher (svarthvit fluesnapper) in the garden is probably last years bird

a couple of Slavonian Grebes (horndykker) I bumped into at a breeding site

whenever I see an old Black Woodpecker hole I scratch the tree trunk hoping a Tengmalm's Owl will stick its head out. That never happens unfortunately but today this Goldeneye (kvinand) did

she had a bit of down stuck to her head

interestingly she has a hole in her beak. I can't imagine what caused it

a Grizzly Skipper (bakkesmyger) was my earliest ever and first unusual butterfly of the year. I have now seen 12 species so far in 2024

a Holly Blue (vårblåvinge)

and a Green Hairstreak (grønnstjertvinge)

Grass Snakes

 On a hot and sunny 2nd May I heard a rustling in the grass and saw a boiling mass of snakes. On closer inspection it turned out to be three Grass Snakes. One was an obvious female (large), one an obvious male (small) but the third was an inbetweener although I assume must also be a (large) male.

At times they made was I thought were hissing noises (audible in the videos) but I have been told this sound comes from their scales rubbing rather than their mouths.

Here are far too many photos and a couple of videos.

three Grass Snakes (buorm). A large female closest, s small more brightly coloured male behind and a third one which I assume is also a male

getting all tied up

the female in focus

the males in focus. The one on the left being smaller and more brightly coloured

notice the tail sticking up with another animals tail wrapped around it

the female with the larger male

the smaller male left the melee and posed nicely for a photo before disappearing into a hole

To hang em or not to hang em?

 

Do you see anything hanging on that hook?

No?

That’s because today delivered big time 😊

 

Today really did feel like a make or break day for (my) Oslo bird year. If the forecast southerly winds, cloud and showers did not deliver on 9^th May then there would be no chance of this spring having a big day especially as the forecast for the next 10 days just looks to be sun. I had been thinking of playing away and seawatching at Brentetangen followed by Kurefjorden and then Dotterel searching but in the end decided, with Jack, to keep it local and stare at the fjord at Huk from sunrise. I have only done this once before but the efforts of Per Buertange a decade or so ago proved that there was potential in it. We got there at 0450 to see that there was a fairly low, and heavy, cloud base and a decent southerly wind blowing into our faces. Now we just had to sit down, keep warm and wait to find out what the bird gods had in store for us.

the view at 05:27

For the first hour or so I was thinking that I would be hanging my bins on that hook as apart from a large flock of Common Scoter resting on the sea and a Bar-tailed Godwit (Oslo #157) that had been roosting on the rocks when we arrived there was really no sign of any movement. But then things did move. First Jack picked up a skua and a dark phase Arctic (Oslo #158) passed at relatively close range. Then we heard a Greenshank calling above us and in our attempts to find it (there were 13 of them) we saw a large flock of Red-throated Divers (60) and then over the course of the next couple of hours we had a numbers of other flocks and ended up totalling 323 birds which absolutely blasts away any previous counts from south eastern Norway. We also had migrating flocks of Whimbrel which totalled 53, a huge flock of 200 Golden Plover which flew north before turning around, 70 Velvet Scoters, 3 Guillemots and an Arctic Tern (Oslo #159). Rarest though was a flyover Red-throated Pipit (Oslo #160) which we identified on call although our views did confirm it was a pipit.. and a Great Northern Diver (Oslo #161) which is an Oslo tick tick for me, #251.

One disappointing and really strange feature of the morning was the complete lack of passerine migration with not a single Yellow Wag or Wheatear for example.

 

We packed our bags after 5 hours and then headed to Maridalen. Here it was raining and with the low cloud expectations were not low but there was little to see although a singing Icterine Warbler (Oslo #162) and Hobby (Oslo #163) heading north were notable and new for the year.

There were 30 or so Swallows feeding over the lake so we thought Østensjøvannet could be a good call for hirundines and maybe terns or Little Gulls. There were a few Swallows and House Martins but 3 Swifts (Oslo #164) were the best we could conjure up.

So I had 8 Oslo year ticks today and I am now approaching the number of species I feel are guaranteed so if I am to have a record year I need a rush of scarce and rare birds.

Arctic Skua (tyvjo) heading towards us with Common Terns (makrellterne) behind

as close as it got and despite the gloom these are I think my best pics of the species close to Oslo

60 odd Red-throated Divers (smålom) @06.59

and part of an even larger flock @08.56. The flocks were flying high and didn't seem to be sure of where to go

some of the 400+ Common Scoter (svartand) that were offshore

and ca.200 Golden Plover (heilo) that first flew north and then turned and went back south

there were good numbers of Common Terns (makrellterne) and amongst them at least this one Arctic (rødnebbterne)

some of the 70 Velvet Scoter (sjøorre) we saw

a couple of the 53 Whimbrel (småspove) we saw stopped for a rest and here this one looks tiny next to a Great Black-backed Gull (svartbak)

an early singing Icterine Warbler (gulsanger) in Maridalen

and the first Hobby (lerkefalk) of the year