The last week saw the greatest migration day of the spring, at least as far as quantity is concerned, when the Pink-footed Geese decided that conditions were favourable and took off on mass from Denmark early in the morning before passing over Oslo some hours later. Thursday was the day and is the earliest ever date for the big day which 30-40 years ago used to occur in the first week of May. Over the course of 3 hours I counted over 9000 birds heading first NNE over Maridalen and then after the wind changed from southerly to northerly they started heading ENE. I made a real effort to check ev ..read more

Different species are sending very conflicting signs as to how far spring has sprung. The Taiga Beans (or at least the GPS tagged bird) have moved on to their next staging ground record early and this despite there still being overnight frosts but at the same time only a few Pink-footed Geese have moved through and there have been no significant arrivals of thrushes or finches. The first Woodlarks arrived at the weekend at their breeding grounds near Gardermoen airport and I paid them homage on Monday although only a single bird showed for me but it showed very well. I would normally combine t ..read more

It is time for some owl eye candy me thinks. Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle) Owl Road has had less and less to offer this spring and a trip on Thursday night with none other than my owl buddy supreme Per Christian resulted in just two Tengmalm’s but the night ended up being a matter of quality over quantity with my finally getting to properly film a singing male. And because it was “only” -7C my fingers didn’t suffer too much either. The night offered absolutely perfect conditions for owling even if it was obviously not ideal for the owls themselves. There were no clouds, not a breath ..read more

It is getting cold again and we have had snow so migration has pretty much stopped up although there are of course always some new birds turning up. In early spring there are a handful of scarce species I always hope to find such as Red Kite, Bewick’s Swan and Stonechat. I always have them in mind and scan the skies, fence posts and Whooper Swan flocks with the hope of striking gold (or perhaps silver is more accurate). I have not found any of them so far this spring but have gone to see both Bewick’s and Stonechat at places where I have already this spring trying in vain to find just these bi ..read more

Maridalsvannet is still 99.9% frozen but the areas of open water where the rivers enter at Hammeren and Dausjøelva are now large enough to attract wildfowl. Numbers of Canada and Greylag Geese have built up to around 15 of each with a single hybrid and the first Teal have also arrived and can be seen alongside Mallards and Goldeneye. Whooper Swans are passing through in addition to the local birds. There are two pairs that are being territorial and today it was clear that one pair is as usual winning. I assume that this is the pair that has bred for over a decade but I have not previously work ..read more

I’ve had a few local evening outings already this spring hoping to find singing Long-eared Owls. This isn’t an easy task as their song does not carry far but I have seen there are signs of good numbers of voles in areas where I have previously found nests later in the spring. My first two attempts drew blanks but last night I was successful with a singing male that showed well in the head torch although with temperatures close to +10C he was surprisingly difficult see in the thermal. His song, in typical fashion, was very difficult to hear and even at only 20 metres range was strangely quiet ..read more

Temperatures are pushing +10C on the back of quite strong southerly winds so I have been expecting some quite large arrivals of migrants but that has not (yet) been the case. New species are of course arriving and a nocturnal outing on Sunday revealed my first Woodcock of the year and Oslo’s earliest ever record. This species is of course under recorded due to its nocturnal habits but given that the snow had only just started melting it could not have arrived any earlier. Woodcock (rugde) - a very early bird but the mud was soft despite the snow so hopefully it could find food Lapwi ..read more

Jr and I went on our planned trip to Owl Road on Friday night but the results of our endeavours was far from those planned. The weather was pretty good with clear skies and no wind and temperatures just under zero. The only negatives I can think of were no moon and following the warm temperatures we have had most of the snow has melted and there was noise from flowing streams but we could still hear well. The result was just two Tengmalm’s and one Tawny and we covered a lot of ground. I am at a loss as to explain why there are far fewer singing owls now but maybe rodent numbers have declined s ..read more

We are now having the last days with sunshine and overnight frosts for what looks to be at least the next ten days and temperatures are forecast to rise over +10C next week so it looks like we may have a very early spring. The Taiga Bean Geese have already arrived and their arrival date of 26 February is the second earliest arrival date after 22 Feb in 2023. Jack and I caught up with them on the 27th and counted only 54 which included the GPS tagged bird 05 and her mate V8 along with Y7 who has lost its neck collar but retains a colour leg ring. Hopefully there are more to come as 54 will ..read more

Guiding is a fool’s game! On Tuesday, 6 hours and 11km of walking in a foggy Maridalen with Wayne over from Guernsey could only turn up a Three-toed Woodpecker. Next day the Hawk Owl is back in its favoured place…. Three-toed Woodpecker - the highlight of a hard going days guiding Hawkie of course showed the next day Moose was a target when guiding and we saw lots of fresh droppings and footprints in the snow but no animal. We did see where one had fallen through the ice though... Wednesday night 3 hours owling with Tommy and Maja gave just 2 very distant heard ..read more